Zhao Mengfu

Timeline

1. 1254–1270Huzhou · Liangzhe CircuitZhao Mengfu was an eleventh-generation descendant of Emperor Taizu of Song, born into a prominent Huzhou family. As Southern Song's fortunes declined in its final years, Mengfu was steeped in family learning from youth, studying calligraphy and painting, and before entering service made a name for himself in Jiangnan literati circles.
2. 1271–1286Huzhou · JiangnanAfter the Southern Song fell in 1279, Zhao Mengfu lived in reclusion without serving, devoting himself to painting, calligraphy, and poetry, styling himself Daoist of the Pine Snow. His works of this period already showed a style carrying on the old while opening the new, laying artistic prestige for his later summons to court.
3. 1287–1322Dadu · Yuan dynastySummoned to Dadu in the 23rd year of Zhiyuan, he held posts including Vice Director of the Rites, ultimately reaching Hanlin Academician-in-Chief. Unmatched in calligraphy of his age, he excelled equally in figures, landscapes, and birds-and-flowers, advocating the integration of calligraphy into painting, becoming the master of Yuan literati painting.