| Mei Qing (1623-1697), originally named Si Xi, and styled himself Yuan Gong. His literary names were Mei Chi, Xue Lu and so on. He came from Xuancheng, Anhui. Mei family in Xuancheng was a famous family, one of whose ancestors was a famous poet Mei Yaochen in Song Dynasty. After him, Mei family emerged many successful scholars and governors, and some of them were masters of Confucian classics, history, philosophy, belles-lettres, painting and writing. The year of Kang Xi is another prosperous period of Mei family. First, there was a "Xuancheng Mathematics School" originated by Mei Wending and covered one hundred years. Second, another school—Xuancheng Painting School was formed at the same time and its representative was Mei Qing.Mei Qing was intelligent in his childhood, and diligent in studying. He often forgot to go to bed because of reading. Hometown's beautiful scenery attracted him. It was Mei family's deep culture and hometown's beautiful scenery that made him form the proud, generous, unconventional and graceful character as a painter and poet. He succeed in xiangshi (provincial examination) in 1654, and went to Beijing for huishi (national examination) four times, but all failed. So he gave up the dream for being a governor by examination, and began his free life. He spent his daily life independently, individually, traveling a lot and spending a lot of time on poems and painting. His poems were powerful and meaningful. Before 20 years old, his Jia Yuan Ji was finished, famous for being learned and refined. Traveling a lot, he viewed the beauty of scenery in many places, and pained it into his painting. After middle age, he returned home and his art emphasis changed into everything about hometown. 24 Scenes in Xuancheng is the best representative of this period.On painting, Mei Qing said he learned more from Yuan Dynasty, especially Ni Zan and Shen Zhou. He learned from the ancients, but not copy them. "The ancients is in my mind," so he put the ancient way into his own way. He also absorbed others' advantages. In his painting room, he was studying painting arts and painting theories with many painters. Among them, Shi Tao was the most intimate one. They influenced each other on arts. Their communication in life and arts has a special significance of forming and developing Xuancheng Painting School and made an innovation for Chinese painting. Besides, Xinan Painting School's beginner Hong Ren, Gushu Painting School's beginner Xiao Yun also had close communication with Mei Qing. Mountains, rivers, pine trees and stones were strong points in his painting and he also liked painting Huangshan. Spending a long period of time on Huangshan and viewing the beauty of Huangshan, he painted Huangshan in a vivid way. So his Huangshan paintings rose to a very high level and he was called the representative of Huangshan Painting School. Contemporary painter commented in his Huangshan Painting School and Huangshan, "Shi Tao got the spirit of Huangshan, Mei Qing got the image of Huangshan, and Hong Ren got the essence of Huangshan."Mei Qing made an important record in history of Chinese painting. Under his influence and help, a group of Mei posterity emerged, and had an influence on Qing painting, such as Mei Wei, Mei Lei, Mei Gen and Mei Chong. Mei Gen was the most famous one among them.
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