Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Tang Yin
Suzhou painter and poet who topped the Nanjing provincial examination in 1498, was barred from office after an exam scandal the next year and lived by his brush
A desk holds an unrolled sheet bearing three bold black ink strokes, with a rack of many brushes above it, a stone ink slab and ink stick, a porcelain bowl, a red lacquer box, a dish of red seal paste and a paperweight; a small seated figure shows through a round window onto bamboo.
Also known as Zi Bohu · Hao Liu Ru Ju Shi · Zi Ziwei
Tang Yin, courtesy names Bohu and Ziwei, styled the Layman of the Six Similes, came from Wu county in Suzhou, the son of a shopkeeper; Zhu Yunming talked him out of a wild youth and into study. In 1498 he came first in the provincial examination at Nanjing, but the next year in the capital his friendship with Xu Jing of Jiangyin drew him into the scandal over leaked questions involving the examiner Cheng Minzheng; he was jailed and reduced to a minor clerk's post, which he refused out of shame. Thereafter he lived by selling paintings. When Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning, invited him with rich gifts in the Zhengde reign, Tang sensed treason and played the drunken madman until he was sent home. He built a retreat at Peach Blossom Dock in northern Suzhou and died there in January 1524 at fifty-three. Equally skilled in landscapes, figures and beautiful women, he is counted with Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming and Qiu Ying among the Four Masters of the Ming.
Life and times
Dates 1470 CE–1524 CE