Zheng Banqiao

Also known as Zheng Xie · Ke Rou

Zheng Banqiao, born Zheng Xie with the courtesy name Kerou, came from Xinghua in Jiangsu and as a poor young man sold paintings in Yangzhou. He passed the metropolitan examination in 1736, became magistrate of Fan county in Shandong in 1742 and later moved to Wei county, where the Draft History of Qing (Qingshi gao) credits him with benevolent government. After leaving office he went back to Yangzhou and lived by his brush again. He painted orchids, bamboo and rocks, drawing orchid leaves with the long sweeping strokes of cursive script, and mixed clerical forms into his calligraphy, calling the result his 'six-and-a-half' script; the inscription 'Hard to Be Muddle-Headed' is his. His poems, family letters and ballads were gathered in the Banqiao Collection (Banqiao ji), and he died at Xinghua in the thirtieth year of the Qianlong reign. The Qingshi gao groups him with Jin Nong, Luo Pin and other painters who gathered in Yangzhou, later known as the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.