Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Li Fangying
Nantong county magistrate who clashed with his superiors and, after his dismissal, sold paintings of plum blossoms and wind-blown bamboo in Nanjing and Yangzhou
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 Qiuzhong · Hao Qingjiang
Li Fangying, courtesy name Qiuzhong and known as Qingjiang, came from an official family of Tongzhou, today's Nantong in Jiangsu. Appointed magistrate of Le'an in Shandong in 1730, he opened the official granaries to flood victims without waiting for approval. As magistrate of Lanshan he opposed the Hedong governor-general Wang Shijun's drive to force land reclamation and was impeached and jailed, but was released after the Qianlong emperor came to the throne and went on to govern Qianshan, Hefei and other counties until his dismissal around 1751. In his last years he lodged at the Jie Garden in Nanjing, calling himself its master, and often went to Yangzhou to sell paintings, keeping company with Jin Nong, Zheng Xie and Li Shan. He painted plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, pine and rock, best known for plum blossoms and bamboo bending in the wind; he died in 1755 and was later placed among the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.
Life and times
Dates 1695 CE–1755 CE