Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ma Hezhi
Southern Song scholar-painter who illustrated the Book of Songs for emperors Gaozong and Xiaozong in a fluttering willow-leaf line
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 Little Wu Daozi
Ma Hezhi came from Hangzhou. The Precious Mirror of Painting says he passed the jinshi examination in the Shaoxing era and rose to vice-minister of works. He painted figures, Buddhist images and landscapes with a light, wavering line likened to willow leaves, and was called a little Wu Daozi. When emperors Gaozong and Xiaozong wrote out the Book of Songs they had him paint pictures to match, and several of these paired scrolls survive. His Later Ode on the Red Cliff follows Su Shi's prose poem, with a small boat on the river and a lone crane sweeping past.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active under the Southern Song emperors Gaozong and Xiaozong