Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Xia Chang
Ming official and painter from Kunshan who rose to chief minister of imperial sacrifices and was famed for ink bamboo
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 Zhongzhao · Hao Zizai Jushi · Hao Yufeng · Xia Chang (name as written by the Yongle Emperor)
Xia Chang, courtesy name Zhongzhao, styled Zizai Jushi and Yufeng, came from Kunshan in Jiangsu. He passed the jinshi examination in 1415 and was selected a Hanlin bachelor; the Yongle Emperor changed the character of his name to 㫤. In the Zhengtong era he rose to chief minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and he retired in 1457. A fine regular-script calligrapher, he was above all famous for ink bamboo in the manner of Wang Fu, painting stems bent and straight, dense and sparse, in mist and rain; his paintings were sought even abroad, and a saying of the time held that one bamboo by Minister Xia was worth ten ingots of gold from Xiliang. Strange Rocks and Tall Bamboo and other bamboo paintings are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Life and times
Dates 1388 CE–1470 CE