Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Sun Wei
Late Tang painter from Kuaiji who moved to Chengdu after Huang Chao took Chang'an; his only surviving work is The Lofty Recluses
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 Sun Yu · Hao Kuaiji Shanren
Sun Wei came from Kuaiji (modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang), called himself the Mountain Man of Kuaiji and later changed his name to Sun Yu. After Huang Chao's rebels took Chang'an in the Guangming era he went to Shu and settled in Chengdu, where he painted murals in the Yingtian and Zhaojue monasteries. The Yizhou minghua lu describes him as unconventional and fond of wine, keeping company with monks and Daoists, and painting figures, spirits, dragons in water, pines, rocks and ink bamboo with vigorous brushwork. His one surviving work, The Lofty Recluses in the Shanghai Museum, depicted the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, of whom four remain.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active late 9th century under Emperor Xizong