Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Liang Shimin
Military official and bird-and-flower painter at the court of Emperor Huizong, whose Reeds and Geese in Snow survives in Beijing
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 Xunde
Liang Shimin, courtesy name Xunde, came from the capital, Kaifeng, and entered office through his father's privilege. His father Liang He taught him the classics and then had him learn painting, and he became a careful painter of bamboo, flowers and birds in the Jiangnan manner, precise and disciplined. The Xuanhe Painting Catalogue of Emperor Huizong's collection lists him among its military officials, then serving as a grand master of the left and prefect of Zhongzhou, and records two of his paintings in the imperial collection, Clearing after Rain by the Willow Stream and Reeds and Geese in Snow. The second, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is his only surviving work.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; living in the Xuanhe era of Northern Song (1119–1125)