Makers › Master Craftsmen
Hu Zhengyan
Late Ming publisher and seal carver from Xiuning whose Ten Bamboo Studio in Nanjing issued colour-printed painting and letter-paper albums
A craft workshop centres on a potter's wheel holding a tall celadon vase, amid racks of red lacquer boxes, an embroidery frame with a floral design, shelves of celadon ware, carved wooden panels and stacked logs, while one craftsman works at a table and another stands at a glowing kiln.
Also known as Zi Yuecong · Hao Shizhu Zhuren
Hu Zhengyan, courtesy name Yuecong, came from Xiuning in Huizhou and lived for many years beside Jiming Hill in Nanjing, where the ten or so bamboos in his courtyard gave his Ten Bamboo Studio its name. A calligrapher, painter and seal carver, he also ran a publishing business, directing block cutters to print in colour with multiple small blocks and blind embossing. The Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting and Calligraphy was completed in 1633 and the Ten Bamboo Studio Letter-Paper Album in 1644. The Southern Ming court at Nanjing offered him a post as secretary, which he declined, and after the Qing conquest he lived in retirement and died poor at about ninety.
Life and times
Dates c. 1584–c. 1674