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Fachang
Chan monk painter of the late Southern Song from Sichuan whose spare ink studies of fruit, birds and Buddhist figures were prized above all in Japan
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 Muxi (also read Muqi) · Fachang, monk of Shu
Fachang, who signed himself Muxi, was a Chan monk painter from Sichuan active at the end of the Song and the start of the Yuan. His only signed surviving work, the triptych Guanyin, Monkeys and Crane at Daitokuji in Kyoto, is inscribed 'respectfully made by Fachang, monk of Shu'. The Yuan writer Wu Taisu records that he had to flee after offending the chief minister Jia Sidao. He dashed off fruit, birds, fish, landscapes and Buddhist figures in loose ink; Chinese critics were divided, but Japanese monks carried many of his works home, where he was revered as a master of Zen painting. The unsigned Ink Sketches from Life scroll in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is traditionally attributed to him.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the late Southern Song and early Yuan (mid to late 13th century)