Chen Shizeng

Also known as Chen Hengke · Hao Xiudaoren · Hao Huaitang

Chen Shizeng, named Hengke and known by his courtesy name Shizeng, with the sobriquets Huaitang and Xiudaoren, came from a family of Yining, Jiangxi, and was born in 1876 in Fenghuang, Hunan, the son of Chen Sanli and elder brother of the historian Chen Yinke. In 1902 he went to Japan, studying at the Kobun Institute and the Tokyo Higher Normal School, and returned in 1909. In 1913 he moved to Beijing as an editor at the Ministry of Education and went on to teach at the Beijing Higher Normal School and the Beijing Art School. Around 1921 he wrote The Value of Literati Painting, a defence of the scholar-painting tradition. He met Qi Baishi in 1917 and in 1922 took Qi's paintings to an exhibition in Japan, which made Qi's name. His album Beijing Customs depicts the street life of the capital. He died of illness in Nanjing in 1923.