Hsü
Hsi came from Chung-lu in Kiangsi. He was a member of a noble family that
had held office under the southern T'ang dynasty. He liked to paint from
life and was an exceptionally able colourist. He delighted in capturing
the exact likeness of flowers, bamboos, fruits, and animals, even of
vegetables and insects. The T'u-hua chien-wen Chih of Kuo Jo-hsü
associates him with the contemporary painter Huang Ch'üan saying,
"most of Huang Ch'üan's paintings show rare animals and
auspicious birds reared within the palace, strange rocks and odd flowers.
However, Hsü Hsi finds his flowers in the wild, growing by steams,
his bamboos on the plains, his birds by water and his fish in
the-deep." Later critics designated these two painters as the
respective originators of the "double hook" method and
"hidden or sunken line method" of bird and flower painting.