Chao Ch'ang (late tenth to early eleventh century)

Original: Ink and color on silk, 25.2 x 27.3 cm.

Leaf 4 of the album: Collected Works of Sung and Yuan Masters.

     The album leaf depicts a branch of flowering apricot.

Chao Ch'ang, (tzu: ch'ang-chih), was a native of Chien-nan, Szechwan; however, some sources cite Kuang-han as his home. Excelling at painting plants and flowers, he would go out each morning when the dew was still fresh, and with brush in hand, carefully record what he saw. Chao Ch'ang personally called this 'hsieh-sheng', sketching from life. Subject matter of his paintings included flowering tree branches, vegetables, grasses, insects, birds and rocks. Chao Ch'ang prized his own paintings so much that he would not casually give them to others. In his later years, Chao Ch'ang hoarded his works even to the point of buying back paintings with which he had parted earlier. Unfortunately, surviving works by his hand are quite rare. Chao Ch'ang's exact birth and death  dates are unknown.