Manual of Painting, Opening Volume

Preface VII

...tender green ripples, where occasionally a crimson flower emerges. Unexpectedly, I find myself slapping the table in wild delight. Although my humble "thatch banner" original: maozhi (茅幟), a metaphor for one's own lowly or mediocre work compared to a great master. has not yet achieved the charm of a "jade disk" original: bi (璧), an ancient ritual jade representing perfection and high value., they are nonetheless praised together.

Some might say that my bamboo paintings follow nothing but the methods of Wen Huzhou Wen Tong (1018–1079), the preeminent master of ink bamboo in the Song Dynasty, famous for the philosophy that one must have the "complete bamboo in one's heart" before picking up the brush.. However, this style did not actually begin with Huzhou, but with Li Po Li Po (active 10th century), a painter from the Southern Tang period who was an early pioneer of ink bamboo before the style was codified in the Song Dynasty..

Likewise, the painting of orchids flourished under Zhao Wuxing Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), the transformative Yuan Dynasty master who advocated for a "spirit of antiquity" and the use of calligraphic brushwork in painting; Wuxing is his ancestral home.. Yet it did not begin with Wuxing, but with Yin Zhongrong Yin Zhongrong (active late 7th century), a Tang Dynasty artist credited with early experiments in using ink washes to define form, predating the more famous monochrome masters..