Zhiweng Yiju

CHINA; Southern Song dynasty

Zhiweng Yiju was a painter and Chan monk of the Caodong school, as well as the Dharma successor of Chan Master Donggu Miaoguang. He resided at Tianning Temple in Zhejiang and was close friends with Yanyi Huangwen, the abbot of Lingyin Temple in Zhejiang. He was among the well-known monastic painters of the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties, which included the likes of Liang Kai, Muxi, Ruofen, Bo Ziting, Xue’an Puguang, Yan Hui, and others.
Good at painting Buddhist and Daoist figures, Zhiweng was mostly influenced by Liang Kai and Muxi due to their stylistic similarities. His renowned artworks include Sixth Patriarch Carrying A Rod, presently a National Treasure of Japan and kept at the Gotoh Museum in Tokyo; Meeting Between Yaoshan and Li Ao kept at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and Budai, an Important Cultural Property of Japan kept at the Umezawa Kinenkan Museum in Tokyo.