Ziwen

CHINA, Shanghai; Southern Song to Yuan dynasty

Ziwen was an artist and monk born in Huating (present day Songjiang, Shanghai). Wen was his original surname and he was also known as Zhongyan, among other nicknames. Ziwen renounced at a young age and resided in Jizhao Temple in Zhejiang, later staying at Manao Temple in Zhejiang. Clad in plain clothes so as not to be recognized, he often wondered around the city. In Fascicle 18 of Collection of Shanyuan, Dai Biaoyuan recorded that “Master Ziwen looked serious and reserved, hardly smiled at anyone but seldom doubted anyone, and would talk to whomever he encountered. He first gave money to help the poor, and when possible, he would visit the jobless scholar-bureaucrats to offer money. Dressed in a plain robe and straw sandals, Ziwen lived in the Sanzhu area near West Lake for 50 years.”
Painting grape vines and writing cursive script calligraphy were his forte. In Logbook of Suichang, the author Zhen Yuanyou wrote that Ziwen was nicknamed Grape Wen because he incorporated powerful cursive script into the drawings of grape stems and vines. His poems, calligraphy, and paintings were known as the Three Unmatchable Arts and are highly prized. Currently, two paintings of Grape Vines purported to be his are kept at Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.