Zhenran

CHINA, Jiangsu, Taizhou; Qing dynasty

Zhenran was a monk and painter born to a family with the name Ding. Also known as Yehang, he was from Xinghua, Taizhou and renounced when he was a teenager, devoting himself to practicing Pure Land Buddhism. He is said to have once constructed a hut in Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) and practiced nothing but reciting the sutras and Amitabha Buddha’s name daily.
Skilled in painting and seal engraving, and good at depicting figures, landscapes, flowers, plants, bamboo, rocks, animals, and feathers, Zhenren’s painting style was inherited from that of Huayan, another monk and painter of the Qing dynasty. In addition, he was greatly admired for his skill in painting large Buddhist and Daoist figures without a need to sketch drafts, often completing paintings that were over 10 feet in length. During his middle age, Zhenran broadly studied the famous works of the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties, as well as those of contemporaries. Later, he stayed at Yili Temple in Shanghai and painted orchids and bamboos at the request of devotees. His painting, Washing the Silken Gauze, is kept at the Suzhou Museum in Jiangsu.