Mi Fu (米芾): Song Calligrapher Who Bowed to Rocks & Rewrote the Rules

Mi Fu (1051 – 1107 AD) (pronounced ‘me foo’) was one of the most famous eccentrics in Chinese art and calligraphy.

(A competitive field…)

He was outspoken, opinionated, and critical of many other artists and calligraphers.

But he could back up his talk with his talent.

Today he is remembered as one of the four great calligraphers of the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 AD).

He was also one of the most skilled and knowledgeable calligraphers ever to have lived.

Contents

Biography

Family background

Mi Fu’s family traced their ancestry back five generations to Mi Xin (928 – 994 AD), a founding general of the Song dynasty and commandant of the Palace Guard.

This placed his family high up in Song society. They were considered a part of the trusted elite around the dynasty’s Zhao emperors. 

Mi Fu’s father, Mi Zuo, was a military man, the general of the Left Guard. He was said to have enjoyed calligraphy and conversations with scholars.

And his mother, surnamed Yan, was a midwife and wetnurse to the imperial family.

The Mi family’s ethnic origins

The Mi family were likely originally from the Xi ethnicity, who were themselves originally descended from the Xianbei (Eastern Turks).

(This was the same group that the Tang dynasty (618 – 907 AD) emperors were partially descended from). 

Some scholars believe that the Mi name originates from the ancient Mi kingdom (also known as the Sogdiana kingdom) in Central Asia (today’s Uzbekistan).

This heritage went back many generations. But during Mi’s lifetime he was sensitive about the issue, which some of his critics liked to play upon.

His more immediate eventually ended up in Taiyuan (in today’s Shanxi Province), which they later considered their ancestral home.

Mi Quan’s sacrifice

One story has it that a sad story haunted Mi Fu’s ancestors. 

At one point, the family had settled in a town called Shuozhou (today’s Shuoxian, Shaanxi Province). 

This area fell under the control of the Song dynasty’s northern rival, the Khitan empire.

Mi Quan had successfully undertaken the dangerous crossing to the Song border town of Daizhou. Once there, he waited for the rest of his family to join him

Unfortunately, they were caught by border guards. When Mi Quan realised, he faced north and wept, exclaiming:

I’ve heard loyalty to one’s ruler and faithfulness to one’s family cannot co-exist. Having decided to sacrifice my body for my country, how can I now attend to my family?

This story’s truth is impossible to verify. However, it would likely have served as a useful way to illustrate the Mi family’s loyalty to the Han-ruled Song dynasty.

Mi Xin’s crimes

After the Song dynasty began, Mi Xin was transferred over to the position of governor of Cangzhou (today’s Hebei Province).

He was illiterate and clearly unsuited to civil administration, so his role was given to a younger governor.

He even harassed civilians. Finally, when his troops beat a servant to death he was sent to prison, where he died.

Early life

Mi Fu (米芾 [Mǐ Fú]), courtesy name Yuan Zhang, was born in Xiangyang (today’s Xiangzhou, Hubei Province) in 1051 AD.

He was one of only two children (he had a sister).

Later on, he would often refer to himself as the ‘Wild Scholar of Xianyang’.

At some point, due to his mother’s work, his family seems to have lived in the prince Zhao Shu’s (1032 – 1067 AD) royal residence.

This meant that Mi Fu grew up with the elite aristocracy of the Song dynasty. 

Here he was first exposed to networks of art collectors. This includes his friend, the famous artist and art collector Wang Shen (1048 – ca. 1103 AD).

Precocious child

Mi Fu did not take the imperial examinations that defined the lives of so many educated men throughout Chinese history.

However, he grew up in a cultured, learned environment and shared his father’s inclinations in these areas. 

By the age of six, he was reported to have memorised one hundred poems a day. 

One of his oldest friends, Cai Zhao (? – 1119 AD), later reflected on Mi Fu as a youth. 

By the age of six, Cai wrote, Mi Fu memorised one hundred poems a day. (Likely an exaggeration!). He added:

He was extremely knowledgeable and well-read. He worked hard at getting the general idea of something but disliked exam preparation studies. The opinions he expressed were all according to his own ideas.

– Cai Zhao, Grave Inscription for Mi Fu (ca. 1107 AD)

Mi Fu’s personality

Mi Fu’s contemporaries knew him as an eccentric and outspoken advocate of his own strong opinions.

He is also said to have been what today we would call ‘a clean freak’ or ‘germaphobe’, or perhaps OCD (“One Clean Dude…”). 

He obsessively washed himself, including before each time he did calligraphy. 

And he was a fanatical collector of works of art, calligraphy and even inkstones.

His outspokenness and eccentricity are clear in his writings and the apocryphal anecdotes about him. 

But alongside his idiosyncrasies lied a hardworking and discerning drive.

He stood out for his loud voice and choice of clothes: he dressed in the fashion of the Tang dynasty, some three centuries before.

倾邪险怪诡诈不近人情人谓之颠…
元章喜服唐衣冠寛袖博带。人多怪之及洁疾器用不肯执持尝衣冠出谒帽檐髙不可乘肩舆乃彻其盖见者莫不惊笑。所为𩔖多如此。
…[Mi Fu] tended towards the unorthodox and strange. Craft and deceitful, he was detached from the feelings of others… Labelled mad, some objected to his name being in the register of court officials…. 
   Yuanzhang [Mi Fu] liked to dress in the clothing of the Tang dynasty, with wide sleeves and a broad belt. Once, he had dressed up to pay his respects to another official, but the top of his hat was too tall to allow him into the sedan chair. Consequently, it poked through the roof of the chair. All who saw this were overcome with laughter. There are many stories of this kind.

– Zeng Minxing, Duxing Zazhi

Career

1070 AD: First job: Collator in the Palace Library

Mi Fu’s family connections no-doubt helped him secure his first job when he was 18 years old.

This was not unusual for the time. Despite their growing importance, the imperial exams were not a requirement for all officials.

He did not last long in this position. This has led many to speculate that it may be an early sign of his ability to offend others…

1070 AD: Sheriff at Hanguang

Throughout much of Chinese history, government officials being sent far away from the capital was often a sign of displeasure or even punishment.

As far as most were concerned, the further south a location was, the more uncomfortable and uncivilised things were. 

(The tropical climate, with its increased risk of malaria, killed some officials).

Hanguang (today’s Yingde Prefecture, Guangdong Province) was approximately 870 miles (1400 KM) from the Song capital in Bianliang (today’s Kaifeng, Henan Province).

1074: Sheriff in Linggui

Mi Fu was only briefly in Linggui (today’s Guilin, Guanxi Province). However, here he began a friendship with the local prefect, Guan Ji.

Guan showed Mi Fu a traced copy of a work by the famous Tang dynasty calligrapher Yu Shinan (558 – 638 AD).

This is a good example of the kind of friendship based on shared connoisseurship that Mi Fu formed throughout his life. 

The two of them stayed in touch – and sent one another calligraphy pieces – for many years. 

1075 AD: Changsha, minor official

Aged 23, Mi took a relatively lowly position in Changsha in 1075. This was a large and prosperous city due to its position along China’s trade routes. 

He was already more interested in using his position to view and collect calligraphy and paintings than carry out official work.

He navigated the region via its many canals and rivers. He named his houseboat (with a large sign): The Mi Family Calligraphy and painting Barge.

(His first – of twelve – children had been born around this time: Mi Youren (1074 – 1173 AD)).

One anecdote from this period illustrates another notable Mi Fu trait – his greedy cunning:

长沙之湘西，有道林、岳麓二寺，名刹也 。[….]
米老元章为微官时，游宦过其下，舣舟湘江，就寺主僧借观，一夕张帆携之遁。[….]
官为遣健步追取还，世以为口实也。
In the Xiangxi district of Changsha, there are two famous temples: Daolin and Yuelu…. 
   Old Mi Yuanzhang [Mi Fu] toured this area during this period as he served in minor offices. He would moor his boat along the Xiang River. He approached the head abbot of the [Daolin] temple and requested to borrow a [famous] calligraphy plaque so that he could study it. 
   However, one night Mi Fu set off in his boat still in possession of the plaque. 
   The temple monks urgently made a formal complaint and a courier was sent to retrieve the work. This became the subject of great gossip.

– Cai Tao, The Iron-Enclosed Mountain: Collected Writings《铁围山丛谈卷第四》(ca. 1130 AD)

1081 – 1091 AD: Wandering scholar and collector

Mi Fu Spend approximately 10 years travelling China between 1081 – 1091.

His main goal was to visit private art collections across the empire. (There were no museums).

The nature of Mi’s activities during these years mean that his precise movements are difficult to trace. However, some interesting information exists.

During this time, his reputation as an expert, connoisseur and great calligrapher grew.

So too did his calligraphy collection.

We know that he spent a couple of years in Suzhou. Here he grew his collection via elderly brokers of rich families going through economic difficulties.

He even secured works by the great Jin dynasty calligraphers Wang Xizhi (303 – 361 AD) and his son Wang Xianzhi (344 – 386 AD). The most significant of these was Twelth Night.

He also befriended many well-known literary and political figures across the empire. 

This included two who can both be considered a mix of these two categories: Wang Anshi (1021 – 1086 AD) and Su Shi (1137 – 1101 AD).

And he completed a book, Catalogue of Precious Calligraphy Specimens Visited (1088).

1092 AD: Magistrate at Yongqiu

Mi Fu resumed his career as an official in the summer of 1092. 

He appears to have enthusiastically taken part in his role. His letters from the time show him concerned and busy with the work.

However, within a couple of years, he seems to was having problems. 

He was investigated (and cleared) for improper handling of tax money and requested leave from his role on health grounds.

He was transferred to superintendent of Zhongyue Temple on Mount Song, Henan Province. This role required little responsibility and official duties.

1100 AD: Huizong is crowned

At the turn of the century, the young emperor Huizong (r. 1100 – 1126 AD).

At this point (between 1099 – 1101 AD), Mi Fu had been working on the state waterways around Lake Tai (in Jiangsu Province).

Amusingly, when he wrote to friends asking them to recommend him for office under Huizong, he suggested the wording, too:

[Mi Fu] relies on his own talents and has nothing to do with factions. He is old now and hampered by his qualifications. If it were his misfortune to die one day without having had the opportunity to enrich His Majesty’s enterprise and thus embellish His Majesty’s magnanimity, this official would consider it a pity.

– Quoted from Emperor Huizong by Patricia Buckley Ebrey (London: Harvard University Press, 2014), p. 204

At this time, Huizong’s chief minister Cai Jing (1047 – 1126 AD) is said to have remarked: 

芾人品诚高，所谓不可无一，不可有二者也。
Mi Fu is the kind of person we must have one of, but cannot afford to have two of!

– He Yuan, Chuju Zhiwen 春渚纪闻

Gaining an inkstone from the emperor

One anecdote has it that his obsession with collecting inkstones led him to gaining a rare inkstone from the Huizong Emperor (1082 – 1135 AD) (a famously fanatical fan of art and art collecting). 

After viewing the inkstone, Mi Fu told the emperor that ‘after a lowly commoner such as myself has touched it, it’s no longer fit for your majesty.’

上大笑，因以赐之。芾蹈舞以谢，即抱负趋出，馀墨霑渍袍袖，而喜见颜色。上顾蔡京曰：“颠名不虚得也。”
The emperor laughed loudly and gave it to Mi Fu as a gift. Fu danced a jig of thanks, clasping the inkstone as he hurried out. The remaining ink spilled onto his clothes, soiling his robe and sleeve, yet there was only a look of utter glee on his face. 
  The emperor looked at [Cai] Jing and said, “This reputation of being mad is not empty at all.”

– Ibid.

1107: Passes away

Mi Fu did not last long working under the emperor. Details about exactly why this is aren’t clear.

Either way, he was demoted and sent to a post in Jiangsu, where he died in 1107 AD. 

In 2005, his grave was discovered in Qingyuan, Guangzhou Province. Clues to its whereabouts were found by a scholar looking through Qingyuan’s historical records.

Mi Fu’s calligraphy

金井寒生一水池，
读书窗纸照萤飞。
悲欢穷泰寻常共，
掷破还须匣取归。
Lonely waters [ink] appear within the golden well [inkstone], 
Dragonflies glimmer by the paper window where I read.
Together we have shared sadness, joy, poverty, and wealth,
And when we are finally worn down, we’ll return via our boxes [like used inkstones put back in their boxes].

– ‘Inkstone’ by Mi Fu

Influences

Early in life, Mi Fu primarily studied the calligraphy of the two main famous eras for it: the Jin (266 – 420 AD) and Tang (618 – 907 AD) dynasties.

And in his Autobiographical Essay, he mentions studying and imitating the works of Tang dynasty masters, including:

• Ouyang Xun (557 – 641 AD)
• Chu Suiliang (597 – 658 AD)
• Liu Gongquan (778 – 865 AD).

Later on, Mi Fu’s good friend and general Song dynasty ‘renaissance man’ Su Shi (1037 – 1101 AD) encouraged him to study the words of the ‘two Wangs’.

These are the most admired calligrapher in Chinese history Wang Xizhi (303 AD – 361 AD) and his son Wang Xianzhi (344 – 386 AD).

Later on, he would try to stylistically escape or surpass their influence. Some critics believe that in his later career he achieved this.

Mi Fu’s Calligraphic Style

Mi is most famous for his running script calligraphy (the semi-cursive version of standard script).

His style shows clear influence of the famous Tang dynasty running script master Yan Zhenqing (709 – 785 AD) and one of the four masters of regular script Ouyang Xun (557 – 641 AD).

His fluent strokes vary between thick and thin and occasionally feature abrupt, sharp turns of the brush.

Overall, his characters vigorous and free-flowing. The spaces within and between them are even, despite the swiftness apparent in their strokes.

Perhaps Mi Fu’s most famous remarks on calligraphy come from an idiom he coined: 

无垂不缩，无往不收 
[wú chuí bù suō, wú wǎng bù shōu]
Each vertical stroke should end with a contraction, each horizontal one by turning back on itself

– Mi Fu

This quote emphasises the physical nature of calligraphy. It’s no coincidence that Mi Fu was also deeply interested in martial arts.

His friend, Su Shi, described Mi Fu’s style as ‘battleships in full sail, or war-horses charging into the enemy’s positions.’

One of the four great calligraphers of the Song dynasty

Mi Fu has long been considered one of the four great calligraphers of the Song dynasty. The other three are:

• Cai Xiang (1012 – 1067): a famous reformist politician and influential calligraphy innovator
• Su Shi (1037 – 1101): Mi Fu’s friend and one of the most famous intellectuals and artists in Chinese history
• Huang Tingjian (1045 – 1105): the cursive script master with calligraphy that looked like ‘ripples on water’.

All four figures lived during the Northern Song period, which was later cherished as the Song dynasty’s cultural and political golden age.

Mi Fu and Huang Tingjian

Mi Fu is often contrasted with his contemporary, friend, Huang Tingjian.

The two are seen as being similarly great yet distinct from one another in their approaches and styles.

Huang once wrote of Mi:

余尝评米元章书如快剑斫阵，强弩射千里，所当穿彻，书家笔势亦穷于此。然似仲由未见孔子时风气耳。
I once commented on the calligraphy of Mi Yuanzhang [Mi Fu] as being like a fast sword chopping in battle, or an arrow fired a thousand miles, piercing through everything it meets.
A calligrapher’s brush strength cannot exceed this.
However, [Mi Fu also] has an air about him like Zhong You before he met Confucius.

– Huang Tingjian, ‘Colophon on Mi Yuanzhang’s Calligraphy’

Zhong You was one of Confucius’ disciples that become less unruly once Confucius had taught him.

(Huang made similar remarks about the Five dynasties period calligrapher Yang Ningshi (873 – 954 AD), stating that despite his excellence, he did not appear to adhere to the rules of calligraphy strictly enough.)

Shuazi

Mi Fu was inspired by the calligrapher Duan Jizhan to adopt a calligraphic method termed shuazi (which can be roughly translated as ‘coating’ or ‘whitewashing’). 

It involves calligraphers apply ink to paper or silk in the same manner they would on a wall. The idea is to maintain a steady rhythm that applies the right amount of ink evenly.

(Mi Fu liked to write on walls after drinking, and even apologised to friends for doing so at times!).

Mi Fu’s artistic philosophy

Mi Fu practiced calligraphy very diligently each day.

In doing so, he believed he was emulating the ancients. But at the same time, he also liked to emphasise how he treated calligraphy as ‘just a game’.

何必识难字， 辛苦笑扬雄。
自古为字人， 用字或不通。
要之皆一戏， 不当问拙工。
意足我自足， 放笔一戏空。
Is it really necessary to recognise difficult characters?
We laugh at the lengths Yang Xiong went to.
Since ancient times, calligraphers
Have not known [all] characters correctly. 
It’s all just a game. 
One shouldn’t question clumsiness or skill. 
If my mind is satisfied, then I am satisfied. 
When I put down the brush, the game is over.

– Mi Fu, ‘Reply To Shaopeng’s Remarks on Being Unable to Read Difficult Characters’

Despite this, he clearly felt that this game was more important than even political matters. He once remarked on the great poet (and frustrated official) Du Fu (712 – 770):

甫老儒，汲汲于功名，岂不知固有时命，殆是平生寂寥所慕。 嗟乎！五王之功业，寻为女子笑。 而少保之笔精墨妙，摹印亦广，石泐则重刻，绢破则重补，又假以行者，何可数也。
That old Confucian Fu worried about merit and fame. Did he not know of that fixed [force] fate? This was [probably] him worrying and yearning [because of] his lonely life. Alas! [Even] the Five King’s achievements become mere matter for ladies to laugh about. But [Xue Ji’s] brush was refined and brilliant. If a stone [with his calligraphy engraved on it] cracks, it can be re-cut. If silk [with his calligraphy on it] splits, it can be repaired. But how can one’s career achievements be measured [later on]?

– Mi Fu, A History of Painting

The Song dynasty was a period when the concept of scholar-artists developed greatly.

These were usually officials, or at least independent and educated individuals who expressed themselves with calligraphy, painting, and poetry.

They saw themselves as different to the more technically proficient artists hired by the government to work on realistic, official paintings and murals.

Unlike this group, who worked for money, scholar-artists saw their work as a reflection of their inner cultivation of Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist principles.

The reality wasn’t always so clear cut. But intellectuals such as Mi Fu, Su Shi, and others, often thought and wrote about art theory in these terms. 

They also emphasised the individual nature of art. Each artist must pursue their own path, wherever it may lead.

Unlike professional artists, commissioned to represent others’ orders, the scholar-artist has to find his own vision. 

A good example of this ethos can even be seen in how Mi Fu wrote about his beloved inkstones.

He often painted scenes of hilly landscapes in mist or just before rain. When doing this, Mi declared that an exact model was not needed.

Generally, in painting animals and human figures, one does a sketch and it resembles the object, but in doing landscapes, reproduction will not succeed. In landscapes, the level at which the artist’s mind is satisfied is high.

– On Painting, Mi Fu

As in calligraphy, Mi felt that it was the artist’s mind and self-expression was more important than technical abilities.

This strain of thinking would pass on through the centuries, including with one of Mi Fu’s most famous admirers, the Yuan dynasty calligrapher and painter Ni Zan (1301 – 1374 AD).