Mi Fu

Life

Accounts differ over his home affiliation. He was described as a native of Taiyuan who moved to Xiangyang and then Dantu; his ancestral home was also given as Xiangyang, while Wuxian appears as his basic registered place. His settlement in Dantu led to his being called a man of Wu, and to the epithet “Mi Xiangyang.”

By hereditary privilege he entered office as the 浛光尉, also written 含光尉. His subsequent offices included 判司簿尉, magistrate of Yongqiu, military prefect of Lianshui and Wuwei, an official in the Jiang-Huai-Jing-Zhe circuit transport administration, a 太常寺博士, and a Ministry of Rites staff post; during the Chongning era of Emperor Huizong he was summoned as a 書畫學博士 and later sent out as military prefect of Huaiyang.

His Huaiyang appointment is dated to 1104–1105 in one account and to the first year of Daguan in another; the latter account says that he died at fifty-seven after taking up the post.

He was described as eccentric in manner and fastidious about cleanliness. He was also a Daoist, connoisseur, collector, and lover of antiquities, and he served at the inner court in 1107.

He had two sons, Mi Youren (1072–1151) and Mi Youzhi, and a son-in-law, Wu Ji (d. 1142). He was a friend of Zhong Zhengfu, praised Li Jia’s ci verse, and admired Zhang Jing’s skill in miscellaneous painting.

Art and learning

Mi Fu wrote poetry and prose; his prose was described as unconventional and as not following earlier models. He was skilled in calligraphy and painting and in connoisseurship; his calligraphy drew on Wang Xianzhi’s brush manner and was especially accomplished in running script and cursive.

His calligraphy, together with that of Cai Xiang, Su Shi, and Huang Tingjian, was counted among the “Four Masters of Song”; one formulation substitutes Cai Jing for Cai Xiang. In painting, he followed Dong Yuan in landscape, used ink-dotting for landscapes and figures, developed a distinctive manner, and was particularly adept at emulation, sometimes making copies indistinguishable from the originals.

Works

Titles associated with him include 《寶晉英光集》, 《寶章待訪錄》, 《海嶽名言》, 《米元章書史》, 《畫史》, 《書史》, 《硯史》, 《海嶽題跋》, 《評紙帖》, and 《淮海題跋一卷》.

His 《山林集》 comprised 100 juan and is lost; Yue Ke compiled 《寶晉英光集》, and later editors continued the work in 《寶晉山林集拾遺》. The textual arrangement of his poetry uses the eight-juan edition of 《寶晉山林集拾遺》 printed at the Junyang commandery studio in the first year of the Jiatai era as its base; it was collated against the 《四庫全書》, Qing Xianfeng 《涉聞梓舊》, and Japanese 《河山亥本》 editions, with poems outside the collected works appended at the end.