Mu Qi also known as FaChang or Muqi Fachang

Muqi Fachang

Muqi Fachang was a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk and renowned painter who lived in the 13th century, around the end of the Southern Song dynasty. His surname is thought to be Xue; Muqi was a hao or pseudonym, and Fachang a monastic name. Muqi was perhaps from the city of Kaifeng in Hunan Province....

, was a Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 painter and Chán

Chan

-People:* Chan Marshall, American musician better known as Cat Power* Chan , Chinese surname; Mandarin transcription of the same name is Chen ** Agnes Chan , Hong Kong singer, also famous in Japan...

 monk who lived during the Southern Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

, approximately 1200-1270 CE (Mu Qi was his name as a painter, Fa Chang as a monk; his personal name is uncertain). Born in Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

, he emigrated to the Southern Song capitol Lin An (now Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

). His mentors in painting probably included his abbot Wu Jun and the painter Liang Kai

Liang Kai

Liáng Kǎi was a Chinese artist, also known as Madman Liang. He was born in Shandong and worked in Lin An...

. His works are considered among the most expressive of the Chan (aka Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

) style of painting.

Important works generally attributed to Mu Qi: presently in the Daitoku-ji

Daitoku-ji

is a Buddhist temple, one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. It is located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The "mountain name" , who is known by the title Daitō Kokushi, or "National Teacher of the Great Lamp," that he was given by Emperor Go-Daigo...

 in Kyoto are a triptych of Guan Yin flanked by a monkey family on one side and a crane on the other; Tiger; Dragon; and the much-reproduced Six Persimmons

Six Persimmons

Six Persimmons is a 13th century Chinese painting by the monk, Mu Qi , the painter better known in China as Fa-Chang. It was painted during the Song dynasty. Mu Qi was one of the two great exponents of the spontaneous mode of Chinese painting . It features six persimmons floating on an undefined,...

. Other works sometimes attributed to Mu Qi or as being "in the style of Mu Qi" include various nature studies and a Luohan

Luohan

Luohan can mean:* Luóhàn, the Chinese word for arhat, in Buddhism* Luohan or flowerhorn, a cichlid fish hybrid* Luohan , named after the Chinese word for arhat...

 painting in the Seikado Museum

Seikadō Bunko Art Museum

is a museum of East Asian art in Setagaya, Tokyo.-History:The core collection of the museum was created by Yanosuke Iwasaki , the second president of Mitsubishi in its earliest form. "Seikado" was the studio-name of this corporate leader....

.