Wu Bin (painter)

Wu Bin (simplified Chinese: 吴彬; traditional Chinese: 吳彬; pinyin: Wú Bīn; Wade–Giles: Wu Pin) was a Ming dynasty Chinese landscape painter during the reign of the Wanli Emperor (r. 1573-1620). His courtesy name was "Wenzhong" and his art name "Zhiyin Toutuo" means "Mendicant monk at the temple hidden by tree branches". His specific dates of birth and death are not known. Wu was born in Putian in the Fujian province. The local relation linked him to Ōbaku Buddhism sect. He painted a large Nirvana scene painting for them.

Detail of landscape by Wu Bin, ink and color on paper, 1610; Honolulu Museum of Art

He was educated as one of the literati and skilled as a painter. He worked mainly in Nanjing about 1590-1610. He became a devout follower of Buddhism and lived and worked in a Buddhist temple. In Nanjing, he often depicted Buddhist arhats behaving as magicians, performing superstitious rituals and healing practices to satisfy requests made by religious men and women. These are colorful portraits where irony and sarcasm prevail. He produced 500 arhat hanging scrolls in Qixia Temple in Nanjing in about 1601. Some of these hanging scrolls have survived. It is uncertain whether he worked for the vice imperial government in Nanjing. Mi Wanzong (1570－1628), a high ranking government officer, calligrapher, and painter, was his patron from about ACE1600. Wu Bin moved to Beijing with Mi Wanzong's support in about 1610. He produced several masterpieces for Mi Wanzong in Beijing. The landscape of Mi's Garden in Beijing, Ten portraits of A marvelous rock which Mi had and appreciated., and some extravagant landscape paintings.

The Beijing imperial court assigned him the status for a professional technocrat as painter. There are no records of him after 1626. Some sources indicate that the powerful and notorious eunuch Wei Zhongxian purged Wu Bin.[1]