Shi Tao(about 1641 - 1707), original name Zhu Ruoji, had several nick-names such as Da Di-zi, Qing Xiang Old Man, Bitter Gourd Monk, etc. His Buddhist name was Yuan Ji. Scintillating with talents, he was capable of ev-ery kind and every method of painting. Most of his paintings stemmed from what he had observed and understood about nature, and are very creative. Characteristic of his paintings are his fantastic and diversified styles ¨C free and unrestrained, fresh and graceful, extensive and profound, sketchy and far-reaching, vast and forceful, etc. He had an amazing power to bring what-ever is on earth or in the sky into his picture as easily as winking. Using a novel and original style, he composed his pictures with great ease and vigor. He had obtained the capability of painting whatever he liked, free from any obstruction and disciplines.
A Trip to Huayang Mountain (picture No. 15, see p. 685) displays a boundless, quiet, lofty, and flowing beauty with his calm but forceful strokes. Rocks are outlined in light ink, and mountains are modeled by means of dark broken-ink and dense black ink applied with the brush fairly dry. The dragon coils tortuous; rocks scatter at random; the peaks bathed in the setting sun; bushes, red leaves and houses here and there, presenting before one's eyes a new and clear world. So unusual was the configuration of the picture, so full of the power of visual impact that it catches one's attention immediate-ly. With this unique style of his, he seems to have performed a soul-stirring symphony.
