"Holden, Wendy; 'A Guide to Cataloguing Chinese Art', Visual Resources Association Special Bulletin No. 13, (1050138x). b22d22 Alternate name: Zh? D? (??), Pa-ta-shan-jen, ???? Ming Dynasty (1624-1705) The artist we know as Bada Shanren was born in the last years of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) into a literary and artistic family that was one branch of the Ming imperial clan. Bada Shanren took refuge from advancing Qing armies in a Chan (Zen) Buddhist monastery. Intelligent, talented, and highly educated, he soon attained the rank of abbot and continued to live as a Buddhist monk for more than thirty years. His decision to leave the monastery coincided approximately with an episode of madness?whether real or feigned cannot be determined?followed by a brief, unhappy marriage, and, finally, a gradual adjustment to the demands of earning a living as an artist. Throughout his life?for his own safety?he concealed his identity as a Ming prince, but the construction of new identities was a recurrent strategy for Bada Shanren, and he frequently gave himself new pseudonyms that hinted at his shifting self-images. The artist's enigmatic pictures of fish, birds, plants, and landscapes are rendered in seemingly blunt but wonderfully subtle strokes of ink. Forms seem to break apart, cut off by the edge of album pages, leaving the center of the paper disconcertingly blank. Bug-eyed animals stare up at mossy rocks that appear to hover in midair. Habitually employing veiled language, Bada Shanren's inscriptions and highly allusive poems often add to the mystification. His art is famously difficult, and all his creations defy easy analysis. --http://www.persimmon-mag.com/winter2004/Bookreview5.htm"@en . . "Bada, Shanren"@en . . "2015-06-18"^^ . "2015-07-16"^^ . "2015-08-25"^^ . "2015-06-18"^^ . "2015-07-16"^^ . "2015-08-25"^^ . "1624-1705"@en . . .