Li Gonglin

Life

Li Gonglin was a fourth-generation descendant of Li Sheng of the Southern Tang. His father was Li Xuyi, his younger brother was Li Gongyin, and his grandson was Li Hu (1098–1174).

He passed the jinshi examination in the third year of the Xining era (1070); the examination year is also given as the third year of the Yuanyou era.

His career included service as commandant of Nankang and Changyuan and as registrar of Sizhou. On Lu Dian's recommendation, he became an editing official in the Rear Office of the Secretariat and a legal examiner in the Censorate, eventually reaching the rank of Chaofeng Lang; in 1079 he served as an examiner for the Ministry of Rites examination.

In the third year of the Yuanfu era (1100), illness—described as bi or wind-bi—brought about his retirement. He returned to Longmian Mountain, or to the Longmian Mountain Estate, made the Shanzhuang tu, and the painting was treasured. He died in the fifth year of the Chongning era (1106), aged fifty-eight.

Scholarship and art

Fond of antiquity and broadly learned, he excelled in poetry and prose, knew many unusual characters, and examined the lineages and inscriptions of bells, ding cauldrons, zun vessels, and yi vessels from the Xia and Shang periods onward; he was also an accomplished connoisseur of ancient objects.

He was an accomplished painter of figures, Buddhist and Daoist subjects, horses, landscapes, birds-and-flowers, and Buddhist images, and was particularly skilled in baimiao. His horses and figures were described both as surpassing earlier masters and as deserving to be ranked first in Song painting.

Works and influence

Works transmitted to the present include 《五馬圖》; other paintings associated with him are 《蓮社圖》, 《西園雅集圖》, 《免胄圖》, and 《孝經圖》.

《考古圖》 is associated with him in five volumes, and twenty of his poems are now recorded.

In the study of epigraphy, he shared an interest with Lü Dalin and Zhao Mingcheng and discussed the subject with them. Jia Shigu studied under Li Gonglin and became known for Buddhist and Daoist figure painting in baimiao, with an unhurried quality; Li Gonglin's painting style was also followed by Ding Xiyan, Li Sixian, Shi Fanlong, and Jin Yingui. Su Shi and Huang Tingjian wrote colophons for his calligraphic and painted works and sent him letters.