Wen Tong (1018–1079), a Northern Song official, painter, and historian, was accomplished in poetry and calligraphy. His style name was Yuke; he styled himself Xiaoxiao xiansheng and was known as Shishi xiansheng and Jinjiang daoren, while Wen Huzhou and Anjing Wen Tong also occur among his names. His native place is variously given as Yongtai in Zizhou (modern eastern or northeastern Yanting, Sichuan) and Yanting.
Life
He passed the jinshi examination in the first year of the Huangyou era (1049) and began as military judge of Qiongzhou. During the Zhihe era he was transferred to military judge of Jingnan Commandery; one account places the move in the second year (1055), while another says that he returned from office in the first year before being transferred again. In the fourth year of Jiayou (1059), he was summoned for a court appointment, served as a judge in the Office of State Functions, and helped collate books in the Historiographical Institute.
He later served as assistant prefect of Qiongzhou; in 1065 he was transferred to Hanzhou and in 1066 became prefect of Puzhou. In 1070 he was summoned to supervise the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Because his views on the new policies did not agree, he was sent out in 1071 as prefect of Lingzhou and later served as prefect of Xingyuanfu and Yangzhou. His career also included the posts of Secretary Assistant in Qiongzhou, Doctor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Academician, and Compiler; a term as prefect of Xingyuanfu is dated 1072–1075.
In 1078 he was transferred to Huzhou. He died at Chenzhou the following year while traveling to take up the appointment, aged sixty-two.
He was said to be descended from Wen Weng. His father was Wen Changhan; his sons were Wen Wuguang, Wen Chaoguang, and Wen Baoguang, with Chaoguang the eldest and Baoguang the second; Zhang Yuanbi was his son-in-law, Guo Youzhi a relative by marriage, and Su Shi his cousin. He was close to Sima Guang and Su Shi, and was also a friend of Qian Gun, Shi Kangbo, and Yuan Anyu.
Artistic work
Wen Tong was skilled in seal, clerical, running, cursive, and flying-white scripts, and especially excelled at painting bamboo. Beyond poetry, he was best known for ink-bamboo painting; painters called his tradition the Wen Huzhou school of bamboo. Among painters of bamboo, Wu Huang learned from Wen Tong, while Zhou Yaomin and Zhao Lingbi followed his style; Zhao was also skilled in ink bamboo. Huang Yi was skilled at bamboo painting, and Wen Tong considered himself inferior.
Works and influence
His works include 《丹淵集》. Later editors compiled the collection in forty juan and a two-juan supplement, while a fifty-juan collection of Wen Tong's works is also catalogued.
Later editors also arranged twenty juan of his poetry and added poems outside the collection; the forty-juan version of 《丹淵集》 included Fan Bailu's tomb inscription and Jia Chengzhi's chronology.
References
- CBDB Wen Tong (10173)
- 搜韵 文同 (26313)
- Wikidata Wen Tong (Q1288620)