Famous Elites-Gu Kaizhi，Wu Daozi
2 min readGu Kaizhi（348-409）was born into an official family in today’s Jiangsu Province.
While young，he served as a court official.He was famous for his scroll painting and was considered the founder of traditional Chinese painting.Besides painting，Gu was alsoaccomplished in composing poetry and essays，which in turn enriched his painting.Hismasterpieces included The Goddess of Luo River，a painting based on the essay composed by Cao Zhi（192-232）.
Gu also proposed painting theories that influenced many painters of later generations.His treatise included theoretical works such as Of Painting，Notes on Painting Yuntai Mountain，and so forth.Gu put forward the theory of“expressing the spiritthrough forms”，which became one of the fundamental theories for traditional Chinese painting.Gu advocated stressing the unique features of objects，and was skilled at depicting his subjects’personality traits.
Painter Wu Daozi（c.680-759）of the Tang Dynasty，calligrapher Wang Xizhi of the West Jin，and poet Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty are three people hailed as sages in Chinese history and who respectively represent the highest level in three different but related fields.
Wu was born into a poor family in today’s Henan Province.He lost his parents when he was young and learnt from folk artists and sculptors how to support himself.His diligence and talent won him a reputation in his twenties，and he then became an imperial painter in the court.
According to records，he painted over 300 murals and more than 100 scrolls in his life，most of which were concerned with religious subjects.Wu’s strokes were full of change and vigor，expressing the spirit of the subject，different from Gu Kaizhi，whose strokes were slender and forceful but lacked variety.Wu was always in great ferment when he was painting，and he painted very quickly，always creating his work in a single session.His masterpiece was The Presentation of Buddha.
