Zhao Mengfu Art Museum

Zhao Mengfu Art Museum

The Zhao Mengfu Art Museum is a regional traditional culture museum that integrates exhibits on the life and calligraphy and painting works of the great Yuan Dynasty artist Zhao Mengfu.

It is located within the China Hu Brush Museum on Lotus Villa Road in Huzhou and was established and opened to the public in September 2001. The building features a hip-and-gable roof with upturned eaves, and its pavilions, corridors, towers, and courtyards are all designed in an antique architectural style.

The main sections include: the Zhao Mengfu Memorial Hall, which replicates the interior of the Songxue Studio and introduces his life and artistic career; and the Zhao Mengfu Ceremony Hall, which houses 37 treasured calligraphy and painting works passed down through generations by Zhao Mengfu and his fellow artists, as well as 38 stone inscriptions of their writings. Among them, Zhao Mengfu’s hand-carved stone inscriptions such as “The Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute,” “Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains,” “Riding a Horse,” along with Wang Xizhi’s “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion,” Yan Zhenqing’s “Eulogy to Nephew Ji-ming,” Su Shi’s “Poem on Cold Food Day in Huangzhou,” and Huang Gongwang’s “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” are all timeless cultural treasures of humanity.

Zhao Mengfu, also known as Zi’ang and by his courtesy name Songxue Daoren, was a native of Huzhou. He is listed as one of the world's cultural celebrities. On Mercury, one of the nine planets in the solar system, there is a crater located between 235 and 225 degrees longitude with a diameter of 120 kilometers, which has been named the Zhao Mengfu Crater.

Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), also known as Zi’ang and by his courtesy names Songxue Daoren and Shuijinggong Daoren, was the eleventh-generation descendant of Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, and a descendant of Prince Qi, Zhao Defang. After the fall of the Song Dynasty, in the 23rd year of the Yuan Dynasty’s Zhiyuan era (1286), Zhao Mengfu was recommended to Kublai Khan, the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, and gained his recognition. He was appointed as a Langzhong (a fifth-rank official) in the Ministry of War, and two years later became a Jishixueshi (a fourth-rank official) in the Jixian Academy. In the 29th year of Zhiyuan (1292), he took office as the Prefect of Jinan Road. In the first year of Yuanshun (1295), following the death of Kublai Khan, Emperor Chengzong ordered the compilation of the “Veritable Records of Emperor Shizu,” and Zhao Mengfu was recalled to the capital. In the third year of Zhida... More details about Zhao Mengfu++