The beauty
of
asian arts

Emperor Huizong of Song (7 June 1082 – 4 June 1135), personal name Zhao Ji, was the eighth emperor of the Song dynasty in China. He was also a very well-known calligrapher. Emperor Huizong was also a great painter, poet, and calligrapher. He was also a player of the guqin in his palace.

The Huizong emperor sought escape from affairs of state through the pleasures of arts and letters. He urged painters in his academy of painting to depict objects that were “true to color and form,” inviting an extreme literalness of representation his own paintings of birds and flowers were detailed, accurately colored, and perfectly composed. He is also known as a calligrapher who excelled in an elegantly mannered style known as “slender gold.” Huizong sponsored the compilation of a major catalog of artists’ biographies and paintings from the 3rd century to his time, known as the Xuanhe huapu