Huang Tingjian
Chinese Song Dynasty artist and poet (1045–1105)
Huang Tingjian (simplified Chinese: 黄庭坚; traditional Chinese: 黃庭堅; Wade–Giles: Huang T'ing-chien; 1045, Jiangxi province, China–1105, Yizhou [now Yishan], Guangxi) was a Chinese calligrapher, painter, and poet of the Song dynasty. He is predominantly known as a calligrapher, and is also admired for his painting and poetry. He was one of the Four Masters of the Song Dynasty (Chinese: 宋四家), and was a younger friend of Su Shi and influenced by his and his friends' practice of literati painting (simplified Chinese: 文人画; traditional Chinese: 文人畫), calligraphy, and poetry; regarded as the founder of the Jiangxi school of poetry.
Biography
Early years in Jiangnan
Huang Tingjian was born into the prominent Huang clan and to a family of poets, which had established residence in Jiangnan, south of the Yangzi River, just across the river gorge from the main turmoils and troubles of the Five Dynasties period. Tingjian's great-great-grandfather had then and there established a great library, together with an educational system. Achievement of the jinshi degree was a common attainment for men of the Huang clan. Huang Tingjian's mother, Lady Li, was an accomplished painter of bamboo and player of the guqin. His father, Huang Shu (黃庶,1018-1058) received his jinshi in 1042, and introduced his son Huang Tingjian to the works of Du Fu and Han Yu, before dying when Tingjian was 13 years old, at which point Huang Tingjian left his hometown of Fenning (分寧, in modern Jiangxi).
With Uncle Li in Anhui
After his father's death, Huang Tingjian was sent to Anhui to be further brought up by his uncle, Li Chang (李常,1027-1090), who was also possessed of a large library.
Jinshi and early career
Huang Tingjian failed his jinshi in the Imperial examination, at his first attempt, in 1064, but was passed in 1067, when he was 22 years old.
The public source identifies “Huang Tingjian” as chinese Song Dynasty artist and poet (1045–1105). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Huang, Tingjian and Chinese.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q709460. VIAF identifies the subject as 37708306. The Library of Congress control number is n81014386. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1045, 1105, 1018 and 1058.
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This entry incorporates text from “Huang Tingjian” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.