Artist: Wen Zhengming 文征明 (28 November 1470 - 1559) Chinese Calligraphy Long Hand scrollInk on paper, Horizontal Axis Long Hand scrollLength: 290 cm, Width: 58 cmDated: In The 21st Day of The Fift Month of The Tenth Years of Jiajing Emperor Reign Period (28 January 1522 – 8 February 1567), (ca. 1532)Signed/Seal(s): Signed, with seals of the artist, and Numerous imperial collectors’ seals. Provenance: The Exceptional Collections of Lieutenant General Cai Wenzhi 蔡文治 (1911 - January 9, 1994), Courtesy Name: Dingwu 定武, Spouse: Madame Wu Peiqi 吳佩琪 (Wu Peifu's 吳佩孚's younger sister). Cai Wenzhi born in Huanggang County, Hubei Province (Xinzhou District, Wuhan City). Graduated from the ninth period of the Whampoa Military Academy and the thirteenth period of the Army University. Lieutenant General of the National Revolutionary Army.For more information about General Cai Wenzhi 蔡文治, please follow this link: http://www.LaurenAuctions.com/CaiWenzhi/The collections of General Cai Wenzhi 蔡文治 presented and offered up to auctions from Lot-97 to Lot-157ARTIST BIO: Wen Zhengming 文征明 (28 November 1470 - 1559) born Wen Bi, was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, and poet during the Ming dynasty. He was regarded as one of the Four Masters of Ming painting.Wen Zhengming was born Wen Bi near present-day Suzhou on 28 November 1470. He would later be known by his courtesy name, Zhengming. He had an elder brother, Wen Gui, who was born in 1469. When Zhengming was two years old, his father, Wen Lin, passed the imperial examination with the highest possible rank, jinshi. Wen Lin was assigned a government position as a magistrate in Yongjia County in Zhejiang province, and left for his job, leaving his two sons in the care of his wife, Qi Shenning. In 1476, Qi died of an illness at the age of 32. Wen Lin commissioned the noted scholar Li Dongyang to write an inscription for her tomb.Wen Zhengming's family was originally from a line of military men who lived in Hengshan County, Hunan province. At the time of his great-great-grandfather Wen Dingcong, the family moved to the city of Changzhou in the Suzhou area. Zhengming was a distant relative of the Song dynasty official Wen Tianxiang, through an ancestor who lived in Hengshan. From this he derived his hao (art name), Hengshan, which he used to sign many of his works. His father Wen Lin and his grandfather Wen Hong (Gongda) were both interested in painting. Wen Lin was also a patron of Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming's contemporary and fellow member of the "Four Masters of the Ming dynasty".In 1489, Wen Zhengming began studying under Shen Zhou, the eldest of the Four Masters and founder of the Wu school of painting, of which Wen himself later became a leading figure. Zhengming's father Wen Lin died in 1499, while working as prefect of Wenzhou. At Zhengming's request, Shen Zhou provided a written account of Wen Lin's life for the funeral.Wen Zhengming married the daughter of a high-ranking official and jinshi named Wu Yu around the year 1490. Her uncle was the artist Xia Chang, whose paintings of bamboo may have influenced Wen's own work. Little is known about Wen's wife herself, whose personal name was not recorded. After she died in 1542, Wen painted Wintry Trees after Li Cheng for a guest who arrived with a gift to mourn her death.Around 1509–1513, Wang Xianchen, a friend of the Wen family, began construction on the Humble Administrator's Garden, generally considered one of China's greatest classical gardens. The garden is the subject of some of Wen Zhengming's poems and paintings, including an album of thirty-one views painted in 1535 and a second of eight views in 1551.Wen Zhengming's brother Wen Gui died in 1536. Zhengming's eldest son, Wen Peng, was a noted seal-engraver. His second son. Wen Jia, was also an artist, as was his nephew Wen Boren (son of Wen Gui). His great grandson, Wen Zhenheng, a noted garden designer, rebuilt the Garden of Cultivation in Suzhou. His great-granddaughter, Wen Shu, was a popular and respected professional painter of flowers and insects.