CHU TA

born c. 1625, , Nan-ch'ang, Kiangsi Province, China died c. 1705 Pinyin Zhu Da, original name Pa-ta Shan-jen a Buddhist monk and, with Shih-t'ao, one of the most famous Individualist painters of the early Ch'ing period, in contrast to painters of the orthodox school (e.g., Wang Hui). Details of Chu Ta's life are scanty, but he is known to have been a descendant of the Ming Imperial line, to have had a classical education, and to have become a Buddhist monk in 1648, after the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Possibly the fall of that dynasty and the death of his father at about the same time caused him some psychic disturbance, and he may have hovered between real insanity and impassioned creativity. He eventually left the Buddhist cloister and exhibited wildly erratic behaviour-such as writing the character for "dumb" (ya) and attaching it to his door, after which he never spoke but only laughed and drank. In his paintings, usually in ink monochrome, such creatures as birds and fishes are given a curious, glowering, or even perverse personality with an abbreviated, wet style filled with tensions. He also painted landscapes inspired by the 10th-century masters Tung Yan and Ch-jan. Unlike most Chinese painters, he does not easily fit into any traditional category; in character and personality he is the complete eccentric and "individualist."