LIANG K'AI

born c. 1140, , Tung-p'ing, Shantung province, China died c. 1210 Pinyin Liang Kai Chinese painter known primarily for paintings that reflect his interest in Ch'an (Japanese: Zen) Buddhism. Liang was originally a painter in attendance at the imperial painting academy in Hang-chou during the Southern Sung period. For uncertain reasons, he left the academy to become a Ch'an Buddhist priest, and his later paintings, those that reflect his involvement with Buddhism, are of most interest. He became a priest in a temple near Hang-chou, the capital city of the Southern Sung dynasty. Because Ch'an painting generally and that of the Southern Sung in particular has not been popular with the Chinese collector of more restrained Confucian sensibility, all the extant works that can be accepted as by Liang K'ai are now in Japan. They have been much prized and imitated there. Though varied, the general effect of Liang K'ai's paintings is appropriate to Ch'an belief: explosive and intense, an immediate release of passion and sure knowledge with a matching mastery of brush technique.