Modern master of Chinese ink painting, painter of shrimp
China’s most famous modern master of ink painting, born a carpenter, who became a master of his age entirely through self-teaching and diligence. His freehand (xieyi) birds and flowers brim with life: a few strokes of ink, light and dark just so, and the shrimp in the water seem to swim, their translucent bodies almost touchable. He held that the wonder of painting lies "between likeness and unlikeness" — too like and it is vulgar, too unlike and it deceives. He painted the most ordinary shrimp, crab, cabbage, and tadpoles into pure delight, giving Chinese freehand painting new life in the twentieth century.
Qi Baishi painted shrimp all his life, ever simpler. He said the wonder of painting lies "between likeness and unlikeness": too like, and it merely copies nature, falling into cliché; wholly unlike, and it fools the viewer. The true master, with a few strokes, both catches the shrimp’s spirit and leaves room for the mind to linger. This one line lays bare the whole essence of Chinese freehand painting.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.