Mi Fu

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Mi Fu
Mi Fu as depicted in a 1107 CE painting by Chao Buzhi
Chinese name
Chinese	米芾 or 米黻
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǐ Fú Wade–Giles Mi Fu Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Mei5 Fat1 Middle Chinese Middle Chinese MieiB Pjwǝt
Korean name
Hangul	미불
Transcriptions McCune–Reischauer Mi Bul
Japanese name
Hiragana	べいふつ
Transcriptions Romanization Bei Futsu

Mi Fu (Chinese: 米芾 or 米黻; pinyin: Mǐ Fú, also given as Mi Fei, 1051–1107 CE)^[1] was a Chinese painter, poet and calligrapher who was born in Taiyuan during the Song dynasty. He became known for his style of painting misty landscapes. This style would be deemed the "Mi Fu" style and involved the use of large wet dots of ink applied with a flat brush. His poetry was influenced by Li Bai and his calligraphy by Wang Xizhi.

Mi Fu is regarded as one of the four greatest calligraphers of the Song dynasty, alongside Su Shi, Hung Tingjian and Cai Xian. His style is derived from calligraphers in earlier dynasties, although he developed unique traits of his own. His son, Mi Youren, also became a well known painter. He followed his father's artistic style, adopting his use of large dots of wet ink, a technique later nicknamed "Mi Dots".^[2]

As a personality, Mi Fu was noted as an eccentric; including a mania of cleanliness.^[2] At times, he was deemed "Madman Mi" due to his obsession with collecting stones. He was also known to be a heavy drinker. His son, Mi Youren, also became a well known painter following in his father's artistic style.