Dai Jin is noted as the founder of the Zhe School of Ming dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 painting.

Biography

Dai Jin began his life in Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

. Although he studied painting as a boy his initial occupation was carpentry

Carpentry

A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....

. Later he became known for landscapes and animal paintings. His school would be known as a conservative one that studied the Yuan masters. He served as an official for a time but after angering the Emperor he returned to Hangzhou in Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

, Zhejiang being where the Zhe school was based.

Sources

• Masterpieces of Chinese Art (page 100), by Rhonda and Jeffrey Cooper, Todtri Productions, 1997. ISBN 1577170601
• China culture site