Tsou Yüan-tou (tzu Shao-wei, hao Ch’un-ku and Lin-wu shan-jen) was active during the K’ang-hsi period (1662-1722). He was a native of Sung-chiang in Kiangsu but after marriage lived with his wife’s family in Ch’ang-shu. Because of his talent for painting he was summoned to enter the imperial painting academy, where the famous painter Chiang T’ing-hsi taught him the academy style of bird and flower painting. He also practiced calligraphy and poetry. Tsou Yüan-tou made bird and flower painting his speciality, and although he began to paint as a student of Chiang T’ing-hsi, he was able to cast off the sensual use of color of the latter and concentrate on brush technique, so that there is strength in the delicacy of his paintings. He also observed objects in nature and sketched them from life, so that his paintings capture both the spiritual and mortal aspects of his subjects. Thus his paintings are more lifelike than those of his teacher, and the subjects seem ready to leave the paper and come to life.