Gu Kaizhi

Gu Kaizhi was born in Wuxi (in modern Jiangsu) where his father served in the imperial secretariat as an assistant.

An enthusiastic art collector, ahead of his accession Huan Xuan ordered a big boat to store paintings and other treasures so that they could be easily transported to safety in case of war.

The emperor broke open the box, stole the paintings, then repaired and returned it to the artist with the seals intact.

Upon discovering his loss, Gu Kaizhi said that "the marvelous works partook of divine power, transformed themselves and vanished, like men ascending to join the immortals.

"[2] This painting, dated between the 6th and 8th century AD[3]—probably an early Tang dynasty copy[4]—illustrates nine stories from a political satire about Empress Jia Nanfeng written by Zhang Hua (ca.

Beginning in the eighth century, many collectors and emperors left seals, poems, and comments on the scroll.

[7] Wise and Benevolent Women survives in a 13th-century copy dating to the Song dynasty, and is today located in the Palace Museum in Beijing.