[7] Tang was also a talented poet, and together with his contemporaries Wen Zhengming, Zhu Yunming (1460–1526), and Xu Zhenqing, he was one of the "Four Literary Masters of the Wuzhong Region".

Tang emerged from the vital merchant class of Suzhou, at a very low economic level of the son of a restaurant operator.

All parties were jailed, and Tang Yin returned to Suzhou in disgrace, his high hopes for a distinguished civil service career dashed forever.

That mode of living brought him into disrepute with a later generation of artist-critics (for example, Dong Qichang) who felt that financial independence was vital to enable an artist to follow his own style and inspiration.

Tang Yin also wrote A Short Verse on Bamboo: "The moon sinks in the fourth watch, Paper windows seem transparent; Stirring from wine, I prop my head and read awhile.

High thoughts, I force myself, but can't help it; Ten stalks, still green in winter, cast profuse shadows.

"[11] The painting The Return Home of Tao Qian was acquired by Eve Myers in 1950, when she was an employee of General Chenault's 'Flying Tigers' in Taiwan, as thousands of refugees were fleeing Mao's regime with whatever they could carry.