WU TAU-TZi: “Nirvana”. From a Japanese Wood-cut reproduced in Anderson's Pictorial Arts of Japan”. Cf. also the photogravure and Dr. Paul Carus' notes in “The Open Court”, Vol. XVI (No 3), March, 1902.

, the last character being now exchanged for yüan, because it had to be tabooed on forming part of the Emperor K'ang-hi's personal name, for which reason the name of his contemporary Hüan Tsang has in recent texts also been changed into Yüan Tsang). Although Wu Tau-tzï is looked upon as the greatest painter of all periods not only in China, but also in Japan, where his name, pronounced Godoshi, is as familiar to art lovers as that of any among the indigenous masters, we know but little about the detail of his life. The dynastic histories, which have preserved the biographies of thousands of men highly distinguished in politics, yet not worthy to unloose the latchets of his shoes, do not say a word about China's greatest artist. The little we know about his life comes from the works of Chinese art critics and the occasional records of biographical anecdotes (for which I refer the reader to Giles, p. 42 seqq.), and of these many bear the stamp of legendary inventions. He was born towards the close of the seventh century at Yang-ti near K'ai-föng-fu. His parents were poor and left him an orphan in early youth. But his pictorial talent broke forth with such power that the reputation of his ability drew on him the attention of the Emperor Hüan-tsung, who caused him to come to his capital, where he received his technical education in an institution devoted to the study of fine arts, when he soon rose to be the facile princeps among his colleagues. His manner, when seen at work, was easy to a degree, and he combined extreme decision with extreme quickness. To illustrate this his biographers tell us the somewhat childish story, preserved by Chu King-hüan (10. century) and quoted with fuller detail from the Tang-huu-ki (), an apparently lost work on T'ang painters, in the great archaeological description of the old capital, the Ch'ang-an-chi (, chap. 9, p. 3), how the Emperor