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Shi Xi
Shi Xi
Personal Profile
Shi Xi: Originally named Sun Bannong. Pseudonyms: Shi Chi, San Shi. Born in September 1964 in Henan, Zhengzhou. Studio names: Yizhai, Banxianlou. Graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. Disciple of the Yellow River School of Painting. Member of the China Artists Association and the China Calligraphers Association. National First-Class Artist.
In her early years, she studied under nationally renowned freehand brushwork masters Lai Shaoqi, Xiao Longshi, and Hua Qimin, specializing in landscape, flower-and-bird, and figure painting.
Later, she learned from masters such as Wu Changshuo, Xu Qingteng, Qi Baishi, Shi Tao, Shi Lu, Li Bo'an, Wang Duo, Zhang Ruitu, Fu Shan, Huang Binhong, and Zhu Songfa. On this foundation, she extensively studied theory, transformed through art history, deeply absorbed classical poetry, and traveled across China—from the Tian Mountains to the Taihang gorges, from the Three Gorges of the Yangtze to the Three Gorges of the Yellow River, from northern Shaanxi’s Mahuangliang to the Yellow River Stone Forest—seeking breakthroughs in stylistic transformation of Chinese painting. She established her own thematic focus on flower-and-bird and classical figure subjects, developing a personal style characterized by grandeur, weightiness, lushness, and unexpected originality. Based on dual cultivation in painting and calligraphy, she also delved into Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, philosophy, and Western Christian humanist classics.
For a long time, she has participated in national exhibitions and won awards. She integrates elements of calligraphy, Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, and more. She is committed to inheriting and innovating the great tradition of Chinese painting, still on her journey.
Currently, she is an inner disciple of the renowned Chinese flower-and-bird painter Master Huangheren, instructor (assistant) of the Huangheren Freehand Chinese Painting Advanced Research Class in Beijing Songzhuang, and director of the Cui San Shi Art Museum in Beijing, among other positions.
The Eternal Path of Shi Chi Ink and Brush Overflow with Emotion ——Recording the Artistic Career, Creative Style, and Characteristics of the Famous Practitioner of Chinese Freehand Brushwork —— Master Shi Xi ——— Huangheren Shi Xi: Female, Sun Bannong, born September 16, 1964. Ancestral home: Zhengzhou, Henan. Pseudonyms: Shi Chi, San Shi, San Nong. Graduated successively from the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts and the Correspondence University of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting. Since childhood, she showed no interest in worldly love; she adored solitude and had obsessive cleanliness. She preferred living alone, often silent, with unpredictable moods. Her ears are large and hang down to her shoulders. She voraciously read classical Chinese and foreign poetry and literary masterpieces, dedicating herself solely to painting and calligraphy. Upon completing a work, she would casually discard it. Her personality is eccentric and unconventional; visitors are often turned away at the door. She avoids gatherings, prefers walking through remote alleys, follows her own heart, “thinks and walks alone,” and regards money as dung... She owns a house in the city but abandons it to live among mountains and rivers. Since ancient times, those with extraordinary temperaments often ignore worldly fame and “persist stubbornly in their own path.” She “seeks heavenly realms without glancing at muddy puddles, keeps her heart pure without desiring worldly chaos,” rarely joins crowds, and follows her lofty spirit far from noisy cities. When painting on scrolls over a chi in size, ink and brush become gold exchanged for currency. She wanders the world, breathing the fresh air along the southern bank of the great Yellow River. She halts her wandering life, settling in an old cave dwelling among the hills of the ancient town of Sishui in western Henan, taking the ancient dragon locust tree before her door as her spiritual companion. She often sits beneath its shade for cool comfort, accompanied by autumn bamboo swaying in the wind, enjoying the serenity of seclusion. “Amidst misty mountains and eastward-flowing streams, she studies poetry, painting, and elegant literature at dawn’s dew.” She is addicted to buying books and writes theoretical reflections on her desk for her own reading. Alone, seated beneath trees atop Mang Mountain or beside Qingheba of the Five-Finger Mountain, she contemplates grand creative structures of millennia past, absorbing the spiritual essence of mountains and rivers to enrich her theories of painting and calligraphy. Sometimes she sits by the Shicong River in Songshan, observing the ever-changing clouds and winds over the peaks. When inspiration strikes fiercely, she becomes ecstatic, mad, and frenzied. Often residing long in mountain caves, “listening to the melody of streams below, composing poems of astonishing brilliance.” She paints wildly without restraint, “shouting two or three times, echoes reverberating four times across the mountains.” Ink and brush startle like flying geese; masterpieces scatter the ground instantly, yet she pays them no heed. Her freehand brushwork embodies tragic grandeur and heroic abandon: “brushstrokes startle like flying geese without hesitation, traversing tradition yet remaining fresh”—as if divinely inspired! Yet she rarely recognizes people. I cry out in astonishment! What a remarkable woman! Truly a master of her generation! Yet I ache to see her casually discard her works. In her life, besides painting, reading, chanting poetry, and sipping tea, she sometimes sits quietly with a fan atop field-side kilns, gazing skyward, silently watching clouds gather and disperse—for three days without tasting food. Occasionally, when selling a painting brings money, she rushes to the market to devour all delicacies, consuming three bowls without pause. After spending everything, she returns to scavenging, wearing clean, simple cotton robes or elegant Hanfu. Her attire is minimal yet graceful. She often goes to the fresh-air spots along the Mang Ridge and Red Boat by the great river, sitting for hours watching magnificent clouds while drinking tea from a large bowl. She also gathers mountain fruits, tastes their flavors, observes nature, sketches from life, and chases the setting sun home... When her inspiration burns fiercely, she also practices seal carving (her commonly used seals “Shi Xi” [intaglio] and “Shi Fengzi” [relief] were carved by herself, though she avoids stone dust and rarely carves). Over three hundred poems survive, to be compiled and published soon. Her paintings have matured into the ranks of major freehand flower-and-bird and classical figure painters. She mostly paints late at night when all is quiet, wielding brushstrokes seasoned, heavy, and profound; her compositions are dazzlingly strange and unique. Sometimes she creates long horizontal scrolls, all exhibiting ancient, lofty styles with “heaven-shaking, ghost-weeping” power. Her small works reveal grandeur in miniature; her classical figures often depict Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist sages. She effortlessly captures the spirit of mountains and earth; her brushwork startles all present: “her chest holds the cosmos with boundless vision; all subjects become ethereal and delightful.” She places great emphasis on the compositional interplay of points, lines, and planes, and the expressive use of black, white, and gray ink masses. This perfectly echoes my teacher Master Shi Lu’s saying: “Black masses, ink masses—within black ink masses lies boundless天地 (heaven and earth).” She frequently raises her brush, “suddenly revealing a stretch of ravines,” silencing ten thousand words: “mighty ink encompasses the charm of all things under heaven”—a magnificent, heroic, profound masterstroke! She truly deserves to be called a genius among great recluses! Alas! One must treasure and collect her works in this lifetime, for in the next, paper in Luoyang will be priceless... Shi Xi: Among contemporary female Chinese painters, she is one of the rare eccentric geniuses of freehand brushwork. Her lines are thick, seasoned, and compositions extraordinarily unique, possessing the charm of “rain falling from beyond the heavens.” She deeply emphasizes the expressive趣味性 (aesthetic playfulness) of brush and ink and the linguistic elements beyond the picture plane: “style is heroic yet not crude, warm and mysterious with lingering resonance.” She values ink-wash negative space, corner compositions, and the rich permeation of poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seals within her works. Through endless stylistic transformations in landscape, flower-and-bird, and classical figure painting—combined with artistic theory and the philosophical penetration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism—her paintings stand out among countless artists, establishing her as one of the nation’s few true masters. Because she often paints without recognizing viewers, her works circulate extremely rarely. Later, I brought her to Songzhuang in Beijing, arranged her position—but she paid it no mind, continuing to wander the world and frequent major temples. Truly a remarkable woman! To help more people recognize the preciousness of Master Shi Xi’s works and cherish collecting them, I write this essay. Written on a midsummer night in the Year of Gengzi, at the southern Chan courtyard of Foyan Pavilion in the capital, beside the tranquil couch of Sakyamuni Buddha.
The Eternal Path of Shi Chi Ink and Brush Overflow with Emotion ——Recording the Artistic Career, Creative Style, and Characteristics of the Famous Practitioner of Chinese Freehand Brushwork —— Master Shi Xi ——— Huangheren Shi Xi: Female, Sun Bannong, born September 16, 1964. Ancestral home: Zhengzhou, Henan. Pseudonyms: Shi Chi, San Shi, San Nong. Graduated successively from the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts and the Correspondence University of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting. Since childhood, she showed no interest in worldly love; she adored solitude and had obsessive cleanliness. She preferred living alone, often silent, with unpredictable moods. Her ears are large and hang down to her shoulders. She voraciously read classical Chinese and foreign poetry and literary masterpieces, dedicating herself solely to painting and calligraphy. Upon completing a work, she would casually discard it. Her personality is eccentric and unconventional; visitors are often turned away at the door. She avoids gatherings, prefers walking through remote alleys, follows her own heart, “thinks and walks alone,” and regards money as dung... She owns a house in the city but abandons it to live among mountains and rivers. Since ancient times, those with extraordinary temperaments often ignore worldly fame and “persist stubbornly in their own path.” She “seeks heavenly realms without glancing at muddy puddles, keeps her heart pure without desiring worldly chaos,” rarely joins crowds, and follows her lofty spirit far from noisy cities. When painting on scrolls over a chi in size, ink and brush become gold exchanged for currency. She wanders the world, breathing the fresh air along the southern bank of the great Yellow River. She halts her wandering life, settling in an old cave dwelling among the hills of the ancient town of Sishui in western Henan, taking the ancient dragon locust tree before her door as her spiritual companion. She often sits beneath its shade for cool comfort, accompanied by autumn bamboo swaying in the wind, enjoying the serenity of seclusion. “Amidst misty mountains and eastward-flowing streams, she studies poetry, painting, and elegant literature at dawn’s dew.” She is addicted to buying books and writes theoretical reflections on her desk for her own reading. Alone, seated beneath trees atop Mang Mountain or beside Qingheba of the Five-Finger Mountain, she contemplates grand creative structures of millennia past, absorbing the spiritual essence of mountains and rivers to enrich her theories of painting and calligraphy. Sometimes she sits by the Shicong River in Songshan, observing the ever-changing clouds and winds over the peaks. When inspiration strikes fiercely, she becomes ecstatic, mad, and frenzied. Often residing long in mountain caves, “listening to the melody of streams below, composing poems of astonishing brilliance.” She paints wildly without restraint, “shouting two or three times, echoes reverberating four times across the mountains.” Ink and brush startle like flying geese; masterpieces scatter the ground instantly, yet she pays them no heed. Her freehand brushwork embodies tragic grandeur and heroic abandon: “brushstrokes startle like flying geese without hesitation, traversing tradition yet remaining fresh”—as if divinely inspired! Yet she rarely recognizes people. I cry out in astonishment! What a remarkable woman! Truly a master of her generation! Yet I ache to see her casually discard her works. In her life, besides painting, reading, chanting poetry, and sipping tea, she sometimes sits quietly with a fan atop field-side kilns, gazing skyward, silently watching clouds gather and disperse—for three days without tasting food. Occasionally, when selling a painting brings money, she rushes to the market to devour all delicacies, consuming three bowls without pause. After spending everything, she returns to scavenging, wearing clean, simple cotton robes or elegant Hanfu. Her attire is minimal yet graceful. She often goes to the fresh-air spots along the Mang Ridge and Red Boat by the great river, sitting for hours watching magnificent clouds while drinking tea from a large bowl. She also gathers mountain fruits, tastes their flavors, observes nature, sketches from life, and chases the setting sun home... When her inspiration burns fiercely, she also practices seal carving (her commonly used seals “Shi Xi” [intaglio] and “Shi Fengzi” [relief] were carved by herself, though she avoids stone dust and rarely carves). Over three hundred poems survive, to be compiled and published soon. Her paintings have matured into the ranks of major freehand flower-and-bird and classical figure painters. She mostly paints late at night when all is quiet, wielding brushstrokes seasoned, heavy, and profound; her compositions are dazzlingly strange and unique. Sometimes she creates long horizontal scrolls, all exhibiting ancient, lofty styles with “heaven-shaking, ghost-weeping” power. Her small works reveal grandeur in miniature; her classical figures often depict Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist sages. She effortlessly captures the spirit of mountains and earth; her brushwork startles all present: “her chest holds the cosmos with boundless vision; all subjects become ethereal and delightful.” She places great emphasis on the compositional interplay of points, lines, and planes, and the expressive use of black, white, and gray ink masses. This perfectly echoes my teacher Master Shi Lu’s saying: “Black masses, ink masses—within black ink masses lies boundless天地 (heaven and earth).” She frequently raises her brush, “suddenly revealing a stretch of ravines,” silencing ten thousand words: “mighty ink encompasses the charm of all things under heaven”—a magnificent, heroic, profound masterstroke! She truly deserves to be called a genius among great recluses! Alas! One must treasure and collect her works in this lifetime, for in the next, paper in Luoyang will be priceless... Shi Xi: Among contemporary female Chinese painters, she is one of the rare eccentric geniuses of freehand brushwork. Her lines are thick, seasoned, and compositions extraordinarily unique, possessing the charm of “rain falling from beyond the heavens.” She deeply emphasizes the expressive趣味性 (aesthetic playfulness) of brush and ink and the linguistic elements beyond the picture plane: “style is heroic yet not crude, warm and mysterious with lingering resonance.” She values ink-wash negative space, corner compositions, and the rich permeation of poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seals within her works. Through endless stylistic transformations in landscape, flower-and-bird, and classical figure painting—combined with artistic theory and the philosophical penetration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism—her paintings stand out among countless artists, establishing her as one of the nation’s few true masters. Because she often paints without recognizing viewers, her works circulate extremely rarely. Later, I brought her to Songzhuang in Beijing, arranged her position—but she paid it no mind, continuing to wander the world and frequent major temples. Truly a remarkable woman! To help more people recognize the preciousness of Master Shi Xi’s works and cherish collecting them, I write this essay. Written on a midsummer night in the Year of Gengzi, at the southern Chan courtyard of Foyan Pavilion in the capital, beside the tranquil couch of Sakyamuni Buddha.
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Shi Xi