The National Library held a special event "Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Bada Shanren" Open Course on National Atlas

China News Service, Beijing, November 8 (Reporter Ying Ni) 2026 is the 400th anniversary of the birth of Bada Shanren, a famous calligrapher and painter. Sponsored by the National Library and co-organized by the Bada Shanren Memorial Hall and the Jiangxi Repertory Theater, the "Sky Ancient Snow Spirit - Special Event to Commemorate the 400th Anniversary of Bada Shanren's Birth" was held in Beijing on the 7th.

Event site. Photo provided by the organizer

Bada Shanren, also known as Ren'an, also known as Xuege and Geshan. In his later years, he was often named Bada Shanren. At the age of nineteen, he experienced the destruction of his country and his family. Later, he became a Buddhist monk and then returned to secular life. His life was full of ups and downs, and he could only express his feelings with pen and paper. His works are minimalist and cold, yet profound in meaning. As the pinnacle representative of Chinese freehand painting, he has an immeasurable influence on the painting circles at home and abroad.

Huo Ruijuan, deputy director of the National Library of China, said that in order to cooperate with this event, the National Library has specially sorted out and formed the Bada Shanren characteristic reading resource package, which includes many digital ancient books in the Chinese ancient books intelligent service platform, as well as many lecture resources of the National Library. It is hoped that through multi-modal resources and various types of services, it can provide rich documentary support for readers to understand the life and art of Bada Shanren.

The event also invited Zhou Xiaojian, director of the Bada Shanren Memorial Hall, Qiu Zhenzhong, professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Liu Mo, a senior researcher of literature, history and art theory, to give their speeches on "One Point in the Circle - Observing the Bada Shanren Man's Traces through "Small Portrait of Geshan"" and "Bada Shanren Memorial Hall". He gave a keynote speech titled "Shanren: The Origin of Greatness" and "The Deep Meaning of Bada Shanren's Art". He introduced Bada Shanren's life and representative works, analyzed his creative style and technical characteristics, and explored his artistic realm and spiritual world. Actors from the Jiangxi Provincial Repertory Theater performed excerpts from the drama "Crying to Laughter" live, leading readers to concretely review the life course of Bada Shanren and understand his artistic state of mind.

In order to better inherit the ideological essence of the cultural sages of past generations, the National Library of China Open Course launched the "Age of Genius" series of activities in 2019, and launched a series of special events to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Sima Guang's birth, the 1000th anniversary of Wang Anshi's birth, the 550th anniversary of Wang Yangming's birth, the 1800th anniversary of Ji Kang's birth, and the 900th anniversary of Lu You's birth. This event is the sixth in the series. (over)