Wang Meng

Wang Meng (c. 1308–1385) was a landscape painter of the late Yuan and early Ming and the youngest of the Four Masters of Yuan painting. Born in Wuxing in Zhejiang, he was a maternal grandson of the painter-calligrapher Zhao Mengfu.

After briefly holding office late in the Yuan, he withdrew for thirty years to Yellow Crane Mountain in Yuhang, styling himself its woodcutter; Ni Zan had urged him to value the pursuit of learning over rank and wealth.

Amid the end-of-Yuan wars he joined Zhang Shicheng and, after Zhang's defeat, went over to Zhu Yuanzhang. Under the Ming he became prefect of Tai'an in Shandong, but in 1385 he was implicated in Chancellor Hu Weiyong's treason case after viewing paintings at Hu's house, and died in prison.