A Life in Brush and Ink Born in Guanghan, Zhao Chang lived through a period of profound cultural shifts in China. His life spanned the transition from the Later Zhou dynasty into the Northern Song dynasty, a time when the aesthetics of the imperial court were being defined. He was a man of his era, a painter who found his voice by studying the masters who came before him. His work was not a solitary invention but a continuation of a lineage, shaped by the hands and minds of those who taught him how to see the natural world. He was a student of the flower-and-bird painter Teng Changyou, learni…