Reflections | The tale of Tang Bohu, the Ming dynasty tiger who was a poet and a painter – and is remembered as a ladies’ man and handsome romantic
- Born into a merchant family in the Ming dynasty, Tang Yin, now known as Tang Bohu, was a bright scholar wrongly accused of cheating in an exam
- Unable to work for the government, he turned to poetry and art, and his paintings can be seen in the National Palace Museum in Taipei
The 15-day celebration of the Chinese New Year comes to an end on Tuesday, February 15. This being annus tigris, let us look back on the life of a man who was born in the Year of the Tiger over 500 years ago, whose poetry, paintings and life are still celebrated today.
Tang Yin (1470–1524) was named for the year he was born, yin being the special character that corresponds to the tiger year. Today, he is much better known by his courtesy name Bohu, another tigrine reference that translates to “firstborn son who is a tiger”.
Tang Bohu was born in Suzhou to a family that owned a small business. Later in life, he described his childhood as one that was spent “in the company of butchers and wine peddlers, where clanging knives are awash in blood”. Despite his humble background, he showed an aptitude for studying and at the age of 15, he was sufficiently good to be a fully subsidised student in the Confucian school of his prefecture.
He married three years later, but by the time he was 25, his wife, parents and sister had died. After the ascribed three-year mourning period, he put his heart and mind into his studies. In 1498, he took the provincial examination in Nanjing, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty, and was named the provincial graduate with the highest honours. The chief examiner was astounded by his erudition and literary flair.
This achievement brought him fame and a network of friends among the intelligentsia. When he went to Beijing the following year for the metropolitan examination, he became embroiled in a bribery for grades scandal. Although he was wrongly accused, Tang Bohu was still found guilty, effectively putting a premature end to any career in government he might have had. His second wife also left him because of the scandal.
