![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Li_Cheng_Buddhist_Temple_in_Mountain_All.jpg/220px-Li_Cheng_Buddhist_Temple_in_Mountain_All.jpg)
Li Cheng (Chinese: 李成; pinyin: Lǐ Chéng; Wade–Giles: Li Ch'eng) (919–967), style name 咸熙 (Pinyin:Xián Xī), Chinese painter of the Northern Song period, from Qingzhou (now part of Weifang County, Shandong). He came from the Tang imperial family. Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guan Tong together became known as the "three great rival artists". He did many landscape paintings with diluted ink, known as "treating ink like gold", which gives the appearance of being in a foggy dream. At that time, he was considered the best landscape painter of all time. He carried on a dialog with Wu Daoxuan through their paintings. He primarily portrayed Shandong area landscape. Later generations, such as Guo Xi, modeled their teaching on his painting methods.
His works include “Jigger"(?), "Joy in Fishing", "Cold crow", and "Landscape". His prefecture maintains that it has archived 195 scrolls, but it is impossible to distinguish genuine ones from copies. Only "Pheasant Courtyard" copybook looks genuine, but lacks expression. One extant painting, "Reading Stele Nest Stone"(?), was a collaboration between him and Wang Xiao.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Li_Cheng_Buddhist_Temple_in_Moutain_Detail.jpg/220px-Li_Cheng_Buddhist_Temple_in_Moutain_Detail.jpg)
[[Category:Chinese painters]] [[Category:Landscape artists]] [[Category:919 births]] [[Category:967 deaths]] [[Category:Song Dynasty people]] [[zh:李成]] {{China-painter-stub}}