In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the ruling class was corrupt and degenerate, resulting in chaos in the world, and the people were displaced and unable to live in peace. Despite this difficult environment, culture and art are still developing rapidly. At this time, a large number of great painters with extraordinary abilities emerged. Ren Bonian was one of the most representative painting giants of this period, he experienced the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement during his lifetime, and also wandered around, selling paintings for a living. His life has been quite bumpy, but he has always contributed to the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese painting art. Thanks to his efforts, Chinese portrait painting and flower and bird painting have become more and more prosperous. At that time, there was also an outstanding painter with extraordinary skills. He can be called one of the "Four Masters of the Shanghai School" in the late Qing Dynasty, and his bamboo painting skills are exquisite, but he has been poor all his life
This great painter of the late Qing Dynasty was Pu Hua, born in 1832 and died in 1911. Zhejiang Jiaxing people, the number of bamboo road people, the name of Jiuqin Ten Yan Zhai, Jian Guile Qin ventricle, etc. He has a huge influence, and he is as famous as Xugu, Wu Changshuo, and Ren Bonian, who are known as the "Four Masters of Shanghai". In his early years, he showed off his talents, and then gave up the idea of becoming an official in the court, and devoted himself to studying the art of calligraphy and painting. He once traveled the world and later lived in Shanghai, making a living by selling paintings. He is especially good at painting landscapes and flowers, and is known for painting bamboo, known as "Pu Bamboo". Its painting style is characterized by: vigorous and charming, quite charming, elegant and extraordinary. He is also a master calligrapher, and his calligraphy works are pure and colorful. 
In the twelfth year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1832, he was born in Xiushui County, Zhejiang Province (now Jiaxing City), and his father was a small trader, but his family was still very poor. From an early age, he studied with his maternal grandfather, and in 1853, he became a showman. He is a simple person, does not admire Rongli, and only wants to study the art of painting. This noble character is an important factor in making him a master of a generation. At the age of twenty-two, he married a woman, Miao Xiaohua. The wife is also proficient in the art of calligraphy and painting, so the couple can be regarded as a bosom friend in the mountains and rivers. Although they live in poverty, they never leave it. In their free time, they all talk about calligraphy and painting together and create art. Obviously, although their lives are not rich, their spiritual world is very full. 
If the two can grow old together, they will have no regrets in this life. However, people have joys and sorrows, and their wives are soon separated from them. In the autumn of 1863, his good wife, who had been with him for only ten years, died of illness. After losing his beloved wife, he was so grief-stricken that he wrote a poem: "Ten years of confidant, poor and good are sad." At this time, he was thirty-two years old and had no children. The death of his wife hit him hard, so he vowed not to remarry again in this life, but to die alone. A few months later, in the spring of 1864, he left his homeland and went to Ningbo. In the same year, he went to Taizhou, and in the spring and autumn of the next ten years, he served as a staff member in the government in many places. Originally, he could rise step by step, but he didn't like officialdom and couldn't get used to the gloom of officialdom, so he was finally dismissed. 
Because of its addiction to alcohol and laziness, it is also known as "sloppy" by the outside world. In fact, outsiders don't understand him, and they don't know the sorrow in his heart, after all, the pain of losing his wife is not enough for outsiders. If his wife had been with him all his life, he would not have become like this. Later, he had nowhere to go and had to sell paintings for a living. He has painted his own paintings in Taizhou, Hangzhou and other places. However, the situation in the era is unstable, and because of the ease of painting, it still has not been able to get rid of poverty. In the spring of 1881, he left Shanghai for Japan, where many people in the country loved his paintings because of his prowess. However, he did not stay in Japan for long before leaving, and returned to the embrace of his homeland in the summer of the same year. After returning to China, he continued to work hard while creating art. 
His talent is outstanding, and he has successfully carried forward the painting style of famous artists Chen Chun, Xu Wei and Zheng Banqiao, and has also learned from the strengths of various families, and studied his techniques under the painter Zhou Xian. Over time, its fame grew and its living conditions improved. However, he doesn't know how to be economical. Whenever an old friend from the countryside came to visit him in Shanghai, he would give him a warm welcome. In addition, there are Japanese visitors who spend a lot of money on their paintings, and they will also pay for a treat and drink with their confidants. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, disasters and famines were frequent, and he was very kind and sold his calligraphy and painting works to help the victims. As a result, they never had any savings. In the summer of 1911, he died suddenly in his own residence, ending his life full of twists and turns. 
Because he had no children, after his death, his confidant Wu Changshuo and others took care of his funeral. His life was poor and depressed, and his close friend, the master of painting, Wu Changshuo, once inscribed an epitaph that said: "Rich in pen and ink is poor in life." Obviously, this is the most accurate assessment of his miserable life. When painting, he likes to use wet brushes, showing the artistic characteristics of ink and water. In his later years, he was able to do it, and the pen was old and ink, which shows that his skills have entered the realm. At this time, he especially likes to paint large banners, which are magnificent, magnificent, and shocking. 
His paintings are superb, and they have had a great impact on the painting world at that time and later generations. Wu Changshuo, a master of painting, once commented on Pu Hua: The bamboo in his pen is dripping with ink, and the bamboo leaves are like palms, Xiao Xiao is sassy, and it seems that he can hear the sound of the wind blowing through the bamboo forest. Xie Zhiliu once pointed out that Pu Hua's bamboo painting is quite exquisite, and even Wu Changshuo's ink bamboo has inherited the essence of his technique. Although Pu Hua's life is hard, he is like the bamboo in his pen, unyielding, indifferent to fame and fortune, and has no quarrel with the world. He is not afraid of hardships and carries forward the traditional calligraphy and painting skills, so he is a respectable master of calligraphy and painting.