Kong Suying

• Kong Suying (courtesy name Yutian) was a native of Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province. Her father was Kong Yukai, a licentiate scholar, and her husband was Jin Shangjian (also recorded as Jin Shangdong), who served as a county magistrate. She excelled in landscape, figure, and bird-and-flower painting, creating works noted for their charm and vitality. Upon completing a painting, she would often inscribe her own poetry in her own hand. Because of her accomplishments in painting, poetry, and calligraphy, she was celebrated in her time as possessing the “Three Perfections of the Inner Chamber” (gui zhong san jue).