Xiangzhou Tai was born in 1968 in Yinchuan, Ningxia Province, China. Raised in a scholarly family, he began training in Chinese calligraphy at the age of four. After studying interactive design in Auckland, New Zealand, Tai pursued successful careers in digital media and conservation, and founded the cultural magazine Chinese Heritage.

In 2003, Tai’s encounter with the painter Liu Dan encouraged him to further explore the techniques of traditional Song and Yuan dynasty painting. By 2006, he had devoted himself to ink painting and began investigating Chinese landscape painting from the perspective of astrology. Under the mentorship of philosopher Bao Lin, Tai completed his PhD at Tsinghua University in 2012 with a dissertation entitle...