Liu Yian-tao (1908-1998) — professional name Mu Huang (literally “admire Huang”) due to the high regard in which he held Huang Xian of the Later Han Dynasty — was born to a literary family in Gong County in China's Henan Province on July 25, 1908. The artist's long career began at age five, when he started school after showing great potential from an early age. A gift of the painting manual Jieziyuan Huapu (“Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden”) from his teacher, Zhang Chun-lin, would prove to be a lifechanging introduction to the world of painting.

In 1921, Liu matriculated at Kaifeng Second Junior High School, where the art teacher Wei Fuqian taught him pencil and charcoal drawing and introduced him to Western technique and theory. Four years later he entered the Chinese Department at Peking University, where he accumulated a deep grounding in the study of Chinese culture and civilization under the celebrated academics Hu Shi, Qian Mu, Qian Xuantong and Gu Jiegang, but it wasn't until he entered the Plastic Arts Institute the following year that his future career would begin to take shape under the personal tutelage of Hu Peiheng. During the China/Japan Fine Arts Expo in 1928, Liu sold one of his traditional Chinese ink paintings for four silver dollars to a Japanese private collector, boosting the young artist's confidence.

On Hu Peiheng's recommendation, Liu in 1932 joined the Palace Museum in Beijing. His two years at the institution would serve to expand immeasurably Liu's understanding of Chinese art, as his task of compiling a collection of the museum's paintings and calligraphy put him in close contact with masters of the craft. In 1934, scholar and calligrapher Yu Youren after reading Liu's Peking University graduate paper Xiangshengyu zhi Yanjiu (“A Study on Pictographs”) was extremely impressed and asked Liu to work beside him at the Control Yuan as his private secretary. Here, he was bestowed the important task of compiling Biaozhun Caoshu (“Standard Cursive Script”).

After relocating to Taiwan, Liu formed the Seven Friends Painting Association (Qiyou Huahui) with a group of friends, including Zheng Manqing. The group was the first in Taiwan to hold organized, consultative art gatherings, bringing a new dynamic and humanistic quality to the local arts environment of the time. Taking inspiration from the Biaozhun Caoshu, Liu in 1956 wrote the Caoshu Tonglun (“General Theory of Cursive Script”), the first specialized history focused on the script. Between 1962 and 1963, Liu and friends founded the Chinese Painting Society, the Chinese Calligraphy Society and the Standard Cursive Script Institute, all of which played a pivotal role in the local painting and calligraphy scene. Liu himself was awarded the first gold award from the Chinese Painting Society. In 1964, following the death of Yu Youren, Liu welcomed the honor of writing his biography and continued work on the Biaozhun Caoshu, completing the 10th edition in 1967. He retired from the Control Yuan in 1989.

Liu Yian-tao is known for his artistry in poetry, painting and calligraphy that erases delineations between them, showing “painting in his poetry, poetry in his painting and [the spirit of] poetry in his calligraphy.”

In painting, Liu specialized in landscapes, the “four gentlemen” (plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum) and figurative paintings of ethnic minorities, displaying heavy influence from the “four monks of the early Qing Dynasty” Zhu Da (Bada Shanren), Shi Tao, Kun Can and Hong Ren — especially Bada Shanren and Shi Tao — as well as literati painting of the Song and Yuan dynasties. Liu's mastery over brushwork combined with a dynamic literati style imbues his landscapes in particular with emotion and subtle nuance. Liu's calligraphic style was influenced by masterpieces from the Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty stone stelae, as well as later works from the Jin and Tang dynasties. Yu Youren later became a major influence, inspiring Liu's move from stone stele inscription rubbings to standard cursive script that shaped his characteristically clear and elegant style.

The poetry in his paintings was mostly inspired by his own musings about the painting, blending abstract ideas with pictorial representation and expressing his personal ideas and character. In this, he was often compared with Chang Dai-chien and Zheng Manqing, who together were known as the Huatan Sanran, or “three beards of painting.”