Wu Tao-yuan (courteously styled Wu Tao-tzu), born in Yangti, Honan, studied calligraphy as a boy with Ho Chih-chang and Chang Hsu but, having achieved little success, turned instead to painting, which he mastered before the age of twenty--painting being a form of art in which talent and temperament count for more than perseverance and practice.
吳道元，字道子，河南陽翟人，少時隨賀知章、張旭學書法，卻沒什麼成就，於是改習繪畫，未及二十歲，即已深得畫道三昧。