his poetry followed the style of li bai and his calligraphy that of wang xizhi. he became a civil servant to mixed success. he was firstly a book editor in the emperors library before undertaking a number of posts in henan province. he was given the post of professor of painting and calligraphy in 1103 at the palace to select which painting and calligraphy is good enough to belong to the emperor. he became secretary to the board of rites before he was appointed governor of huaiyang in jiangsu province. he had five sons and eight daughters. he died in 1107. his son, mi youren, would also be a famous painter in his father's artistic style.