南宋画家。僧，号牧溪，蜀（今四川）人，生卒年不详，其艺术活动主要约在13世纪60－80年代之际。 [1]  薜居下（乾德初兵部侍郎）之后，宣和间在长沙出家，南宋理宗、度宗时为临安（今杭州）长庆寺僧，与日僧圆尔辨圆（1202—1280）同为径山无准禅师（1178—1249）之法嗣。性英爽，嗜酒。正义爱国，敢于语伤奸相贾似道，遭追捕后，避祸于绍兴丘氏家。至元朝，在天台山万年寺圆寂。法常既是位佛教阐扬者，又是位天才画家。工山水、佛像、人物、龙虎、猿鹤、禽鸟、树石、芦雁等，皆能随笔写成，极有生决心书，墨法蕴藉，幽淡含蓄，形简神完，回味无穷。他继承发扬了石恪、梁楷之水墨简笔法，对沈周、徐渭、八大、“扬州八怪”等均有影响。虽在生时受冷遇，却开后世文士禅僧墨戏之先河，并对日本水墨画之发展产生巨大影响，被誉为“日本画道之大恩人”。

 法常也有人称他多用蔗渣、草结蘸水墨，随意点染，意思简当，不费妆缀。但元代也有人认为他的画粗恶无古法，诚非雅现。其画于秀逸清冷中透出禅意，部分作品流传到日本，对日本绘画影响很大 。传世作品有《观音、猿、鹤》三联幅，《龙、虎》对幅，现均藏日本京都大德寺；《潇湘八景》中四景图系日本足利义满（1358—1408）旧藏；《写生蔬果图》卷藏故宫博物院；《花果翎毛图》卷藏台北故宫博物院。

 宋代僧人画家法常的生平行状，在历代著录文献中有多种说法，尤其是他的俗姓、里籍、禀性、事迹、生卒年岁等，更是众说纷纭。

元庄肃《画继补遗》云：“僧法常，自号牧溪。善作龙虎、人物、芦雁、杂画，枯淡山野，诚非雅玩，仅可供僧房道舍，以助清幽耳”。

元吴太素《松斋梅谱》云：“僧法常，蜀人，号牧溪。喜画龙虎、猿、鹤、禽鸟、山水、树石、人物，不曾设色，多用蔗查□结，又皆随笔点墨而成，意思简当，不费妆缀。松竹梅兰，不具形似，荷芦写（此处疑有脱漏）俱有高致。一日造语伤贾似道，广捕而避罪于越丘家，所作甚多。惟三□帐为之绝品。后世变事释，圆寂于至元（1270—1294年）间。江南士大夫处今存遗迹，竹差少，芦雁亦多赝本，今存遗像在武林长相寺中。“元夏文彦《图绘宝鉴》云：“僧法常，号牧溪，喜画龙虎、猿鹤、芦雁、山水、树石、人物，皆随笔点墨而成，意思简当，不费装饰。但粗恶无古法，诚非雅玩”。

从晚清到近代，包括日本人编写的中国绘画史传中，都在法常名下增添了不少材料。

清彭蕴灿《历代画史汇传》卷六“释氏门”法常名下加入了：“性英爽，酷嗜酒，寒暑风雨常醉，醉即熟，觉即朗吟。”

近人孙濌公《中国画家人名大辞典》云：“法常僧，开封人，俗姓薛氏，号牧溪。天台山万年寺僧。……”

日本近人金原省吾《支那绘画史》则说法常：“俗姓李氏，长庆寺僧，五十岁后闲居寺门外。理宗嘉熙三年（1269年）卒，年六十三岁。”金原省吾又以为法常是一个役僧（执役做工的僧人）。他的师父名无准禅师，无准还有一个日本徒弟叫圣一的（日本称之为国师），在理宗淳祐元年（1241年）还国。现存日本的牧溪画，可能是圣一带去的。

 近年来，徐邦达先生、宗典先生都曾对法常生平传记作过考订。如徐先生认为《历代画史汇传》中关于法常的事迹，系据陶谷《清异录》，陶为五代宋初人，哪能为活动于宋末元初的画僧法常作传？即使根据宋陈振孙《直斋书录解题》、清《四库提要》中所说的此书是晚宋人编辑而假托之陶氏之名以传的，似乎也还来不及为法常作传。且《清异录》所载法常为“河阳（今河南开封一带）人”，与画僧法常显然是异代同名人。《中国画家大辞典》称法常为“开封人，俗姓薛氏”，“天台山万年寺僧”，可能系据近人陈垣所辑《释氏疑年录》所载嘉兴报恩（寺）法常，亦与画僧法常无关。徐先生还认为金原省吾《支那绘画史》所载法常据云“卒于理宗嘉熙二年（1238）”，比现在收藏在日本的法常《虎》轴自识“咸淳己巳（五年，1269）牧溪”要早得多。又以上俗家姓薛、姓李的法常，都没有提到牧溪之号。所以《历代画史汇传》、《中国画家人名大辞典》、《支那绘画史》三书中所涉及的僧法常，其中事迹除引自《图绘宝鉴》的文句可用外，其他部分都应排除掉，才不至于把好几个同名的僧人的传记合之为一了。徐建融先生最近在《法常禅画艺术》一书中，根据中国文献记载中的法常和日本研究中的法常资料进行排比、梳理和考订，给法常牧溪立传：僧法常，号牧溪，俗姓李，蜀人。生于南宋宁宗开禧三年（1207年），年轻时曾中举人。

兼擅绘事，受同乡前辈文人画家文同的影响。绍定四年（1231年）蒙古军由陕西破蜀北，四川震动，他随难民由长江到杭州，并与马臻等世家弟子相交游。后因不满朝廷政治的腐败而出家为僧，从师径山寺住持无准师范佛鉴禅师。在这期间，法常受禅林艺风的薰陶而作《禅机散圣图》，曾得到殷济川的指授。端平二年（1235年），日僧圣一来华从无准学习佛法，与法常为同门师弟兄。淳祐元年（1241年）圣一归国时，法常以《观音》、《松猿》、《竹鹤》三轴赠别（此三轴现还完好地保存在日本京都大德寺内），在日本画坛赢得极高评价。由于日本方面的努力，加上国内对法常绘画的贬斥，因此，法常的作品大都流到日本。宝祐四年（1256年）五十岁以后，法常住持西湖边的六通寺，目睹权臣误国、世事日非，

于咸淳五年（1269年）挺身而出，斥责贾似道。事后遭到追捕，隐姓埋名于“越丘氏家”；而禅林艺坛，从此传遍了他的死讯。直到德祐元年（1275年）贾似道败绩，法常才重新露面，这时已是将近七十岁的高龄了。至元二十八年（1291年），法常与世长辞，享寿八十五岁，遗像在杭州长相寺中。

法常死后，日本禅僧还纷纷慕名而来，瞻仰他的法像，传承他的画艺。其中最有名的便是默庵灵渊和可翁。传到日本的法常画迹，有相当一部分赝品可能出于默庵和可翁之手。

看来，唐宋时名为法常的僧人有过多人，历代画史著录常把他们与画僧法常相混淆，今之学者作了大量考订、梳理，企望正本清源，苦于资料匮乏，尚难说对于法常生平之谜就已全部揭开吧！

 Southern Song painter. Monks, named Muxi, are from Shu (now Sichuan), whose birth and death years are unknown. Their artistic activities were mainly from the 1960s to the 1980s. [1] Xuanhe became a monk in Changsha after Xuejuxia (the waiter of the Army Department in the early days of Qian De). In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lizong and Duzong were monks of Changqing Temple in Linan (now Hangzhou). They were the same Buddhist monks as Yuanyuan (1202-1280) in Jingshan (1178-1249). Bright sex, alcohol addiction. Justice and patriotism, dare to speak like Jia, after being chased, avoid disaster in Shaoxing Qiu family. To the Yuan Dynasty, the Wannian Temple in Tiantai Mountain was quiet. Dharma Chang is not only a Buddhist exponent, but also a gifted painter. Gongshan, Buddha statues, figures, dragons and tigers, apes and cranes, birds, trees and rocks, geese and so on, can be written in essays. They are full of life determination, rich in ink, subtle and implicit, simple in form and spiritual in spirit, with endless aftertaste. He inherited and developed the ink-and-wash techniques of Shi Ke and Liang Kai, which had an impact on Shen Zhou, Xu Wei, the Eighth National Congress and the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. Despite the cold reception in his life, he was the first scholar Zen monk ink play of later generations, and had a great impact on the development of Japanese ink painting, known as "the great benefactor of Japanese painting Tao".The parallelism of Buddhist monk painter Fa Chang in Song Dynasty has been widely discussed in the bibliographic literature of past dynasties, especially in his surname, native place, nature, deeds, age of birth and death, etc.Yuanzhuang Su's "Painting Following and Supplementing Remains" says, "Monk Fachang, self-titled Muxi. Good at dragons and tigers, figures, geese, miscellaneous paintings, dry hills, really not elegant play, only for monks'houses, to help quiet ears.In Taisu's Song Zhai Mei Pu, Yuan Wu said, "Monk Fachang, Shu people, named Muxi. He likes to paint dragons and tigers, apes, cranes, birds, landscapes, trees and rocks, and figures. He never sets colors, uses sugarcane to check knots, and he also dots ink with his pen. The meaning is simple and does not need decoration. Pine, bamboo, plum and orchid, not similar in shape, and the lotus (suspected to be missing here) are all elegant. One-day words hurt Jia like Tao, arresting widely and avoiding guilt in Yueqiu family, doing a lot. The third is that accounts are the best. Later generations interpreted the events, but it was still in the Yuan Dynasty (1270-1294). Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrats have few bamboo remains and many geese are counterfeit. The present remains are in Changxiang Temple in Wulin. "Yuan Xia Wenyan's"Picture and Painting Baojian"says,"Monks and monks, named Muxi, like to paint dragons and tigers, apes and cranes, geese, mountains and rivers, trees and rocks, all with ink, meaning simple, without decoration. But there is no ancient way of cruelty, it is not elegant play.From the late Qing Dynasty to modern times, including the historical biography of Chinese painting compiled by the Japanese, many materials have been added under the name of Fachang.Qing Peng Yuncan's "History of Paintings Collection" Volume 6 "Shi Shimen" was added under the regular name: "Happy sex, keen on wine, often drunk in the cold and summer, drunk and ripe, feel and chant."Sun Xiaogong's Dictionary of the Names of Chinese Painters recently said: "Fachang monks, Kaifeng people, commonly known as Xue's family name, named Muxi. Ten Thousand Years Monk in Tiantai Mountain.Kimhara Go, a Japanese near man, said "the history of China painting". Li Zongjiaxi died in 1269, aged 63. In Jinyuan Province, I also think that Dharma is often a monk in service. His master's name may not be Zen Master, there may be a Japanese disciple named Saint-ichi (Japan called the national master), in the first year of Rizong Chunyou (1241) returned to the country. Existing Japanese Muxi paintings may have been taken from the Sacred Territory.