(b Jiaozhou (modern Jiao xian), Shandong Province, 1613; d 1696). Chinese painter and government official. Fa was active mostly in Anhui Province and is often loosely associated with the ANHUI SCHOOL of the early Qing period (1644–1911), but he is best grouped with the eccentrics or individualists of the period rather than with the more conservative traditions of the ORTHODOX SCHOOL. The 19th-century text Tongyin lun hua (‘Discourses on painting in the shade of the paulownia tree’), referring to his highly original painting style, noted that Fa ‘followed a path of his own’. Nevertheless he is seldom ranked among the foremost painters of the period, his output and influence being limited.