Zheng Daozhao Calligraphy Collection

Author: Li Songchen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-11-01
Features: Zheng Daozhao (c. 468–516), styled Xibo, self-styled as the Master of Central Yue, was a native of Kaifeng, Xingyang, Northern Wei. He was a renowned calligrapher, the pioneer of Wei Stele style, and served as the Governor of Guangzhou (now Laizhou City in Han Dynasty times). From a young age, he was fond of learning and extensively read books. During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei, he began his official career, holding positions such as Secretary, Secretary, Vice Director of the Central Secretariat, Director of the Central Secretariat, Gentleman of the Chancellery, Director of the Imperial Academy, Director of the Secretariat, and the Local Justice of Xingyang. In the Yongping era, he served as the Governor of Guangzhou and Military Commissioner of the East. During his tenure, he was lenient in governance, avoiding excessive cruelty, taking education and nurturing talent as his duty, and was highly revered by the people. With a nature of leisure and freedom, he enjoyed traveling in mountains and waters, composing poems and odes, and excelled in calligraphy. He left numerous inscriptions across Guangzhou, including 20 at Yunfeng Mountain in the south, 15 at Dajishi Mountain in the east, and 8 at Tianzhu Mountain (now part of Pingdu). During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties period, Chinese characters were in the stage of transition from clerical script to regular script. Zheng Daozhao integrated the strengths of various schools and deliberately innovated, with bold and vigorous strokes, strict yet expansive structures, skillful and natural brushwork, and a heroic and majestic artistic conception, preserving the essence of clerical script while creating a new calligraphic style. His representative works, the "Upper Stele of Zheng Wengong" and the "Lower Stele of Zheng Wengong," inscribed to praise the talent and virtue of his father, are celebrated as the "pinnacle of clerical and regular script." The Qing Dynasty's Bao Shichen praised them in Yi Zhou Shuang Ji as "rare treasures of literature," while Kang Youwei described them as "sublime in form and free in spirit, dense yet logical, like a person shouting to the trees or a traveler drifting across the sea, leaving endless imagination." Zhu Jia ranked Zheng Daozhao alongside Wang Xizhi, calling him the "Northern Sage of Calligraphy," while Hai Eru praised him as the "Literary Master of the Generation." Zheng Daozhao was fond of self-cultivation and practicing qigong, establishing virtual places for energy cultivation such as "Qingyan Temple," "Baiyun Hall," "Zhuotai Platform," "Xuanling Palace," and "Zhongming Altar" on Dajishi Mountain in the years 512 (Yanchang era), carving inscriptions to mark them, and composing a poem titled Poem on Establishing the Immortal Altar to inscribe on the wall. Later, he was transferred to serve as the Governor of Qingzhou and Military Commissioner of the East, then as the Director of the Secretariat and Military Commissioner of the South. He passed away in the Xuping era (516) and was posthumously granted the title of Zhenbei General and the post of Xiangzhou Governor, with the posthumous name Wengong. This book selects and compiles inscriptions such as Zheng Daozhao's "Inscriptions on Pan'an Mountain," "Lower Stele of Zheng Wengong," "Inscriptions on Zhongming Altar," "Inscriptions on Yunfeng Mountain," and "Inscriptions on Stone Chamber."