Yan Zhenqing's "Record of the Immortal Ma Gu's Altar" - Copying and Calligraphy

Author: Huang Zhongda
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-06-01
Features: The full title of The Record of Ma Gu's Immortal Platform is The Record of Ma Gu's Immortal Platform on Ma Gu Mountain in Nancheng County, Fuzhou, Tang Dynasty. It was established in April of the 6th year of the Dali era (771 AD), with the text composed and calligraphy by Yan Zhenqing, who was 63 years old at the time. This stele has very few extant rubbings. Its calligraphy is bold and expansive, with immense power. Among Yan's (regular script) works, The Record of Ma Gu's Immortal Platform is considered the most outstanding and renowned. Song Dynasty scholar Ouyang Xiu praised it thus: "This record is vigorous, tight-knit, and particularly sharp and concise. Every stroke, whether thick or thin, follows the rules of calligraphy. The more one looks, the better it becomes, and then one realizes that only Lu Gong could have written it."
Yan Zhenqing (709-785), styled Qingchen, was from Linyi, Langya, Shandong. He served as the Governor of Pingyuan and was known as "Yan Pingyuan." Later, he became the Minister of Personnel and was enfeoffed as the Duke of Luxun, hence also known as "Yan Luxong." Yan Zhenqing was a man of righteousness, heroism, and magnanimity. Throughout his life, he pursued excellence both in politics and art. In calligraphy, he initially studied under Chu Suiliang and Ouyang Xun, absorbing the brushwork and forms of seal and clerical scripts, while also paying attention to the folk calligraphy styles of his time, which inspired him to break away from the refined calligraphic style of the early Tang Dynasty that followed Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, establishing his own style—Yan Style—and becoming a major calligrapher in Chinese calligraphy history who founded a new school, exerting a profound influence on later generations.
In addition to The Record of Ma Gu's Immortal Platform, other extant (regular script) works by Yan Zhenqing include The Stele of the Treasure Pagoda, The Stele of Yan Qinli, The Stele of the Yan Family Ancestral Temple, and Autobiographical Edict.
The overall temperament of The Record of Ma Gu's Immortal Platform is simple yet powerful, expansive yet majestic, with a spirit of loyalty and righteousness permeating the calligraphy. It is plump but not bulky, dense yet spacious, balanced in all directions, and stable as an elephant—characteristics of Yan's calligraphy. It belongs to the heavy and majestic style in calligraphy, and this piece is among the finest. When practicing, one may refer to the following points:
1. Use the wai tuo (external expansion) method of brushwork.
2. The brush strokes should face each other, tight externally but loose internally.
3. Plump but not bulky, dense yet spacious.