Unfolding the Simple Cursive Script Self-Portrait Scroll by Xie Hua

Author: Shanghai Shuhua Publishing House
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-01
Features: If "Tang people valued method" is primarily reflected in the strict rules, refined brushwork, and dignified, well-proportioned calligraphy, then on the opposite side of this rational world, the unrestrained, unrestrained, and unrestrained cursive script takes people into a romantic and emotional world. Among them, Zhang Xu and Huai Su are the most representative figures. Their almost maniacal creative passion completely transcends the rules. When they are inspired and move freely, they reach a state of "transcending desires." When they are drunk and exhilarated, they gallop on paper and walls in a "great drunkenness," creating a vividly lyrical realm. However, it is astonishing that Tang people's cursive script still did not deviate from the rules, achieving a perfect unity of emotion and reason, law and meaning. Huai Su's "Autobiographical Scroll" is a representative work of this kind.
Huai Su, styled Zangzhen, was of the secular surname Qian and originally from Changsha, Hunan. His birth and death years are unknown, but according to the postscript in the "Small Grass Thousand Characters" manuscript, which reads "Sixty-three years old in the sixteenth year of the Zhenyuan era," he was likely born in the twenty-fifth year of the Kaixuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (737) and lived to be around sixty-three, making his death year likely the sixteenth year of the Zhenyuan era. Huai Su was the nephew of the famous Tang Dynasty poet Qian Qi. From a young age, he entered the Buddhist monastery and, while serving the Buddha, developed a strong interest in calligraphy. Due to poverty, he had no money to buy paper, so he planted over ten thousand banana trees in his home to practice writing. He also used lacquered plates to practice calligraphy until the plates were worn through, and he threw away his brushes, becoming a "mad monk." His nature was unrestrained and unbound by minor details. When drunk and inspired, he would write on temple walls, inner walls, clothing, and utensils, earning the nickname "Mad Monk" from his contemporaries. In the twelfth year of the Dali era (777), he met Yan Zhenqing in Luoyang, who also wrote the preface "Preface to the Calligraphy of Master Huai Su." After entering Chang'an, he made friends with officials and scholars through calligraphy, receiving high praise and poems from thirty-nine famous scholars, thus gaining fame for his cursive script.
It is said that Huai Su learned calligraphy from his cousin Wu Tong, who, like Yan Zhenqing, studied Zhang Xu's style. From his style, he was also influenced by Zhang Zhi and the Two Wangs. The "Autobiographical Scroll" was written in the twelfth year of the Dali era (777), when Huai Su was forty-one and at the peak of his youth. The content of the scroll narrates his calligraphy journey and the comments and poems praising him by various famous scholars of the time. This scroll contains 126 lines, with varying numbers of characters per line, totaling 695 characters. The entire scroll flows dynamically, executed in one breath, full of changes, unrestrained, and embodying the momentum of "snaking and flying, as if the wind and rain fill the hall." This work fully demonstrates this style.
The scroll was initially collected by the Li family of the Southern Tang, later acquired by Su Yijian and Su Shuqin in the Northern Song Dynasty, passed to Lü Bianlao in the Southern Song Dynasty, and then to Xu Wenjing, Wu Wenfu, Lu Shen, Yan Fenyi, and Xiang Yuanbian in the Ming Dynasty. It is now held by the Taipei Palace Museum. This scroll is a representative work of Huai Su's prime, with its strong rhythm, marvelous changes, unrestrained brushwork, and unrestrained madness, yet it contains the author's profound craftsmanship. As Mi Fu said in "Sehai Shuping," "Huai Su is like a strong man drawing a sword, his spirit captivating, yet his movements are precise and in rhythm." Shen Shi also said, "The reason Huai Su's calligraphy is so wonderful is that, though spontaneous and unrestrained, it undergoes a thousand changes, yet it never deviates from the rules of the Wei and Jin dynasties." This method of using the principles of the ancients to write one's own temperament, gaining creative freedom within the objective laws of art, is very worthy of reflection.
Other works by Huai Su include the "Small Grass Thousand Characters," "On Calligraphy Scroll," "Madonna Scroll," "Zangzhen Luguang Scroll," "Bitter Bamboo Scroll," and "Feeding Fish Scroll." Now, the original "Autobiographical Scroll" is published and made available to calligraphy enthusiasts at home and abroad for appreciation and copying, which is undoubtedly beneficial.