Shaky Zhang, Drunken Su

Author: Wang Nanming
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Now, we can see the characteristics of Zhang Xu's unbridled cursive script in almost everything we look at. Unlike other cursive script calligraphers who started with slightly more rigorous or small-scale scripts, Zhang Xu's Four Ancient Poems begins with unbridled cursive script. The first ten characters, "Dongming's nine zhizhi covers, northern candlelight's five cloud car," are written in a continuous flow of movement, with almost every character connected, turning the two lines into a single stroke. At the end of the character "car," the brush pauses slightly with a dry tip, and even when starting a new stroke, it seems to maintain the continuous movement between characters. In the unbridled cursive script of Xie Lingyun's Compliment to Wang Zijin, the brush moves both vertically and horizontally, leaving traces of ink movement in each character as it shifts from line to line. Thus, in this Four Ancient Poems, we can see numerous instances of cursive script where multiple lines are written as a single stroke. However, Zhang Xu uses key pauses in his key strokes in each line to suggest the boundaries of the characters, allowing us to see both the movement of lines and the writing of characters. As long as we understand the rules of cursive script, even Zhang Xu's most unbridled cursive script remains legible, revealing its original form. Or, even if we don't recognize the original form, it is certain that Zhang Xu had a textual basis when writing—this is determined by the reading function of traditional calligraphy.
Of course, another feature of Zhang Xu's unbridled cursive script is his thick and strong brushwork, unlike Huai Su's thin and hard brushwork. This is why we see continuous variations in the lines of Zhang Xu's unbridled cursive script, differing from Huai Su's rapid line movements. In Zhang Xu's thick and strong lines, the brushwork is fully spread during each turn, creating a contrast with the thin, connected lines. This contrast also reinforces the "wild" style of Zhang Xu's unbridled cursive script. In the later part of Four Ancient Poems, the lines are thick and thin, swirling and turning, just like the lines in the final section: "One old man and four young ones, immortals hidden, indistinguishable; their writing is not of this world, their people must be wise." Zhang Xu's unbridled cursive script, like the entire Four Ancient Poems, is full of dynamic brushwork and open brush tips, just as Huang Shangyu said, "Thin and hard brushwork is easy to do, but thick and strong brushwork is rare." Subsequent unbridled cursive scripts mostly followed the thin and hard brushwork style. Huai Su, a calligrapher of unbridled cursive script, exemplified this in his Self-Description Scroll.
Like Zhang Xu's Four Ancient Poems, Huai Su's Self-Description Scroll is also one of his masterpieces. Compared to other works such as Bitter Bamboo, Feasting on Fish, On Calligraphy, The Virgin Mary, and Lu Gong, Self-Description Scroll is a crucial part of studying Huai Su's calligraphy. Self-Description Scroll is an ink rubbing, measuring 28.3 cm in height and 755 cm in width, with 126 lines and 698 characters, written in the 12th year of the Dali era (777). According to later annotations, there are three known versions of Huai Su's Self-Description Scroll: one in Su Zimei's collection in Wugong, one in Shu, and one in Feng Dangji's collection. This scroll was originally in Su's possession. The first six lines of this scroll are damaged and were later supplemented by Su Shunqin in the Song Dynasty. At the end of the scroll, there are inscriptions and restorations from Shao Zhou and Wang (whose name is missing) in the fourth year of the Shengyuan era of Southern Tang (940), as well as inscriptions from Su Qizhi and Li Jianzhong in the Song Dynasty. The scroll is stamped with...