Selection of Ink Traces of Calligraphers--Song Huang Tingjian Calligraphy (.Fa Yuan Wen)

Author: (Song) Huang Tingjian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Huang Tingjian, styled Luzhi, styled Shanshan Taoist, styled Fuweng in his later years, and Qianjiajushi, and Baigu Laoren. He was a poet and calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, originally from Xiushui County. His father, Huang Shu (styled Yafu), passed the imperial examination in the second year of the Qingli era (1042) but failed to achieve official success. He devoted himself to literature and poetry, learning from Du Fu and leaving behind the "Futan Collection." His uncle, Li Chang (styled Gongze), was also a poet and a book collector. This allowed Huang Tingjian to grow up in a literary environment filled with scholarly traditions. From a young age, Huang Tingjian was exceptionally intelligent. At the age of five, he could recite the Five Classics, and at seven, he wrote a poem titled "Pasture Boy":
"Riding a cow, I go far past the village,
Blowing the flute, the wind carries it across the shore.
How many in Chang'an seek fame and fortune,
They exhaust all their schemes, yet cannot match you."
Huang Shu was very fond of this child. Sometimes, his uncle would visit the Huang family, pick a book from the shelf, and ask Huang Tingjian about it. He could answer fluently. Li Chang was amazed and called him "someone who achieves a thousand miles in a day."