Selections from Song Dynasty Ink Trails (I)

Author: Xu Xuan et al. (compilers)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: This collection includes works of Xu Xuan's running script, Li Jianzhong's running script, Lin Bu's running script, Du Yan's cursive script, and Fan Zhongyan's running script. Xu Xuan, styled Dingchen, was from Guangling, Yangzhou. At the age of ten, he was already proficient in writing. He served under Li Xian and his son in the Southern Tang. Accompanying Li Yu to present himself to Emperor Taizu, he was appointed as the Shuanggeng Ling (Director of the Imperial Secretariat). In the early years of the Taiping Era, he became a direct scholar of the Imperial Academy and served as a secretary in the military campaign against Taiyuan. He composed edicts without hesitation. Later, he was promoted to the position of Left. Born in the second year of the Zhenming era (reign of the last emperor of the Liang Dynasty, 916 AD), he died in the second year of the Chunhua era (reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, 991 AD), at the age of seventy-six. Xu Xuan was highly skilled in calligraphy. After Li Yangbing, the art of seal script had long been lost, but Xu Xuan, amidst chaos and turmoil, managed to preserve its techniques. He was also skilled in clerical script and seal script, alongside his brother Xu Kai. The brothers were renowned in Jiangnan for their literary and calligraphic talents and were collectively known as the "Two Xu." They were summoned by imperial decree to work alongside Qu Zhongzheng, Ge Duowang, and Wei Gong in the compilation of the Shuowen Jiezi.