Zhan Jingfeng's "Thousand Character Classic"

Author: Lin Tao (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Zhan Jingfeng's artistic creation places high emphasis on calligraphy, with cursive script being his most outstanding achievement. During the late Ming Dynasty, Zhu Mou, while compiling Shishihuiyao Xubian (Supplement to the Collection of Calligraphy Histories), remarked: "Zhan Jingfeng has profound knowledge of calligraphy and extraordinary brushwork, like a noble in ceremonial attire, dignified and respectable. His cursive script is as if aided by the divine, with endless variations yet never deviating from ancient methods. Critics argue it rivals Zhu Jingzhao (Yunming) in dominating the contemporary calligraphy scene." Such praise clearly placed him as a representative figure of Ming Dynasty cursive script. Among Zhan Jingfeng's surviving cursive script works, the Thousand Characters is particularly renowned, with published editions circulating as early as the Ming Dynasty. According to Ancient Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy Catalogue, compiled by the Group for the Authentication of Ancient Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy and published by the Cultural Relics Publishing House, three extant scrolls of Zhan Jingfeng's cursive script Thousand Characters are recorded: one written in the sixth month of the Bingshen year (1596), now preserved in the She County Museum of Anhui Province; another written in the Dingyou year (1597), now in the Guangdong Provincial Museum; and the third, introduced in this book. Additionally, a surviving cursive script scroll titled After Huai Su (Zhan Jingfeng's rendition of Huai Su's style) from the Jihai year (1599) is preserved in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum.
Zhan Jingfeng (1532–1602), styled Dongtu, was also known as Baiye Mountain Man and Dalong Palace Guest, among other titles. He was from Liutang Village in She County, Anhui Province. The Zhan family had long been enthusiasts of antiquities, amassing a rich collection of paintings and antiques. Zhan Jingfeng began imitating his cousin Zhan Jingyi's paintings at the age of four, developing a lifelong passion for calligraphy and painting. In 1567, he passed the provincial examination but failed the imperial examinations in subsequent years. His official career began with the position of Nanfeng Education Supervisor in Jiangxi, followed by the appointment as Macheng Education Supervisor in Hubei in 1582, promotion to Confucius Monitor in the Nanjing Academy of the Hanlin Institution in 1588, elevation to a clerk in the Ministry of Personnel in Nanjing, and later exile as a professor in Baoning, Sichuan, in 1595. He was then promoted to Tongpan of Pingle Prefecture in Guangxi in 1598.
According to the Liang Shu·Zhou Xingsi Biography, Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty ordered Zhou Xingsi to "compose a poem in parallel rhyme to Wang Xizhi's Thousand Characters" to create the text. Later, as recorded in Shufa Yaolu·Wu Pingyi's Xu Family's Record of Calligraphy, after Zhou Xingsi completed his work, Emperor Wu ordered Yin Tieshi to "copy Wang Xizhi's style." From then on, the Thousand Characters became a model for later generations to study Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. Especially after the seventh-generation descendant of Wang Xizhi, the monk Zhiyong of Yongxin Temple, copied over 800 excellent versions of Wang Xizhi's Zhencao Thousand Characters and distributed one to each temple in Zhedong, writing the Thousand Characters seemed to become a "touchstone" for testing calligraphers' techniques.