YU RONGREN'S AUTOGRAPH OF THE Heart Sutra - Volume 1

Author: Yu Youren's Legacy Heart Sutra Editorial Committee
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Yu Youren, originally named Boxun, went by the name Youren, styled Saoxin, and also known as Rangweng. In his later years, he was called Taiping Laoren. He was born in Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province, in 1878. In his early years, he followed the great democratic revolutionary pioneer Sun Yat-sen and devoted himself to the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty. Mr. Yu was not only a pioneer of the democratic revolution but also a renowned patriotic poet and an outstanding calligrapher since the late Qing Dynasty. He was an early poet of the Nan She Society. His poetry, ci, and qu were all highly accomplished, and he wrote many poems that expressed his sentiments on the rise and fall of the nation. What is particularly admired by the world and considered his highest achievement is his calligraphic art.
In his early years, Yu's calligraphy was influenced by Zhao Mengfu, but later he switched to studying Northern Stele script. He meticulously researched the steles of the Six Dynasties, and on this foundation, he incorporated the methods of seal script, clerical script, and cursive script into running script, forging a unique style. In middle age, he underwent a transformation in his calligraphy, focusing on cursive script and incorporating the brushwork of Wei Stele script, ultimately forming his own distinctive style. Since the Opium War, the Qing court had become corrupt, and the nation's strength had gradually declined, with the Chinese nation suffering invasions by foreign powers. He favored Wei Stele script because it embodied the spirit of "martial virtue" and had a rough, unrestrained, and bold aura. With a sense of national concern, he hoped to awaken the consciousness of the Chinese nation. This is reflected in one of his poems: "Morning I face the Stone Gate Inscription, evening I write the Twenty Items. Through hard effort, I compile them into couplets—night after night, tears soak my pillow." Otherwise, if he had merely practiced calligraphy, there would be no need for "night after night, tears soak my pillow." He once said, "Those with ambition should take it upon themselves to benefit humanity. Poetry, prose, and calligraphy are merely secondary pursuits. Yet even secondary pursuits must stand out on their own. To study the ancients is not to be limited by them." He lived up to this principle, selectively drawing from a wide range of sources while adhering to his own aesthetic standards, forming his own running script style that stood "outstandingly independent" in the history of calligraphy for millennia.
Yu's calligraphy was bold, majestic, and elegant, yet also restrained, refined, and unique. In his later years, his cursive script reached a transcendent realm, with each character extraordinary and unrepeatable. In his hands, cursive script blended the styles of clerical script, modern cursive script, and, sometimes appearing steady and elongated, at other times assuming perilous yet balanced poses, sometimes tightly connected to the theme, and at times unrestrained yet harmonious in its loops and echoes. His calligraphy was grand, extraordinary, unrestrained, and elegant, simple yet profound, giving the impression of endless variety. He applied the principle of promoting standard cursive script—"easy to recognize, easy to write, accurate, and beautiful"—to practice, achieving every stroke with ease, every character distinct, with perfect balance of size, slant, and alignment. The structure of his calligraphy had a low center of gravity, the brushwork subtle yet powerful, reaching a transcendent level. He became a master of calligraphy, and his Japanese friends called him the "Great Sage of Cursive Script for the Ages."
This book of calligraphy was contributed by Ren Hanping, the professional photographer of Mr. Yu Youren, a great calligrapher from Taiwan, and was edited and implemented by Wang Xihui, the president of the Shaanxi Ren Family Clerical Script Symbol Calligraphy Research Association, along with fellow scholars.