Wang Chong you Bao Shan Ji

Author: Xinglin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Tour of Bao Mountain Collection, collected by Shanghai Museum. Scroll paper, height 21.6cm, width 323.5cm. In 1520 (Gengchen year), Wang Chong toured Bao Mountain in Kunling and composed several poems of travel, compiling them into Tour of Bao Mountain Collection. In the winter of 1526, Wang Chong passed by Hongxi and stayed at his friend, the scholar Buxuan, where the scholar requested Wang’s calligraphy. The following year (1527), he copied twenty-two of the poems he had written eight years earlier during his tour of Bao Mountain in small regular script and sent them to Buxuan. His friend Wen Jia, who saw this scroll of small regular script, called it “exquisite genius.” Later generations generally regard Tour of Bao Mountain Collection as Wang Chong’s representative work in small regular script. Song Dynasty’s Su Shi once said: “Large characters are difficult to be dense without gaps, while small characters are difficult to be spacious yet full.” Wang Chong’s Tour of Bao Mountain Collection has a structure that is “spacious yet full,” and its calligraphic style is expansive, unrestrained, elegant, and flowing—truly Wang Chong’s superior work, as the saying goes, “words are not empty.”
Wang Chong (1494–1533), styled Lují and known as Yayishanren, was from Wuxian, Jiangsu. He was an exceptionally talented calligrapher, but unfortunately, his official career was not successful, failing the imperial examinations multiple times. He was only able to contribute as a scholar to the Imperial Academy and lived to the age of only forty. Though his life was short, he achieved great success in calligraphy and painting. Critics consider him to be the next great figure after Wen Zhengming.
Wang Chong excelled in running script and regular script, drawing inspiration from Zhi Yong and Yu Shiren. His regular script, though seemingly rustic, is marked by cleverness, winning praise for its elegance and unrestrained charm. His works include the regular script Poems of the Year Xinji, the running script Ancient Style Poems of Li Bai, and the Eight Quatrain Poems of Shihu.
Tour of Bao Mountain Collection, collected by Shanghai Museum. Scroll paper, height 21.6cm, width 323.5cm. In 1520, Wang Chong toured Bao Mountain in Kunling and composed several poems of travel, compiling them into Tour of Bao Mountain Collection. In the winter of 1526, Wang Chong passed by Hongxi and stayed at his friend, the scholar Buxuan, where the scholar requested Wang’s calligraphy. The following year (1527), he copied twenty-two of the poems he had written eight years earlier during his tour of Bao Mountain in small regular script and sent them to Buxuan. His friend Wen Jia, who saw this scroll of small regular script, called it “exquisite genius.” Later generations generally regard Tour of Bao Mountain Collection as Wang Chong’s representative work in small regular script. Song Dynasty’s Su Shi once said: “Large characters are difficult to be dense without gaps, while small characters are difficult to be spacious yet full.” Wang Chong’s Tour of Bao Mountain Collection has a structure that is “spacious yet full,” and its calligraphic style is expansive, unrestrained, elegant, and flowing—truly Wang Chong’s superior work, as the saying goes, “words are not empty.”