Zhan Jingfeng Thousand-Character Classic

Author: Xu Hongliu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Zhan Jingfeng's artistic creations are highly regarded for their calligraphy, with cursive script being his most outstanding achievement. During the late Ming Dynasty, Zhu Mou, while compiling Shishihuiyao Xubian (Continuation of the Compendium of Calligraphy Histories), commented: "Zhan Jingfeng has profound knowledge of calligraphy and extraordinary brushwork, like a noble in court, dignified and respectable. His cursive script is as if aided by the divine, with endless variations, yet it never deviates from ancient methods. Critics compare him to Zhu Jingzhao (Yunming), who dominated 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 dating back to 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, there are three surviving long scrolls of Zhan Jingfeng's cursive script Thousand Characters: one written in the sixth month of the summer of the Bingchen year (1596), now preserved in the Anhui Xining Museum; another written in the Dingyou year (1597), now in the Guangdong Museum; and the third is the one introduced in this book. Additionally, a surviving cursive script scroll titled After Huai Su (a famous Tang Dynasty calligrapher) from the Jihai year (1599) is preserved in the Jiangxi Museum. As previously evaluated, Zhan Jingfeng's cursive script is both rooted in tradition and endlessly varied. His "wildness" in cursive script reflects both his unrestrained personality and his masterful technique. The three surviving long scrolls of Zhan Jingfeng's cursive script Thousand Characters, all written on black-inked grid paper, were created within a span of only one and a half years, yet they exhibit significant differences in artistic style. In summary, in the author's opinion, this scroll is the highest in artistic quality among the three. It demonstrates greater dynamism in the structure of its characters, skillfully combines the use of round strokes with occasional sharp and oblique strokes, and allows the ink to be dense and moist or dry and brittle naturally in rapid writing. This avoids the slipperiness of writing while enriching the charm of brushwork and ink. All of this is undoubtedly due to the calligrapher's exquisite cursive script technique and the exceptional creative state of "writing with inspiration" and "completing it in one sweep." Thus, Zhan Jingfeng himself considered it an "accident." This illustrates that in artistic creation, technique is fundamental, while inspiration is accidental. Only when technique and inspiration are perfectly combined, i.e., "heart and hand are in harmony," can one "explore all transformations at the tip of the brush and align emotions with the paper."