Heavenly Auspiciousness Stele

Author: Huang Xiang (Wu of the Three Kingdoms)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: The Heavenly Auspiciousness Stele in seal script. The calligraphy is extraordinary and is one of the famous ancient steles. It was erected in the first year of the Tianxi era (276) during the Wu period of the Three Kingdoms. The stele was originally located in Jiangning, Jiangsu, but has since been destroyed. It is said to have been written by Huahé Wen and calligraphed by Huang Xiang. It was destroyed by fire in the 10th year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1805). This stele is neither seal script nor clerical script; its strokes often appear square and angular at the beginning, and pointed at the end. It combines both square and round turns, creating an extraordinary and magnificent appearance. Its calligraphic style and form are unprecedented in the history of calligraphy, with no successors. The calligraphy of this stele resembles both seal script and clerical script. It incorporates clerical script techniques into seal script, using the square style of Qin clerical script and blending it with the round style of Zhou's Zou script. The strokes are strong and square, with square beginnings for horizontal strokes, horizontal turns, dots, and vertical strokes; the endings of vertical strokes often use the hanging needle technique. The structure takes a vertical and long square form, with some characters having square strokes but round forms. The characters are extraordinary and magnificent, standing out on their own compared to the Shigudu Qin seal script. Zhang Tingji of the Qing Dynasty praised it as follows: "The Heavenly Auspiciousness Stele of Wu is majestic and varied, profound and expressive, like a broken ancient knife or a snapped ancient hairpin. It is one of the best works in the history of calligraphy since the Han Dynasty, with none before and none after." The surviving ink rubbings of this stele, with the characters "fu chui" intact, are from the early Ming Dynasty.