Song Chaiying Guangtang Mi Tie: Mi Fu (No. 5)

Author: Wang Haoming
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Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
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Cai Shu (1051-1107), styled Yuanzhang, was known as Xiangyang Manshi and Haiyue Wai Shi. His ancestral home was in Shanxi, but he moved to Xiangyang, earning the nickname "Cai Xiangyang." Historical accounts describe him as eccentric, fond of Tang-style clothing, and obsessed with cleanliness. He revered stones, calling them "brothers" and worshipping them, hence the moniker "Cai Dian." At the age of six, he could recite a hundred poems, learned calligraphy at seven, and composed inscriptions by ten. By twenty-one, he entered official service, proving himself a prodigious talent. In calligraphy, he was one of the "Four Calligraphers of the Song Dynasty" (Su, Cai, Huang, and Cai) and the most outstanding. His style was unrestrained yet disciplined, earning Su Dongpo's praise for his "seal script, cursive script, clerical script, and regular script as 'windmills in battle formations, steady and decisive.'" On the other hand, he pioneered the "Cai Family Cloud Mountains" technique in landscape painting, skillfully using blurred brushwork to depict the misty scenery of Jiangnan. He employed varying shades of thick and dry ink, horizontal dots, and clustered strokes to recreate layered mountains, earning the name "Cai Dian." His works inspired countless later painters, who emulated his style, elevating the "literati painting" tradition to new heights. Cai Shu's son, Cai Youren, left behind numerous works, ensuring the continuation of this artistic legacy.
Historians debate whether Cai Shu prioritized calligraphy or painting. As a calligrapher, painter, appraiser, and collector, he amassed a vast collection, demonstrating broad knowledge. His discerning eye and expertise made his writings invaluable for later art historians. His major works include Treasures for Later Generations to Seek, History of Calligraphy, History of Painting, History of Inkstones, and Haiyue Annotations. Treasures for Later Generations to Seek, compiled in the first year of Yuanyou (1086), is divided into "Witnessed" and "Hear-Said" sections, recording eighty-four works from the Jin and Tang dynasties, setting a precedent for later cataloging and exerting significant influence. Some even wrote works mimicking its style, such as Zhang Chou's Four Tables of Zhang Family. History of Calligraphy is more detailed and served as a reference for later appraisers. Haiyue, primarily a collection of his personal insights, is highly regarded. It is believed to have been compiled by later scholars based on his writings.
Cai Shu devoted himself deeply to calligraphy, achieving his greatest success in running script. Though few of his paintings survive, his calligraphic works are well-preserved. Many famous anthologies from the Southern Song Dynasty include his calligraphy, demonstrating its widespread dissemination and profound impact. Kang Youwei once remarked, "The Tang valued structure, while the Song prioritized meaning and individuality." Cai Shu exemplified this, making him the most outstanding among the "Four Calligraphers of the Northern Song." He claimed to "collect ancient characters," a practice some mocked but others praised, as Wang Wenji noted, "His natural talent surpasses all, yet he stands alone by collecting the old." This suggests the source of his success.
According to Cai Shu, before studying Jin calligraphy under Su Dongpo, he was heavily influenced by five Tang calligraphers: Yan Zhenqing, Ouyang Xun, Chu Suiliang, Shen Chuanshi, and Duan Jizhan. He adopted special brush techniques from Yan's running script, such as the rounded turn at the right corner of the character "men" and the abrupt rise of vertical hooks, as well as the "crab claw hook." His calligraphic style, though sharp and slender, imitated Ouyang Xun's influence, which he maintained for a long time. Shen Chuanshi's running script resembled Chu Suiliang's, while Cai Shu's large characters were inspired by Duan Jizhan, whose "four-sided" and "brush-like" style may have influenced Cai's term "brush-like script." Chu Suiliang's dynamic brushwork and lively composition appealed to Cai, who praised his characters as "like a well-trained horse, responsive yet spirited."
After 1082, Cai Shu sought Jin dynasty calligraphy, acquiring Wang Xianzhi's Mid-Autumn Letter within a year. This influential work deeply impacted him, though he often favored his son over Wang Xizhi. Unconventional and restless, he criticized Wang Xizhi's script as "evil" and advocated for "washing away the faults of the two Wangs." It is said he studied Yang Xin, as Li Zhiyi wrote, "The immortal Cai Shu does not expect me, yet Yang Xin's brushwork is even more extraordinary." His study of Yang Xin likely began after settling in Haiyue An in the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091). Despite this, his calligraphy remained evolving. Works like Tie River, Bi Lingming's Temple Stele, and Shu Su, written within a month, show significant stylistic differences, still struggling to break free from the "collecting ancient characters" phase. Only after "reaching old age did he finally establish his style, and others saw it but did not know its essence," likely after the age of fifty. His mature calligraphic style, however, was marked by his unrestrained pursuit of "power," even in small like Eulogy for Empress Dowager Xiang. This "power" was both an asset and a flaw, as Huang Tingjian aptly remarked, "He excelled only in running script, while regular and cursive scripts were mediocre." The term "regular script" at the time was not strictly defined—it could refer to seal or clerical script, which Cai indeed struggled with. His surviving seal and clerical scripts were not impressive, and his later dismissal of Tang cursive script, coupled with his limited understanding of Jin cursive, explains his lackluster results.
Cai Shu approached calligraphy with diligence, unlike those who imagined him writing effortlessly. He himself stated, "When I wrote Hai Dai Poem, I revised it three or four times, yet only a few characters pleased me—truly, writing is a difficult task" (as recorded by Fan Mingtai in Cai Xiangyang's External Records). A poem revised multiple times, with only a few lines satisfactory, reveals the hardships of artistic creation, a depth only true practitioners can appreciate.
Cai Shu had unique insights into calligraphic composition, structure, and brushwork, advocating for "steady yet unpedantic, daring yet unstrange, mature yet unshriveled, moist yet unobese." This aligns with Jiang Kui's principle of "no downward strokes without shortening, no forward strokes without retracting," emphasizing harmony between contrasting elements like tightness and looseness, thinness and thickness, simplicity and complexity. His calligraphy embodied "bone, sinew, flesh, and luster, like a refined gentleman." In composition, he prioritized overall rhythm while refining details, writing with confidence yet adapting as needed. His brushwork was distinctive, masterfully balancing vertical and horizontal angles, inclinations, turns, pauses, and shifts to create a soaring, decisive style. His starting strokes were often heavy, lightening in the middle, and turning sharply with side edges during transitions. His variations in downward strokes were numerous, with emphasis shifting between the start, end, or middle of a stroke, and even longer horizontal strokes featured "three undulations." His hooks were also unique. His calligraphy often leaned, "wanting left, first right; wanting rise, first suppress," adding dynamism and vigor. Grounded in decades of studying ancient scripts, his style was natural, never contrived. Followers of Cai Shu, even those with advantages, struggled to replicate his "wildness."
Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, critical views on Cai Shu's calligraphy have been divided: some praised him without reservation, while others acknowledged flaws but still admired him more than they criticized. Su Dongpo exemplified the former, viewing Cai as the most outstanding among the "Four Calligraphers of the Northern Song," particularly for his dynamic style. His success stemmed entirely from hard work. At thirty, serving in Changsha, he admired the Yuelu Temple Stele and visited Lushan to see the East Lin Temple Stele, inscribing his name. In the second year of Yuanyou, he traded Zhang Xuan's six paintings and Xu Hao's two scrolls for Li Yong's Letter on Hot Rice. His calligraphy, however, showed promise early: at twenty-four, his inscriptions on Longyin Rock in Lingui were already spirited but lacked individuality; his commentary on the Stephanotaph at thirty revealed natural talent was secondary to effort. Cai Shu, though clever, occasionally boasted, as predecessors noted, "He set his own high standards." His self-explanatory accounts of calligraphy study sometimes bordered on the mystical, such as claiming to have learned Yan's running script since childhood. Yet his success was purely the result of relentless practice. He wrote daily, as evidenced by: "A day without calligraphy makes my mind sluggish—I imagine ancient masters never rested for even a moment." He compared himself to Zhi Yong, who only mastered Wang Xizhi's calligraphy after filling a stone basin with ink, and encouraged his son to persevere. His son Cai Youren even claimed he never skipped writing even on New Year's Day.
Cai Shu was a prolific collector, often traveling with his "Cai Family Painting and Calligraphy Ship." His obsession with stones was well-documented in the Song Shi, with Yuan Ni's poem On Cai Nan Gong's Worship of Stones: "Cai Shu loved inkstones and stones, exploring their rarity and peculiarity. He bowed to 'Stone Brothers,' writing his own Worship of Stones—thus his fame as 'Cai Dian' is justified." Inspired by this, later painters often depicted Cai Shu worshiping stones, making it a celebrated anecdote. His studio, Baojin An, also housed unique stones for appreciation, as recorded in Inkstone. Legend claims he used the "thin, elegant, wrinkled, and penetrating" four-character method to judge stones. He also loved inkstones, a crucial item in the "Four Treasures of the Study." His History of Inkstones detailed the differences and qualities of ancient inkstones, advocating, "Vessels are valued for utility, while stone quality is best for ink." Baojin Studio's Praise of Calligraphy quoted from Forest Collection: "I must have a precious inkstone—inkstones are my head," showing his deep affection. His dual obsession with stones and inkstones naturally made him value inkstone mountains, natural peaks carved into inkstones with flat bases for grinding ink. Forest Records described him sleeping beside a newly acquired inkstone mountain for three days. The most famous was a inkstone mountain once owned by Li Yu of Southern Tang, traded for land. Cai Shu yearned for it, creating the Inkstone Mountain painting that survives.
In his later years, Cai Shu resided in Dantu, Runzhou (now part of Jiangsu), where he built Shanshan Hall, naming his collected works Forest Collection, a 100-volume compendium now mostly lost. The surviving Baojin Collection showcases his dual talents in poetry and calligraphy. His poems were original, "never copying a single line from others," and he famously declared, "I have never sent a poem to nobles in my life," a unique trait that was both his strength and weakness.
No paintings by Cai Shu survive, but his History of Painting records his collecting, appraising, and preferences in painting, reflecting his aesthetic tastes and creative insights. This is the best source for studying his painting. Cai Shu achieved success by adopting a playful attitude and thematic choices that aligned with his ideals. He recognized the need to alter traditional painting conventions and techniques to create new aesthetics. His approach differed from Su Dongpo, who, as a poet, critiqued painting from a literary perspective, often measuring it by literary standards. While insightful, Su's views remained detached from painting itself. Thus, later scholars often viewed Cai as a painter and Su as a art theorist. Though Su left behind paintings, Cai Shu had none. Historically, Cai Shu's art theories surpassed his contemporaries. His son Cai Youren, a calligrapher, inherited his legacy and became a renowned figure in the field.