Wu Changshuo's copy of "Shigudu Wen"

Author: Ji Lin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Wu Changshuo (1844–1927), originally named Jun and Junqing, styled Changshuo and Cangshi, was also known by the pseudonyms Fuju, Kuitie, Dalong, Pohe, and Laofu. He was from Anji, Zhejiang. In the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign (1865), he became a shixue (local scholar), and later served as the magistrate of Anting County, Jiangsu Province, but resigned after only one month, carving an seal "One Month as Magistrate of Anting" to commemorate the experience. Wu Changshuo studied under Yu Yue and Yang Xian, mastering textual criticism, poetry, calligraphy, and seal carving. He was a master of the late Qing Dynasty's art and the leader of the "Hai School," whose influence spread both domestically and internationally. The Japanese held him in particularly high regard. He published numerous works, including "Fuju Collection," "Fuju Poetry," "Fuju Seal Collection," and various collections of paintings and calligraphy. Wu Changshuo excelled in poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal carving, and in 1913, when the Xiling Seal Society was established in Hangzhou, he was elected as its first president.
Wu Changshuo was skilled in seal script, cursive script, and running script, but he was especially renowned for his seal script. In his early years, he studied under Deng Shiru and Yang Yishun, later focusing on the Shigudu inscriptions. He spent his life copying the Shigudu script extensively, leaving behind many masterpieces. The present volume is a late-life copy of the "Shigudu Script." During the Qing Dynasty, the flourishing of stele calligraphy brought about a wave of reviving classical styles, elevating stele calligraphy to the orthodox status in calligraphic studies. This made the ancient Shigudu script a popular style. Prominent calligraphers of the time, such as Yang Yishun, Wu Dachi, Wu Changshuo, and Wang Fuan, all benefited from this trend. Wu Changshuo became a model for studying the Shigudu script, but he did not adhere rigidly to established methods. Based on his in-depth research into the style of the Shigudu script, he emphasized its spirit over its form, creating a unique style and forging new ideas.
In terms of brushwork, he broke the millennia-old norms of seal script, which emphasized uniform thickness and hidden heads and tails, using varying thicknesses and unpredictable brushstrokes to express rich lines. In composition, he replaced the uniformity of characters with a dynamic interplay of dense and sparse forms, pioneering a new era in seal script.