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• Introduction
• Tusk, Bone, Bamboo and Wood Carvings
• Draft on the 24 Offenses of Wei Chung-hsien
• Books Donated from the Yü-ting-ning Studio
• Calligraphy by Former Director Chin Hsiao-yi
• Home

Former National Palace Museum director Chin Hsiao-yi often spent his spare time doing calligraphy and composing poetry. In calligraphy, his studies of the various script types of seal, clerical, regular, and cursive were all done after imitating works of the ancient masters. After a considerable amount of time forging and polishing his skills, he eventually was able to develop a style of his own, which over the years has been praised in calligraphic circles as the "Chin Style". Its unique features lie in the spirited structure of seal script with a somewhat painterly effect. The brushwork in his clerical script is calm and composed, revealing a sense of calm and aesthetic beauty. At times, there is also a touch of seal script, imbuing it with an innovative quality. His regular script is upright and elegant, the lifting and pressing of the brush tip as well as the rise and fall of the brushwork forming a rhythm all its own. In running and cursive script, his brushwork flows freely in a marvelous dance that gives rise to complementary qualities of solid and void. Even after he had turned eighty, Chin Hsiao-yi continued to wield the brush with great passion and vigor, gaining new insights through his study of such ancient forms of writing as oracle bone script, inscriptions on ancient bronzes, and Ch'in dynasty seal script. Chin Hsiao-yi served as a paragon of the adage that one is never too old to learn new things and benefit from diligent studies.