The Ancient Art of Writing: Selections from the History of Chinese Calligraphy

Chao Meng-fu was from Wu-hsing, Chekiang. His style name was Tzu-ang, and sobriquet Sung-hsüeh tao-jen. Although a member of the Sung imperial house, he entered the administration of the succeeding Yüan dynasty, becoming a member of the Han-lin Academy. He was given the title "Duke of Wei" and also honored with the posthumous title Wen-min.

Chao Meng-fu's natural abilities are evident in his poetry and essays. He is also one of the great painters in Chinese art history, and his calligraphy is also ranked as unsurpassed by many. He demonstrated equal facility in seal, clerical, standard, semi-cursive, and cursive styles, but his greatest achievements were in small standard script. Chao was always conscious of the importance of past styles and strove to emulate their virtues. In spite of this reliance on past models, the appearance of his written characters is innovative, full-bodied, and relaxed. He was able to build on the foundation laid by Wang Hsi-chih (321-379) and Wang Hsien-chih (344-386) of the Chin dynasty.

Hsien-yü Shu (style name Po-chi, sobriquet K'un-hsüeh-shih) was a native of Chi county in Hopei but lived in Hangchow. He held an official position as archivist in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He was also skilled in authenticating calligraphy, painting, and ancient objects, being accomplished in writing poetry and calligraphy as well.

Hsien-yü Shu excelled in semi-cursive script calligraphy and was often praised by Chao Meng-fu. He also studied the style of Chung Yu for standard script. In his youth, he felt remorseful, thinking that he would never attain the level of the ancients. Once when he happened to see the movement of two people carrying a sedan chair through the mud, he all of a sudden understood the secret to calligraphy. Hsien-yü Shu excelled particularly in cursive calligraphy, and Chao Meng-fu himself sighed that he was not Hsien-yü Shu's equal. During the early Yüan dynasty, he was a most distinguished and influential calligrapher along with Chao Meng-fu, and later calligraphers took their styles as models. Hsien-yü Shu has written this essay in standard calligraphy with round, strong brushstrokes.

Wen Cheng-ming, a native of Soochow, was gifted at the scholarly arts of poetry, prose, calligraphy and painting. A student of Shen Chou, he became one of the Four Great Masters of the Ming.

Wen was gifted at all script types of calligraphy, but small standard and running script best exemplify his personal style. In small standard script, he followed after the Two Wangs, especially the Huang-t'ing Classic and Yüeh-i Discussion. This work was done at the age of 81. The characters are stable and the use the brush is superb, making it a masterpiece of small standard script by him, despite the age at which he did it.