Zhang Xu was born in Wu Jun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province) during the reign of Kaiyuan Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (7 13-756) with a long history, so the world is also called Zhang Changshi. Zhang Xu was a heavy drinker all his life, and his temperament was unrestrained. He often goes crazy while talking on the phone when he is drunk. It is recorded in the history of painting that he used to write big characters with his hair dipped in ink. At that time, people called him Zhang Dian.
Zhang Xu's Wild Grass is ever-changing and strange. Mr. Han believes that it can be summarized into three characteristics. One is "crazy", written in one go, consistently, maintaining a momentum, full of "meaning" and "right and wrong without mercy", and the other is "strange" and "abnormal". For example, "floating clouds return a thousand times" is unpredictable and unpredictable. The third feature is that "awesome" and "awesome" are not "pleasing" or "charming", but abandon the morbid state of beauty and exquisiteness, resulting in a feeling that rock and roll is overwhelming. "If the viewer is right about the words, he will feel' awe'. Although Zhang Xu's cursive script is crazy and rough, it does not lose its statutes, and his paintings are well organized, because his regular script also has a high achievement. There are not many works handed down by Zhang Xu, such as Abdominal Pain Sticker and Four Ancient Poems.
Huai Su (737-? ) the word hides the truth, and the common surname is money. He was born in Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan) and became a monk in his early years. He is more than twenty years behind Zhang Xu and influenced by Zhang Xu and Yan Zhenqing. He studied hard when he was a child. The idiom "Mo Chi is in Bizuka" comes from him. His calligraphy is passionate, such as "A bird out of the forest, a frightened snake into the grass." At that time, poets such as Li Bai and Qian Qi all had poems praising his calligraphy. Han F wrote in a poem: "Where there is a screen, Huai has a panoramic view. Although it is full of dust and stains, you can still see thick ink marks, strange stones rushing to autumn streams, and cold vines hanging on the Gu Song. Teach the waterfront, the word is dragon. " Comparing his calligraphy with Zhang Xu's, we can see that the latter's strokes are thick while the former's are thin. Therefore, in his autobiographical notes, Huai Su wrote some poems, such as "Running snakes and walking in eight places" and "Cold apes drink water and shake vines", which are very appropriate.
In ancient China's calligraphy theory, no matter the discussion of seal script, official script, running script, regular script or cursive script, most of them were compared and described with natural landscapes or some phenomena. Readers have to rely on a kind of life experience to understand and appreciate them. Calligraphy is really a mysterious art, especially weeds. The author is often full of passion, in a state of excitement, and the reader vaguely feels some emotion from the pen and ink. In fact, this is the characteristic of an expressionist art, and Wild Grass has existed since the Tang Dynasty. At that time, painting was basically a meticulous painting, and Dan Fan spent a long time painting his eyes and eyebrows. Even Expressionism painting, like Wu Daozi, will eventually be limited by the form of things and cannot be completely released. In this case, if there are weeds in calligraphy, you can borrow them to fully express your feelings or emotions. This is probably the main reason for the emergence of expressionist calligraphy.
After Zhang Xu and Huai Su, cursive script appeared in all previous dynasties, such as Huang Tingjian in Song Dynasty, Zhu Yunming in Ming Dynasty, Xu Wei, Wang Duo, Fu Shan in Qing Dynasty and modern Lin Sanzhi. While inheriting the predecessors, each calligrapher has integrated his own personality.