Zhao Gou is good at calligraphy and painting, especially calligraphy. He first studied Huang Tingjian, and soon after he became king, he used Huang calligraphy, and then he used Mi Fei's brushwork. Give Yue Fei a Hand, a book written in the seventh year of Shaoxing (1 137), is a typical Mi Fei brushwork.
After studying the "two kings", his "Give Yue Fei a batch of scrolls" is an important symbol of the calligraphy style turning to the "two kings". He especially loved Preface to Lanting, "From Wei and Jin Dynasties to Six Dynasties, the brushwork was copied". He also distributed a large number of copied works to court ministers. Because of his position, his hobbies also influenced the book style of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Zhao Gou not only has actual calligraphy and painting creation, but also has a lot of research on calligraphy theory. He wrote a volume of Mo Hanzhi, which was a reference to calligraphy after he retired to Deshou Palace. He has a very incisive view on calligraphy theory, which is an important work of calligraphy theory in the early Southern Song Dynasty. Some people call it the representative work of calligraphy theory in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Zhao Gou's Literary Achievements
On the basis of personal practice, Zhao Gou advocated the public to learn calligraphy, which played a great role in the prosperity of the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, with Zhao Gou as the center, the Southern Song Dynasty imperial court set off the climax of learning calligraphy. In the early years of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou and Wu Zetian compiled textbooks such as Zhouyi, Shangshu, Chunqiu, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and Shi Mao for imperial academy.
Zhao Gou was very serious when he wrote these verses. Every day, when his wrist ached and he felt "a little tired of writing calligraphy", he asked Wu Huanghou to continue writing this book. In order to prevent misinformation or loss, the emperor also carved the scriptures written by him and Wu Huanghou on the boulder, which is the so-called Stone Scripture of imperial academy in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The imperial scriptures in the Southern Song Dynasty were mainly in small letters, accompanied by running scripts, which showed Confucian classics in the form of calligraphy and had a wide and far-reaching influence. At present, there are only 86 stone classics in imperial academy. The only remaining imperial academy Stone Sutra stands in the main hall of the Confucius Temple in Hangzhou, and most of it is in ruins.
Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Zhao Gou