Zhang Zhao's Calligraphy Practice

Zhang Zhao copied Dong Qichang in his early years, and later participated in the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi, Mi Fei, Zhao Mengfu and other schools, becoming an outstanding master. However, his first calligraphy teacher was his uncle calligrapher Wang. Under the guidance of Wang, Zhang Zhao painted red first, and then copied famous cards. As usual, Zhang listened to uncle Wang Xizhi's Ink and Wash and his eighteen-barrel calligraphy. He admires the spirit of hard struggle of Wang and his son and is determined to follow their example. Whether it's the winter of March 9 or the hot summer of dog days, Zhang Zhao bends down and straightens his arms every day, holds a brush tightly and practices calligraphy seriously. Sometimes, Zhang Zhao will tie iron ruler or sandbags to his arms to enhance his arm strength and wrist strength. At that time, the Zhang family was not rich, so Zhang Zhao dipped a brown handle in water and practiced calligraphy on the blue brick. He has to write thousands of words every day before giving up. Over time, the middle of the blue bricks that Zhang Zhao practiced calligraphy actually sank, and the blue bricks were like inkstones, but what Zhang Zhao practiced calligraphy was the broken brown branches that abandoned the pen outside the house and became a hill. In order to practice real kung fu, Zhang Zhao not only persisted in hard training with the spirit of "breaking thousands of books", but also carefully studied Wang Xizhi's Book Theory, Yan Zhenqing's History of Mi Fei and other related theoretical works to improve his theory. In the past, famous artists painted and wrote, and some techniques were usually kept secret. For example, Wang, even though he is Zhang Zhao's own uncle, sometimes he has to avoid Zhang Zhao when writing. To this end, the teenager Zhang Zhao once hid in the uncle's throne room for three days, peeking at his uncle's writing style, and repeatedly tried to figure it out after returning home until he got the message. By the age of 14 or 15, Zhang Zhao's calligraphy has won the praise of Yan Zhenqing, Mi Fei, Dong Qichang, Wang and other famous artists, showing his excellent handwriting and gaining the reputation of a young calligrapher.