Why did ancient literati describe Su Shi's calligraphy with "short body and fat body"?

During the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to the unique Song Ci, there was also calligraphy for writing dragons and snakes. Among them, there are many writers who have left many excellent works in history, such as Huang Tingjian and Su Shi, and their calligraphy attainments have reached their peak. These well-known calligraphers have been with pens, ink, paper and inkstone since childhood, and have developed a good hand. However, their characters have their own characteristics. Even if they are vigorous and powerful strokes, different calligraphers will have different charms.

Su Dongpo's calligraphy theory is unique. He believes that the wonderful essence of calligraphy lies not in the strength between strokes, nor in the connection between strokes, but in the artistic conception of the pen holder. This is called? Shangyi? . If the feelings and ideas in your heart reach a mature level, the brushwork will naturally fall on the paper, so that you can make a good work at one go. In addition, his concept of calligraphy is not rigid. On the one hand, he will learn the techniques and works of the ancients. On the other hand, he tried to innovate and recreate on the basis of predecessors. Therefore, he not only left wonderful calligraphy works for later generations, but also preserved his precious innovative spirit and good innovative tradition, and his contribution was not high.

In his early years, he mainly studied from the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi. In middle age, he turned to Yan Zhenqing and others in Tang Dynasty to learn regular script calligraphy. His best running script is Huangzhou Cold Food Poetry.

? Su Shi's running script "Ode to Spring in Dongting" is a good example of Su Shi's calligraphy. Short body fat? The characteristics of. This is a ci fu, which was written by Su Shi when his official career was not smooth and his heart was depressed. It can be seen that Su Shi's running script, although at first glance, seems unremarkable. But if you watch carefully, you can feel the powerful spirit. Every stroke is full of energy. Because he is used to writing horizontally, the words he writes, whether running script or regular script, will show the characteristics of being flat and fat.