Su Shi (1037-11year) is one of the few "generalists" in history. People call him "the first gifted scholar through the ages", and he is a first-class master in the creation of prose, poetry, calligraphy and painting. At the same time, he is also familiar with music, good at cooking, has certain research on Chinese medicine, and has also made significant contributions to his political achievements. Su Shi, who is so comprehensive, is hard to find a second one in the history of China for thousands of years.
Su Shi's calligraphy has its own system, and it is also called "Song Sijia" with Huang Tingjian, Mi Fei and Cai Xiang, ranking first in "Song Sijia". So far, there are three surviving works of Su Shi's calligraphy works: Fu on the Red Wall, Poems on Cold Food in Huangzhou and Poems in Sacrifice to the Yellow River.
If Su Shi's works are compared with those of the other three people, it is not difficult to find that Su Shi's calligraphy is gentle, unpretentious and lacks strong personality compared with Huang Tingjian's. Compared with Mi Fei, Su Shi's calligraphy seems to have a little less change in brushwork and composition.
Then, why is Shi ranked first, and where is the value of his calligraphy?
To understand this problem, we must start with the cultural orientation of the Song Dynasty and the overall aesthetic taste of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty, so as to find the answer.
From the perspective of cultural orientation, the whole Song Dynasty is a very "literary" era.
Song people saw the prevalence of "selecting scholars by poetry" in the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, which created a prosperous situation of poetry, so they followed suit. In the period of Song Zhezong, it was changed to poetry and righteousness. Later, although some rules were changed, they remained unchanged. If a scholar wants to enter the official career, he must have the ability to write poetry, composition and even painting, otherwise he will not enter the official career.
Under such cultural guidance, people in the Song Dynasty, from emperors to generals to ordinary people, had a very strong atmosphere of "Chongwen". Three or five friends sit together to drink and chat. If a person can't sing a few poems and write a good word, he will be considered unsociable.
Therefore, most emperors in the Song Dynasty can write good paintings. For example, Evonne in Song Huizong, Zhao Gou in Song Gaozong, Zhao Shen in Song Xiaozong and Zhao Dun in Song Guangzong are all masters of calligraphy in history.