Huai Su is an outstanding calligrapher in Chinese history. His cursive calligraphy is called "Kuaicao". His pen is round and powerful, turning like a circle, unrestrained and smooth, and completed in one go. He is as famous as Zhang Xu. The following is a brief introduction to Huai Su in history that I collected and compiled. I hope it will be helpful to you.
A brief introduction to Huaisu in history
Huaisu (725 AD - 785 AD) was a calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. His courtesy name was Zangzhen and his common surname was Qian. He was fond of Buddhism in his childhood and became a monk. , the monk's name was Huai Su, a native of Changsha (another said to be from Lingling). He is a diligent calligrapher and is famous for his good cursive calligraphy. He is a leading cursive calligrapher in the history of calligraphy. His cursive calligraphy is called "Kuaicao". His pen is round and powerful, and his movements are like a circle. It is unrestrained and smooth. It is completed in one go. It is similar to another cursive calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty. Zhang Xu is the same name as Zhang Xu, and he is known as "Zhang Diansu Kuang" or "Dian Zhang Zuisu". Huai Su's representative works include "Self-narrative Post", "Bitter Bamboo Shoot Post", "Fish-eating Post", etc.
A brief introduction to Huaisu's life
Huaisu was also a monk. It is said that his previous common surname was Qian, but he later changed his surname to Zangzhen after becoming a monk because his place was Yongzhou. Lingling County, so some people call him "Lingling Monk".
When Huai Su was 10 years old, he suddenly had the idea of ??becoming a monk. His parents failed to stop him, but Huaisu decided to become a monk regardless of anyone's advice. Huaisu loved calligraphy very much, but because of his poor family environment, he could not buy pens, inks, paper, inkstones and other items, so he practiced calligraphy on the walls of the temple, on the ground or on unused clothes. He was very passionate and persistent about calligraphy. His spirit is to never give up no matter what difficulties he encounters, and he has traveled many times to seek inspiration and experience in calligraphy.
In the second year of Qianyuan (759 AD), Huai Su, who was still underage, went to Li Bai to ask for a poem. Because he and Li Bai had similar personalities, Li Bai admired him very much and wrote a poem for him. It's called "Songs in Cursive Script". In the second year of Dali of the Tang Dynasty, Huaisu wanted to go south to Guangzhou to look for Xu Hao. However, because Xu Hao was an official in other places at that time, Huaisu's trip was not completed. But by chance, Huaisu met Wang Xianzhi when he came back, and Wang Xizhi made a huge profit. During this period, Huaisu finally produced a work, and his reputation gradually spread far and wide, becoming a famous calligrapher admired by people. He spent his later years in the temple. In the fifteenth year of Zhenyuan of the Tang Dynasty, Huai Su died of wind paralysis.
Huai Su’s short story
As a monk, Huai Su needs to spend a lot of time chanting sutras and serving Buddha, which leaves him no time to practice calligraphy. But he did it all. He squeezed out sleep time and even meal time to practice calligraphy. You must know that practicing calligraphy requires the four treasures of the study, but Huaisu had no money to buy them because of his poor family, so when practicing calligraphy, Huaisu used wooden boards as paper and wooden disks as inkstones. He kept grinding and writing every day, never intermittent. Until his own board is written through, he will continue to change to another board. Huaisu often wrote on temple walls, clothes, and even banana leaves.
Huai Su takes good care of his pens and often washes them cleanly. There was a small pool next to his shoes. Because he rinsed his pens often, the pool eventually turned black, and the pens he used even turned into mountains of pens. This shows that Huaisu practiced calligraphy. Be careful. Huaisu has been devoted to calligraphy since he was a child, so it is foreseeable that he will eventually become a calligrapher. He studies hard and never gives up because of difficult conditions. This spirit is worth learning.
The hardships Huaisu experienced from a young monk to a calligrapher are self-evident, but Huaisu was able to persist in practicing calligraphy for ten years.
Historical evaluation of Huai Su
The impression Huai Su gave me was as bold as his handwriting, because he liked to drink, and every time he drank too much, he would start writing with his pen, He could only write wherever there was room for writing, such as utensils, clothes, or walls and table tops, all with his handwriting.
By practicing calligraphy, we can see that Huaisu is still a very attentive person. After he discovered that practicing writing is interesting, he continued to practice writing every day and did not give up halfway. Huaisu became a great calligrapher. Through practicing calligraphy, we can also see that Huai Su is a hard-working person who does not give up halfway. He will practice whenever he has time and is never afraid of hard work. As long as he feels that his writing is not good, he will practice again and again until he is satisfied. . Finally, I developed a strong and powerful calligraphy stroke. Because at that time, there was no extra paper for writing, so Huai Su came up with a good way to provide himself with materials for calligraphy practice. So he began to plant banana trees. When the banana trees grew up, he would pick the leaves and practice calligraphy on them. It can be seen that Huaisu was still a very smart and flexible person.
Huaisu was also a diligent and frugal person. In the process of practicing calligraphy, he cherished his tools very much, just like a writing pen that he would not throw away and replace with a new one until all the hair on the tip of the pen fell off. This may have something to do with his family experience since childhood. When he was very young, because his family was poor, he entered a monastery to become a monk. In his spare time, he liked to practice writing. As time went by, his handwriting became better and better. The more he experienced, the more he became a great calligrapher in history.