Historical Doubts of Banqiao Body

Zheng Xie, a painter and calligrapher in Qing Dynasty, is known as one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou", named Banqiao, and his calligraphy art is unique in the history of painting and calligraphy in China. It is generally believed that "Banqiao Style" is the calligraphy art created by Zheng Xie. However, the inscription on Dong Fan's sacrifice in Ming Dynasty, which was found in Linqu Mountain, questioned this view.

The forest of steles in Dongzhen, Yishan is a treasure house of China's calligraphy art. It has all kinds of inscriptions in past dynasties. Although the tablet of Sacrifice to the East Fan Dynasty discovered a few days ago is not large, its unique calligraphy art is particularly eye-catching, because its font, composition and arrangement are similar to Zheng Banqiao's "six and a half" calligraphy style: one is a miscellaneous body, with a real grass seal; Secondly, this tablet has Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy style, such as "gold thread wears money" and "littering all over the street". Many people think that it was written by Zheng Banqiao when he was an official in Weixian County in Qing Dynasty. However, if we look closely, it was written by Liu Yu, a cabinet scholar in Shouguang in the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Yu was in the Ming Dynasty and Zheng Banqiao was in the Qing Dynasty. It is obviously against common sense that the "Banqiao style" formed in the Qing Dynasty is engraved on the stone tablets of the Ming Dynasty. So why is this?

It is understood that Liu Yu, the official to prime minister, has not only made outstanding achievements in politics, but also made great achievements in literature and calligraphy. However, because the calligraphy art he created was very different from the popular "pavilion style" with thousands of faces at that time, his unique "Liu Yu style" was little known and the ink was rarely handed down from generation to generation. Some experts believe that Liu Yu is the first and Banqiao is the last, so "Banqiao style" can be called "Liu Yu style".