In the history of calligraphy, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan are both called "Yan Gu".
Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy is not as beautiful and charming as that in the early Tang Dynasty (represented by Ou Yangxun and Yu Shinan), but it has a graceful and vigorous charm in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and is called "Yan Ti" by the world. When people talk about Yan Shu, they often point out that its most obvious features are "swallow-tailed silkworm head" and "horizontal light and vertical weight".
The so-called "silkworm head swallow tail" refers to the starting point of horizontal and vertical strokes on the face. When writing, use Tibetan characters and then turn, so the starting point is like a "silkworm head" At the end of each stroke, he worked hard to make a setback at the end of his life, and then gently picked out that stroke, which looked like a "swallow tail".
"Horizontal light and vertical weight" means that when writing a horizontal pen, the force is lighter and the strokes are slightly thinner, while when writing a vertical pen, the strokes are heavier. The former gives people the feeling of penetrating the back of the paper and produces the artistic effect of brushwork; Every word of the latter gives people a heavy feeling and has the artistic characteristics of relief beauty.
The structural features of Six Questions;
One is that two vertical markets face each other. In other words, the left and right sides of a word are juxtaposed, with the left side bending to the right and the right side bending to the left, forming an opposing trend. Second, the retraction is opposite and uneven.
Within a word, some strokes are relatively convergent, and some strokes are very stretched. If a word is composed of several parts, then Liu pays great attention to the comparison of these parts in width and length, so that some places of the word are left with more white space and sparse space; In some places, there is little blank space, which is particularly compact. Third, due to the outward extension of strokes, Liu style characters tend to be compact, tight inside and sparse outside.
In a word, Yan Liu's two calligraphy styles are different, but they are both powerful.