Liu Gongquan was brilliant when he was a child. He loved calligraphy and wrote well. He often shows off in front of others. One day, Liu Gongquan and several friends held a "reading club". An old man selling tofu saw it and thought the child was too proud. He said: "This word is poorly written, soft and boneless. Is it worth boasting in front of others? " Hearing this, Hsiao Kung chuan said, "Write some words for me."
The old man smiled and said, "I dare not. I am a clown and can't write well. " However, some people write with their feet much better than you! Go to the city if you don't believe me. "
The next day, Xiao Gongquan got a vigil and went to town alone. As soon as he entered the city, he saw many people gathered around a big locust tree. He squeezed into the crowd and saw a black and thin old man who had lost his arms, barefoot, sitting on the ground, his left foot pressing paper, his right foot holding a pen, writing couplets freely, and his handwriting was like a galloping horse, dancing with dragons and phoenixes, which won applause from the onlookers.
Xiao Gongquan knelt in front of the old man and said, "I would like to worship you as a teacher, please tell me the secret of writing ..." The old man quickly pulled Xiao Gongquan up with his feet and said, "I was born without hands, so I had to live by my feet. How can I be a teacher? " Xiao Gongquan begged, and the old man spread a piece of paper on the ground and wrote a few words with his right foot: "Write eight jars of water, and the inkstone is dyed black;" When you win hundreds of parents, you will get a twins. "
Liu Gongquan kept the old man's words in mind and worked hard to practice calligraphy. Thick cocoons were ground on the hands and the elbows were patched layer by layer. After hard training, Liu Gongquan finally became a famous calligrapher in China.
Liu Gongquan (778-865) was born in Jingzhao Garden (now Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province), Han nationality. A famous calligrapher and poet in the Tang Dynasty, the younger brother of Liu Gongzhuo, the minister of war. Liu Gongquan became a scholar at the age of twenty-nine. In his early years, he served as secretary of provincial studies and was incorporated into the Li Ting shogunate. In Mu Zong, Jing Zong and Wenzong Dynasty, he served in the official residence and grew up in North Korea.