The pronunciation of Zheng Xie, the author of Bamboo Stone, is zhèng xiè.
Zheng Xie, also known as Zheng Banqiao, was born in Xinghua, Jiangsu, and his ancestral home is Suzhou. Calligraphers, painters, and writers of the Qing Dynasty.
A scholar of Kangxi, a scholar in the tenth year of Yongzheng, and a Jinshi in the first year of Qianlong (1736). He was the magistrate of Fan County and Weixian County in Shandong Province. He had outstanding political achievements. He later lived in Yangzhou and made a living by selling paintings. He was an important representative of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou".
Main achievements:
Zheng Banqiao’s calligraphy uses official script mixed with regular script. He calls himself “six-and-a-half-point calligraphy” and is known as “Banqiao style”. Most of his paintings are based on orchids, grass, bamboo and stones. Orchid and bamboo are almost his soul. Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy art is unique in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
It can be inferred from "Ouyang Xiu's Ode to Autumn Sounds in Small Regular script" written when he was 23 years old and "Zhi Shi in small regular script" written when he was 30 years old that Banqiao learned calligraphy from Ouyang Xun in his early years. The font is neat and elegant, but a little restrained: this is related to the neat and elegant Guange style that was prevalent in the calligraphy world at that time, and it was used as the standard font for imperial examinations.
In this regard, Zheng Banqiao once said: "If your regular script is too uniform, it will damage your soul if you work hard for a long time." After he became a Jinshi at the age of 40, he rarely wrote anymore. Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy is most praised for his "six-and-a-half-point script", which is a unique "Banqiao style" that uses "Han Bafen" (a type of official script) mixed with regular script, running script and cursive script.