Cursive script is a font of Chinese characters, characterized by simple structure and continuous strokes. It was formed in the Han Dynasty and evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are Zhangcao, Jincao and Kuangcao. They feel beautiful in the madness.
Kangcao is the most indulgent type of cursive script. The strokes are connected and circular, and the glyphs are wild and changeable. On the basis of modern cursive script, dots and strokes are written continuously to form a "one-stroke script", which is similar in composition to Today's grass is of the same origin.
In ancient Chinese calligraphy theory, whether it is discussion of seal script, official script, Xing script, Kai script, or cursive script, most of them use natural landscapes or certain phenomena to compare, describe and describe them. Readers should Only by relying on a kind of life feeling and life experience can we appreciate and understand. Calligraphy is indeed a very mysterious art, especially calligraphy. The writer is often full of passion and is in an excited state when writing. The reader can faintly feel a certain emotion from the ink marks. This is actually a characteristic of expressionist art. Kuangcao emerged in the Tang Dynasty. Painting at that time was basically a form of expression with meticulous brushwork and heavy colors. Modeling mountains and water, tracing eyebrows and eyes, all had to be completed with rationality over a long period of time. . Even if Wu Daozi's painting method contains expressionistic elements, it is still limited by physical form and cannot be completely relaxed. In this case, Kuangcao appears from calligraphy, which can be borrowed to express emotions or emotions more fully. This is probably the main reason for the emergence of expressionist calligraphy.
Zhang Xu, courtesy name Bogao, was born in Wu County (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province) during the Kaiyuan Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty (713-756). He has been an official for a long time, so he is also known as Zhang Changshi.
Zhang Xu has been addicted to alcohol all his life and has an unruly temperament. When drunk, he often shouts and walks wildly, taking advantage of the excitement and squandering money. It is recorded in the history of painting that he once used his hair to wet ink to write large characters. At that time, people called him "Zhang Dian".
Zhang Xu’s wild grass gallops left and right, ever-changing and extremely strange and unpredictable. Mr. Han Yutao believes that it can be summarized into three characteristics. The first is "crazy", which is written in one go, always consistent, maintaining a momentum, full of "meaning" and "no hesitation about right and wrong". The second is "strange" and "abnormal". Like "thousands of clouds wandering around", it is unpredictable and difficult to grasp when writing. The third characteristic is "terrible". "Awesome" is not "pleasant" or "fascinating". It abandons the morbid condition of beauty and delicateness, and creates a feeling of being overwhelmed by a rock. "The viewer feels solemn when looking at the words, as if he were 'pressing the edge of a sharp sword'." Majestic'". Although Zhang Xu's cursive calligraphy is wild and cursive, it does not lose the law. Every stroke and every stroke is in order, because his regular script is also very successful. There are not many works handed down by Zhang Xu. The ones that can be seen include "Bellyache Post", "Four Posts on Ancient Poems", etc.
Huai Su (725-785), whose courtesy name was Zangzhen and whose common surname was Qian, was from Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan). He became a monk when he was young. He was more than 20 years later than Zhang Xu. He was influenced by Zhang Xu and Yan Zhenqing and studied very hard at a young age. The idiom "bizhongmochi" came from him. His calligraphy is passionate, bold and unbridled, like "birds flying out of the forest, startling snakes into the grass." Poets such as Li Bai and Qian Qi at that time wrote poems praising his calligraphy. Han Xie wrote in a poem: "There is a screen somewhere, and it is clear that there are traces of it. Although it is dusty and stained, there are still thick ink marks. Strange rocks rush to the autumn stream, and ancient pines hang on cold vines. If you teach by the waterside, "Every word is like a dragon." Comparing his calligraphy with Zhang Xu's, it can be seen that the strokes of the latter are fatter and the strokes of the former are thinner. Therefore, Huaisu has "running snakes and flying snakes to sit down" in his "Autobiography". , the poem "A cold ape drinks water and shakes a withered vine" is very appropriate to compare "running snake" and "withered vine".