The pinnacle work in the history of Chinese calligraphy, unprecedented and unprecedented!
Huai Su (737-799), a calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. His common surname is Qian and his courtesy name is Zangzhen. A native of Lingling (Changsha), Hunan. Because the three families were monks, they were called "Lingling Monk" and "Shi Changsha" in the history of writing. In the third year of Emperor Dali of the Tang Dynasty (768), when Huaisu had just passed his thirtieth year, he "hated that he could not see the miracles of his predecessors from a distance and saw only a very small amount of them", so he went to Beijing with Zhang Wei, the governor of Tanzhou, an acquaintance of Fang Nei, and "visited the famous contemporary princes". , it’s all complicated.” Four years later, Huaisu left Beijing to return to his hometown to visit relatives. Passing by Luoyang, he happened to meet Yan Zhenqing, a great calligrapher at that time, and learned from Yan the calligraphy skills of Zhang Xu, a master of cursive calligraphy. Before leaving, Yan also wrote "Preface to Songs in Cursive Script by Master Huaisu" as a gift, and expressed great appreciation for his cursive writing. In the eleventh year of the Dali calendar, when Huaisu was 40 years old and in his prime, he began to summarize his experience in studying and creating Kuangcao, and recorded the evaluation of him by famous officials at that time. This is the masterpiece handed down from generation to generation, "Autobiography", which brought his artistic attainments to the level of perfection.
According to records, the background of Huaisu writing "The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters" is as follows: In the thirteenth year of the Dali calendar, the 42-year-old Huaisu was encouraged by the wonderful description of Yandang Mountain in the Buddhist scriptures. Fascinated by Yandang Mountain, he carried a simple bag containing "Autumn Hair Cocoon Paper" and started his journey to the south. In the autumn of this year, he traveled to Yandang Mountain and stayed at Yandang Jingshe, where he received a warm and considerate reception. He enjoyed the Yandang peaks, strange rocks, giant peaks and waterfalls, and felt very comfortable. When the abbot of the Jingshe who admired Huaisu's name asked him for a book as a souvenir, he happily copied the Hinayana classic "Forty-Two Chapter Sutra" with his fine cursive calligraphy.
This long scroll of Buddhist scriptures in cursive script is about 3 feet long, with 248 lines and 2663 characters. It is said that it was acquired by Zen Master Dajue in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the 1920s, it was collected by Zhou Lian and Pu Yongqing from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. In 1928, this volume was included in "A View of Ink Marks of Ancient and Modern Celebrities" published by Zhonghua Book Company. At the back of the volume, there is a postscript by Zen Master Dajue, which says: "The master's writings are wonderful both ancient and modern. His pen strokes are vertical and horizontal, and the strokes of lightning are strange. Rain and strong winds change at will, making them invisible and unpredictable..." The great painter Xu Beihong is in his painting. "Huaisu's Pictures of Banana Leaves" even says: "The forty-two chapters of the hidden sutra are unprecedented and unprecedented. It should be written with the eyes of the Buddha in mind."