Su Shi's calligraphy is different from other calligraphy. Su Shi, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, is famous for his beautiful and free poems. In calligraphy, Su Shi is good at running script and regular script. He once said to himself, "My books can't create ideas, and I innovate and don't practice the ancients." Since the Jin and Tang Dynasties, calligraphy in the Song Dynasty has taken on a brand-new look. As a representative of the calligraphy circle, the famous Song Sijia's writing style is atmospheric, fluent and natural. Su Shi said that Huang Tingjian's calligraphy is very thin, like a dead snake hanging on a tree. Of course, they didn't scold each other.
Su Shi's calligraphy is unique. We can see that Su Shi and Huang Tingjian teased each other about "putting stones on toads" and "hanging snakes on treetops", which shows the unique style of their calligraphy. Judging from the authentic Su Shi handed down from generation to generation. Su Shi's poems have both naive rhymes. In the third volume of Du Xing magazine, it is recorded: "Dongpo said: Su Shi's ci was rated as a' stone toad', and there is such an interesting story." "Stone grinding toad" is Huang Tingjian's ridicule of Su Shi's calligraphy, saying that Su Shi's handwriting is fat and flat, like a toad crushed by a stone.
The person who comments on Su Shi's calligraphy is Su Shi's good friend, and stoning toad to death is just teasing. Su Shiben is several years older than Huang Tingjian. Because we often discuss poetry together, we tease each other but vividly tell the characteristics of each other's calligraphy. Although Huang Tingjian is also good at poetry, his calligraphy performance is slightly better. However, Huang Tingjian's calligraphy lines are thin, and some strokes are deliberately elongated, free and easy, and eclectic. Many people like Huang Tingjian's calligraphy style easily, so Su Shi ridiculed Huang Tingjian's words as "a few snakes hanging on the treetops".
Although the stone toad means ridicule, it truly describes the characteristics of Su Shi's calligraphy, and the narrator is also a very good friend of Su Shi's childhood.