Cai Jing's Calligraphy in Song Dynasty

The "Four Masters of Song Dynasty" appraised by later generations, namely, Mi, Su, Huang and Cai, all handed down their masterpieces of calligraphy for later generations to copy and appreciate. While appreciating their superb calligraphy attainments, someone raised a question. Does Cai here refer to the traitor Cai Jing or the calligrapher Cai Xiang?

This question is really interesting. On the one hand, because the two Cai's handwriting is good, Cai Jing is not only a court official, but also a red man around the emperor. Besides, because of his good handwriting, he is even Song Huizong's confidant, and they often learn from each other in painting and calligraphy. On the other hand, some people say that this Cai refers to Cai Jing, just because he has a bad personality, has done too many bad things and has a bad reputation, so when talking about "Song Sijia", he deliberately called Cai Jing Cai Xiang.

So what is the real history? Is there such a person in Cai Xiang? Is he an alias of Cai Jing, or is he qualified to be one of the "Song Sijia"?

First of all, there must have been Cai Xiang in the Song Dynasty, and he was indeed a famous calligrapher. Cai Xiang studied under Yu Shinan and Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty. His regular script is calm, his running script is gentle and sincere, and his charm is full. His cursive script uses the method of flying white, which is natural and unrestrained. Even in the History of the Song Dynasty, there is such an evaluation of his calligraphy: "The first time I wrote a book, Renzong especially liked it, and wrote an inscription by Wang Longxi on the ninth topic of Yuan Dynasty." In other words, his calligraphy was appreciated by Emperor Renzong at that time. He even used the word "Mo Jun" as the imperial calligraphy, and used poetry to spoil the differences. At that time, it was simply the greatest recognition to let the emperor write poems to praise a person. It's much better than issuing a certificate, sending a banner or millions of dollars today.

Of course, Cai Jing is also a great calligrapher, but compared with Cai Xiang, he is still a lot worse. The point is, even as a celebrity around him, if he is really awesome, why did he seldom mention him, but gave Cai a high evaluation and called him "Song Lugong"? Therefore, it can be judged that Cai, one of the four great poets in Song Dynasty, actually refers to Cai Xiang, not Cai Jing.