Six-and-a-half calligraphy, another name for Zheng Xie (Zheng Banqiao) calligraphy in Qing Dynasty, is called "Banqiao Style". He mixed it with running script in the form of official script, and sometimes it was written with lanzhu face pen, which became his own face.
This book is between official scripts and official scripts, and official scripts are more than official scripts. Official scripts are also called "eight points", so Zheng Xie jokingly called his own non-official and non-official scripts "six points and a half books". Zheng Banqiao's unique style of new books initiated the history of calligraphy. Zheng Xie was good at both poetry and calligraphy, which was called "Three Musts" at that time. His calligraphy is sui generis, which he nicknamed "six-and-a-half-book". He also explained: "Banqiao has neither the strength to pull out the rich Weng nor the smoothness of the loose snow. It is just strange, and it is a method that the real officials are related to each other, but it is mixed with grass." Judging from the calligraphy works he created, the so-called "the method of combining real officials with each other" actually means that official officials are involved in running script, and at the same time, they are written with the trend of writing cursive script. As for which "six points", which "half points" and where the rest "three and a half points" are, we can't stick to it. It can be seen that Zheng Banqiao is determined to betray the tradition and make bold self-innovation in calligraphy. This kind of innovation is mainly manifested in two aspects: one is to break the boundaries of seal script, official script, official script, line script and cursive script, and arrange the stippling and structure of characters at will, mainly using regular script and official script together; The second is to break the boundaries between painting and calligraphy, and integrate the method of painting bamboo and orchid into calligraphy. He once said that his books "often take the paintings of Shen Shitian, Xu Wenchang and Gao Qipei as the brushwork." ("Zheng Banqiao's Inscription on the Ink Bamboo Map") Look at his handwriting, its stippling is thick or thin, thick or light, long or short, and its structure is sparse or dense, positive or oblique, all natural, and it is slightly exaggerated. It forms a characteristic of shaping with things and following the shape. On the whole, its fonts are mostly rectangular with low left and high right. Because of this characteristic, his calligraphy has vertical lines without horizontal columns, and there is a kind of "disorderly stone paved street" between words and lines.
On the surface, this innovation of Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy is a hash, but in fact it is based on his profound understanding of traditional calligraphy. He studied the calligraphy of the "Two Kings", Yan Zhenqing, Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian and others deeply, and studied Zhuanli and Wei Bei, but his study of the ancient calligraphy was based on the appearance of the gods, and never sought the shape. He said: "The Yellow Valley cloud says,' The world only learns Lanting noodles, but wants to exchange bones without elixir.' It can be seen that bones can't be lacking in learning. The face of Lanting has been lost for a long time Road flyover Banqiao, in the form of Tafu (Zhong You), is the book of the Right Army (Wang Xizhi), and it doesn't matter if Cai, Zhong and Wang are the masters. Is there a Lanting face? The ancients' calligraphy was fascinating, but the stone carvings and woodcuts were ever-changing. If you follow the same pattern, all the talented people will return to evil ways. "("Preface to Postscript Lanting ") His unique views on learning calligraphy, coupled with his high attainments in poetry and painting, and the vicissitudes of life, naturally formed this calligraphy feature of" strange but not deceitful "by combining broad-minded thoughts with natural humor.