1. Calligraphy with yellow mud
When Yan Zhenqing was three years old, her father died of illness. His mother had no choice but to take him back to his grandfather's house.
Yan Zhenqing’s maternal grandfather was a calligrapher and painter, and his mother was also a well-educated and sensible person. Seeing that Yan Zhenqing was very smart, they taught him how to read and write. Yan Zhenqing was very attentive when practicing calligraphy. He was never sloppy with each stroke and took most of the day to write.
The mother felt happy and sad when she saw her son practicing calligraphy with such care. I am happy that my son will be successful in the future; I am worried that my family is not well off, so how can I have enough money to buy paper for him to practice calligraphy? Yan Zhenqing was very sensible. Seeing that her mother was worried about having no money to buy paper, she quietly figured it out on her own.
One day, Yan Zhenqing happily said to her mother: "I have free paper and pen. Don't worry!"
"Silly boy, how can I have free paper and pen?" "Where's the money?"
"Look, isn't it?" Yan Zhenqing said cheerfully, holding a bowl and a brush in his hand, "This bowl is an inkstone, and this brush is used as a pen." , the yellow mud in the bowl is ink!"
"Then...where is the paper?" Mother asked again.
Yan Zhenqing pointed at the wall and said seriously: "This is paper. If you don't believe me, I will write it for you!"
After saying that, he picked up the brush and put it in the bowl Soaked in mud, he walked to the wall and started writing. When the wall was full of writing, he rinsed it off with water and started writing again.
The mother smiled happily when she saw that her son had a good way to practice calligraphy without spending money.
Because Yan Zhenqing was diligent and studious, when he grew up, he not only developed good calligraphy, but also became a learned and talented young man.
2. Resigned from office and became a disciple
When Yan Zhenqing was 26 years old, he took the imperial examination and passed the imperial examination. Two years later, he became a scholar (an official responsible for writing inscriptions and memorial texts) in the imperial court. Later, the imperial court asked him to go to Liquan County (in today's Shaanxi Province) to serve as a county captain specializing in managing local security.
There are a lot of official matters in the county government, but Yan Zhenqing still doesn't forget to practice calligraphy. Although everyone praised his calligraphy skill, he thought, as the saying goes, "Beyond the mountains there are mountains, and beyond the sky there is sky." He was not good at calligraphy, so he had to learn from masters. Soon, he resigned from his official position, took some of his handwriting, and rushed to Luoyang to become a disciple of the great calligrapher Zhang Xu.
Zhang Xu listened to Yan Zhenqing’s explanation of his purpose and said to him after carefully reading Yan Zhenqing’s handwriting:
“Your handwriting is already very good. Now, the country is in the process of It’s time to employ people. You are the future pillar of the country. How can you spend so much time on writing? As long as you practice hard, your writing will improve, so there is no need to worship me as your teacher.”
After listening to Zhang Xu's words, Yan Zhenqing felt that it made sense. Seeing that Zhang Xu refused to accept her as a student, she said goodbye and returned to Chang'an.
After Yan Zhenqing returned home, he became an official in the court, but he was still worried about learning calligraphy from Zhang Xu. Soon after, he resigned from his official position again and came to Luoyang to find Zhang Xu.
When Zhang Xu saw Yan Zhenqing resigning to study calligraphy for the second time, he was moved by his sincerity and happily accepted him as his apprentice.
Extended information:
Yan Zhenqing first learned calligraphy from Chu Suiliang, and later learned calligraphy from Zhang Xu, and also discussed calligraphy with Huaisu. He conducted in-depth research on the calligraphy of Er Wang, Chu Suiliang and others, absorbed their strengths, completely got rid of the style of the early Tang Dynasty, and created a new calligraphy style of the era. Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy style is called "Yan style", and together with Liu Gongquan, it is called "Yan Liu", and has the reputation of "Yan Jin Liu Gu".
Yan Zhenqing's real calligraphy is majestic and dignified, and the knotted characters have changed from the long and thin ones in the early Tang Dynasty to square ones, with circles within the squares, and they have centripetal force. The brush is thick and strong, and he makes good use of the center stroke. It is muscular and sharp. Generally, the horizontal strokes are slightly thin, and the vertical strokes, dots, strokes and strokes are slightly thicker.
This style of writing is majestic, powerful, and has the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. His cursive writing is powerful, revealing true feelings, calm in structure, and full of stippling, which opened up a new world for cursive writing after the Wang School.
Yan Zhenqing’s running script is vigorous and vigorous. This style also reflects the prosperous style of the Tang Dynasty and is consistent with his noble personality. It is an example of the perfect combination of the beauty of calligraphy and the beauty of personality, so it is praised by later generations. It is known as "the second running script in the world".
The more dignified and vigorous "Yan Qin Li Stele" is also his work, but the thin strokes are different from other stele.
"Yan's Family Temple Stele" has rich calligraphy and is also his proud work in his later years. Compared with his early works, it is more vigorous and majestic and is his masterpiece in his later years.
Yan Zhenqing created a unique realm of calligraphy with "Yan style" in the history of calligraphy. His calligraphy is not only tied with excellent spirituality, the realm is naturally magnificent; not only is it cast with a strong soul, the realm is naturally strong; and it is born with rich people, so the realm is naturally broad.
In his youthful days, Yan Zhenqing asked Zhang Xu for advice on "how to become equal to the ancients." This is Yan's calligraphy aspirations and his high aspirations. This Miao descendant of the Yan family, who used a loess broom to sweep walls and learn calligraphy since childhood, stood at a high starting point for calligraphy almost from the beginning.
In terms of calligraphy, it took almost thirty or forty years of experience for Kunpeng to spread his wings before he developed his own appearance and atmosphere. Subsequently, decades of hard work have been used to refine and enrich it, making the "face and body" both physical and spiritual.
In his later years, he still wanted to achieve perfection and reach a state of perfection. "Yan Ti" finally stood firm in the world of calligraphy. As Fan Wenlan said in "Compendium of General History of China": "Ou, Yu, Chu, and Xue in the early Tang Dynasty were only the successors of the calligraphy style of the two kings. Yan Zhenqing in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was the creator of the new calligraphy style of the Tang Dynasty."
Yan Zhenqing's regular script, especially the regular script after Yin Sui, has formed a paradigm. There are many learners in later generations, and there is even a saying that "learning from books should be done by learning Yan"