Cao Cao's achievements in calligraphy
Later generations call Cao Cao an outstanding politician, military strategist, and writer in the history of the Chinese nation, a man who was both civil and military, and a man of literature and art. However, few people know that Cao Cao was a calligrapher of his generation. This is mainly due to the fact that there are few calligraphy works handed down by Cao Cao. People who have seen Cao Cao's calligraphy works in history all praise his calligraphy for its beauty: "gold flowers fall thinly, and the ground is exquisite; jade and jade are divided into brilliance, and jade is like a dazzling flower." and "the pen and ink are vigorous and majestic." . At the end of the Han Dynasty, calligraphy critics identified five masters of Zhangcao, namely Cui Yuan, Cui Shi, Zhang Zhi, Zhang Chang and Cao Cao. Liang Yujian, a calligraphy critic of the Southern Dynasty, in his "Shupin", divided the calligraphy works of ancient celebrities into three grades: upper, middle and lower grades, and each grade was divided into upper, middle and lower grades, with nine grades in total; he List Cao Cao's calligraphy works among the best. Zhang Yuguan, a calligrapher and critic in the Tang Dynasty, divided the calligraphers of the past dynasties into three categories: Shen, Miao and Neng according to their artistic achievements: outstanding ones are called Gods, those who use exquisite techniques are called Miao, and those who are unconventional and unconventional are called For Neng; in his calligraphy review monograph "Shuguan", he called Cao Cao's calligraphy works wonderful works. From this point of view, although Cao Cao's calligraphy works cannot be classified as divine or top-grade, they are among the most famous calligraphers in the country. It stands to reason that he is also a master of calligraphy.
Because Chinese characters are all in the shape of squares, they attach great importance to the form of writing and the beauty of the body. Once a certain font is called beautiful by the world and becomes fixed, people will know at a glance who wrote the font, and it becomes an indelible spirit in the history of Chinese characters. Therefore, for thousands of years, tens of thousands of Chinese and foreign intellectuals, in order to occupy a place in the history of Chinese writing, spared no financial and material resources to study it, develop it, and devoted their lives to struggle for it. Since ancient times, there have been so many people practicing calligraphy. Although the forms are ever-changing, in the end they still cannot escape from the four styles: Zheng (Zhen), Cao, Li, and Seal. There are only a few hundred people who have become masters of calligraphy. Only Yan, Liu, Ou, Su, Huang, Mi, Dong, and Zhao are independent. With the continuous innovation and development of calligraphy in our country, calligraphy has naturally become a knowledge and an art; at the same time, many calligraphy theorists and critics have also appeared.
Historical records record that when Cao Cao was a teenager, he was "little alert and powerful, but he allowed his knights to be debauched and did not rule the profession". "A running dog, wandering without restraint", he has a knight-errant temperament and demeanor; but he never mentioned how he practiced calligraphy in a room. When did Cao Cao practice calligraphy? At the age of twenty, Cao Cao was promoted to Xiaolian and entered the court as a prince. Later, he served as a captain in the northern part of Luoyang and moved to Dunqiu County magistrate for one year. Due to his brother-in-law Song's strange incident, he was dismissed from office and returned home. Although it was said that after returning to Bo, he "built a house outside the city, studied reading and writing in spring and summer, and went hunting in autumn and winter for his own entertainment", soon after, the court again worshiped him as Yilang and served as a knight because of his "ability to understand ancient learning". Captain, Prime Minister of Jinan... He began to "promote righteous soldiers and punish riots" at the age of thirty-five. In the thirty-one years until his death at the age of sixty-six, he worked hard to unify China, end the chaos and turmoil in the country, and stabilize the country. To bring order and restore production, we are either fighting in the south or in the north, or in order to stabilize the complex and turbulent political situation, a lot of energy is spent on governing the country and dealing with dangerous overt and covert conflicts. As the emperor who held the emperor hostage and commanded the princes, he felt the preciousness of time and often sighed: "How long is the world? How short is the human world." Cao Cao had very few opportunities to practice calligraphy. There is a book saying that Cao Cao likes to read and observe. There is some truth to that. There are historical records that in addition to often discussing calligraphy skills with famous calligraphers at the time: Zhong Yao, Liang Hu, Handan Chun, Wei Dan, Sun Tzu Jing and others, he also hung the calligraphy of his favorite secretary Ling Liang Hu in the tent. , carefully pondering and appreciating it; sometimes when I couldn't sleep at night, I would get up and slowly taste and ponder the characters of Liang Hu nailed all over the wall. Not only that, he asked Liang Hu to write all the plaques in Wei Palace, which can be said to be admired by everyone. There is also a little-known story between him and Liang Hu: Liang Hu devoted his whole life to the cause of calligraphy. When Cao Cao learned that Liang Wei was rejected by a monograph on calligraphy left by the great calligrapher Cai Yong to Wei Dan. , he was angry and resentful, and when he continued to vomit blood, he gave Liang Hu his special Five Spirit Pills to take.
Although Cao Cao was good at writing, he probably had no chance to write because he was busy with war and political affairs, so there are very few of his ink that have been handed down to the world.
In Song Dynasty Zhengqiao's "Tongzhi? Jinshilue", only one article "Daxi Stele" written by Cao Cao was included; in Ming Dynasty Yang Shen's "Danqian Zonglu" only mentioned the Yuan Dynasty At that time, there was also "He Jie Biao" written by Cao Cao; Qing Ye Yibao said in "Jin Shi Lu" that Cao Cao once wrote the three characters "Yongyue Platform" on the side of the "Yellow Crane Tower" in Wuchang. . There are only two characters left in the world, that is, the word "Gun Xue" written on a large stone in the Bao River south of Shimen when Cao Cao was conquering Hanzhong. It has now been moved to the Hanzhong Museum. The word "Gun Xue" we saw in "Cao Cao's Underground Troop Transport Road" in Bozhou was inscribed on rubbings; the two small characters in official script above were signed "King of Wei". Because they were direct titles and unclear, they were written after People imitate the title.