Yan Zhenqing (709-785), courtesy name Qingchen, was born in Wannian County, Yongzhou (now Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province).
Ancestral home is Linyi County, Langye County (now Linyi City, Shandong Province), a politician and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. His regular script is known as the "Four Masters of Regular Script" together with Ouyang Xun, Liu Gongquan and Zhao Meng?
Yan Zhenqing is a descendant of the Langya Yan family and the fifth-generation grandson of Yan Zhitui, the minister of Huangmen in the Northern Qi Dynasty. His father, Yan Weizhen, was appointed Prince Literary. Zhenqing lost his father when he was young and was raised by his mother Yin Shi (Yin Jianyou's eldest sister). "A young man is good at Confucianism, respectful, filial and self-reliant. He is poor in paper and pen, and sweeps the walls with loess. He learns calligraphy, and his regular script is perfect, and his diction is superb."
In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan (734), he became a Jinshi and served as the envoy to Futun in Longzuo, Hexi. In the second year of Tianbao (743), he went to Luoyang to visit Zhang Xu. He successively served as the imperial censor and the interview judge of the Eastern Capital Territory.
Yan Zhenqing’s achievements and status
Yan Zhenqing first learned calligraphy from Chu Suiliang, and later learned calligraphy from Zhang Xu, and also discussed calligraphy with Huai Su. 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 calligraphy style 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. Therefore, he was praised by later generations as "the second running script in the world" ".