Who was the earliest female calligrapher in China?

Mrs Wei is the earliest female calligrapher in China. Mrs. Wei, whose real name is Shuo, whose real name is Maoyi, is from Anyi, Hedong (now Xiaxian, Shanxi). She was born in the eighth year of Emperor Taishi of the Jin Dynasty (272) and died in Yonghe of the Jin Dynasty (349). She was a female calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. According to legend, she is also Wang Xizhi's teacher. Mrs. Wei is best at cursive writing, and her masterpiece is four-body calligraphy. Mrs. Wei was very studious and loved calligraphy when she was young. She studied under the great calligrapher Zhong You and was good at official script. She once wrote poems about cursive script, and also wrote "urgent chapter" at the order of the imperial court. However, due to various reasons, her calligraphy works have not been circulated so far. According to some previous comments, we can get a glimpse of her calligraphy style.

Mrs Wei inherited Zhong You's calligraphy style, and her works were fluent, noble, elegant and graceful. However, on the basis of inheriting Zhong You's calligraphy, she made some innovations, showing an elegant and agile charm. Her calligraphy is also full of beauty, which fully embodies the unique charm and femininity of women, and is similar to Zhong You's works. Mrs. Wei not only made a great breakthrough in the practice of calligraphy art, but also made great achievements in the theory of calligraphy art. The volume "Bi Tu" written by her is a book about calligraphy theory, which comprehensively and profoundly put forward her unique views on calligraphy. She advocates that learning calligraphy should first learn to "copy" and then make appropriate innovation and development on this basis. At the same time, Mrs. Wei stressed that if a worker wants to do a good job, he must sharpen his tools first, and choose pens, ink, paper and inkstones with better quality when studying and creating. At the same time, Mrs. Wei has profound theoretical research on writing. She pointed out that we should pay attention to the use of pens, and different books should use different methods. She made a profound exposition on the relationship between pen and meaning in calligraphy art and the cultivation of calligraphers, which went beyond the scope of simply discussing writing. She believes that writing different fonts requires different writing methods, which essentially raises the question of calligraphers mastering different font writing styles. Mrs. Wei devoted her life to the practice and theoretical research of calligraphy art, which pointed out the direction and road for future calligraphers. Her theory became an important content and evaluation standard of China and calligraphy theory, which had a great influence on the development of calligraphy theory and practice in past dynasties.