I went to Zhiliquan, especially to Jingluo, and visited Zhang Gong, the chief historian of Jinwu, to ask for his calligraphy skills. At that time, Chang Shi was resting at Pei Jian's house, and there were a lot of people who asked Zhang Gong for his brushwork. Those who could find it all said it was wonderful. In the second year of Puqing's stay in Chang'an, he studied under Zhang Gong, but he was not taught by anyone. Anyone who asked about the penmanship just laughed, and the cursive script, or three or five papers, all disappeared in the excitement, and there was no more words. who. When the servants meet again in Luoxia, they are still attached to each other. Servant asked Pei Jian: "What did you get from studying Zhang Shi?" He said: "But I got dozens of scrolls of silk, screen, and plain materials for calligraphy. I also asked him to discuss the brushwork. I just said that I should work harder to learn and practice calligraphy. I should realize my calligraphy by myself." Ear".
Interpretation: In this paragraph, Yan Zhenqing describes the difficulty of obtaining Zhang Xu's brushwork: First, Yan Zhenqing asked the master's brushwork twice. That is, "Yu Ba Zhi Liquan" and "Pu Qing studied under Zhang Gong in the second year of Chang'an". The second is that "people who asked about the brushwork just laughed." Including Pei Zhen, Zhang Xu only gave the works and did not give a direct answer, which further shows the preciousness of the brushwork.
There are two words that need to be noted in this section: one is the word "Qing" in "Pu Qing stayed in Chang'an for the second year to study with Zhang Gong". "Qing" means a moment, which by extension means not long ago. Yan Zhenqing spent two years in Chang'an "to study under Zhang Gong". Combining Yan Zhenqing's chronology, we can roughly know that this apprenticeship refers to the period when Yan Zhenqing was dismissed from office in the second year of Tianbao. The second is that in the original text, the word "cun" is written as "有" in the original text. Comparing the meaning of "the person who may exist" with the meaning of "the person who may have obtained", the former means only a few words. The latter seems to have obtained all of Zhang Xu's treatise. At that time, Li Bai, Li Yangbing, and He Zhizhang were all influenced by Zhang Xu to varying degrees. Yan Zhenqing and Cui Miao were the direct disciples of Zhang Xu written in history books, and the word "Cun" was inherent in the rubbings, so they thought the word "Cun" was more consistent. The literary meaning of this section is also reasonable.
Original text The servant stopped at the Pei family because he and Pei Jian had been together for more than a month. I invited him one night before and said: "Since I have received the award from my brother-in-law, I have been nourished by the sun and the moon, I have worked hard day and night, and I have been addicted to calligraphy. If I can learn the key points of calligraphy, I will eventually become a teacher and learn it. I hope that I can become masterful. How can I express my gratitude to you?" Sincerely!". Chang Shi didn't say anything for a long time, then he glanced left and right and suddenly stood up. The servant came to the small hall of the Bamboo Forest Courtyard. Zhang Gongnai sat down on the bed in the hall. He ordered the servant to sit on the small couch and said: "The brushwork is mysterious and subtle, and it is difficult to teach it rashly. If you are not a person with high ideals, you can't tell me what to say." The book seeks abilities and attacks the real grass. Now that I teach them, I need to think carefully."
Interpretation: This section describes how Yan Zhenqing finally moved Zhang Xu through her sincere confession. There are two points that need to be noted: First, the word "brother-in-law" means "inheriting the reward from brother-in-law". The word "brother" has the meaning of teacher in ancient times. Therefore, in ancient times, when one party who was not a master-disciple relationship called the other party brother, The other party generally does not call the other party brother; the word "Zhang" means respected elder. Therefore, the word "brother-in-law" can be understood as senior or elder. From this, it can be inferred that Yan Zhenqing is not Zhang Xu's apprentice at this moment, otherwise Yan Zhenqing could directly call Zhang Xu "mentor", "respected teacher" or "my teacher". Second, Zhang Xu pointed out the idea of ??studying both cursive and real calligraphy. Among the twelve masters of cursive calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty listed in "Tangren Book Review", Sun Guoting (ranked No. Second, ranking after Zhang Xu) said in "Shupu": "If the grass is not both true and true, it is almost a matter of concentration; if the true grass is not clear, it is not Hanzha." The view of learning the true grass together is here obtained by Zhang, the sage of grass. Xu's was once again clearly confirmed.