Among literati calligraphy, Yu Dafu’s calligraphy is probably the most personal. Judging from the appearance, his book is sideways and thin in shape. Although the ink is not heavy, the lines are quite strong and resolute, like a cone drawing sand. This is actually the most consistent with his character.
Yu Dafu's old poetry creation occupies a considerable position in the history of modern Chinese literature and has been highly praised by his peers. Liu Dajie once said that Lu Xun and Yu Dafu should be the best writers of old-style poetry since the May Fourth Movement. Someone asked the same question to the old man Zhitang, and Zhitang answered "Yu Dafu and Shen Yinmo". From this point of view, Yu Dafu's old poems were, if not the first, then the second among the literati at that time. As shown in the picture, this couplet is written in ink: "I once whipped a famous horse because I was drunk, for fear that my love would hurt my beauty." This is a famous line from Yu Dafu's own poem "Diaotai Wall".
"Inscription on the Wall of Diaoyutai" is a poem written by Yu Dafu on the high wall of the ancestral hall while he was drinking while visiting Yanziling Diaoyutai in Tonglu in 1931. The eight lines of the poem are: "If you don't cherish your body in front of the bottle, your pretense of madness will inevitably turn out to be true. I once whipped a famous horse because of drunkenness, for fear that my love would burden my beauty. Misfortunes are committed in the southeast, roosters crow, wind, rain, and seas raise dust. What's the point of mourning and crying? A righteous man They all talk about Emperor Qin. "
This calligraphy is the neck couplet in the poem. The author wrote "Ding Chou Spring Day" at the signature. The recipient of the book, Zheng Ziyu, is an expert in rhetoric. He once studied in Japan and was only a young man in his early 20s at the time. Compared with Yu Dafu's calligraphy and his poems, there is still a big gap. Judging from the work in the picture, it should be said that it is a more serious and sophisticated one among Yu Dafu's calligraphy works.
According to his article, Yu Dafu’s calligraphy has not been practiced at all. However, even though he knew he was not good at calligraphy, Yu Dafu was still willing to write for others. When his friends asked for books, he almost always responded to their requests. What is the reason for this? In an essay "Speaking of Writing", Yu mentioned two "weird" reasons why he likes to write for others: first, because China's paper industry is sluggish, and consuming some is not a social prank; second, Most of the friends who ask for help are people who have something to eat. A little bit of money is used to benefit workers in the paper and paper industries, which is also an indirect tax.
It seems that Yu Dafu’s character is indeed unusual. As for the two lines of poems written by him, "I once whipped a famous horse because I was drunk, for fear that my love would burden my beauty." If combined with his writing background at that time, in addition to calligraphy, there is still something worth chewing on.