Among them, Cai Xiang obeyed the law a little more strictly, while learning Chu, Xu and Yan didn't change much, showing a conservative book style. But he swept away the habit of inferiority and weakness in the early Song Dynasty and played a pioneering role from Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty. Later, Su Huangmi's three families were all "close to the people and learned from others" (Xiang Mu in the Ming Dynasty), which formed a typical style of respecting ideas and calligraphy in the Song Dynasty.
Book style characteristics
On the one hand, they all showed respect for feelings, displayed their individuality, and advocated the creative passion of "prosperity" (Su Shi) and "self-sufficiency" (Mi Fei). On the other hand, he opposed "pretending to be interested" (Huang Tingjian), dared to break through the barriers of Jin and Tang Dynasties, and pursued the new book style of updating his attitude and not using it for the old.
Both Su Shi's "fatness" and Huang Mi's "anger" all show the calligrapher's personality and strong feelings. In a word, among the four schools, if they accept the traditional features, they can be called new schools; There are more rice and Cai, which is old school. In spiritual taste, Su and Huang seem to accept more traditions.
From the perspective of attaching importance to meaning, Su Shi is the most distinctive, followed by Huang, Mi and Cai Xiang. As far as the influence on later generations is concerned, Mi Fei is the biggest, followed by Su and Huang, followed by Cai Xiang.