His calligraphy draws nutrition from Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Chu Suiliang, Xu Hao, Li Beihai and Yang Ningshi, and strives for innovation on the basis of inheriting tradition. When talking about his calligraphy, he said: "The method of writing is superficial and limited, and the three can't be perfect in the end, but I have a good idea."
When talking about his artistic creation of calligraphy, he said: "I can't write books with my heart, and I am very happy." He focused on "meaning" and sent his feelings to the book with "faithful hand". On the basis of his profound understanding of calligraphy art, he used traditional techniques to create calligraphy art, enriching and developing traditional techniques in calligraphy art creation, rather than simply mechanically removing the old.
Su Shi studied "Two Kings" in his early years, Yan Zhenqing and Yang Ningshi in his middle age, and Li Beihai in his later years. He also extensively dabbled in other calligraphers in Jin and Tang Dynasties, forming a profound and unpretentious style. His calligraphy, with more strokes, is flat and slightly fat. This is also closely related to the way he holds the pen. Su Shi's brush is "lying on his side", that is, the brush lies on his side between the tiger's jaws, which is similar to the current pen holding posture, so his handwriting is inclined to the right and flat.
The middle-aged representative of Su Shi's calligraphy can be regarded as Huangzhou Cold Food Poetry Post (II). This poem post is two poems written by Su Shi when he was demoted to Huangzhou in the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082) because of Wutai poetry case. Poetry is gloomy and desolate, but it is broad-minded. The color of brush and ink in calligraphy also changes with the context of poetry, ups and downs, extraordinary momentum, and one go, reaching a near-perfect state of "both hands are smooth". Therefore, the book of Xian Yu in the Yuan Dynasty was called the "third running script in the world" after Wang Xizhi's Preface to Lanting and Yan Zhenqing's Sacrifice to His Nephew.
Jiang Xun, a famous aesthete, said that Su Shi's works look casual and soft on the surface, but his rigidity is all in them. For example:
Especially the words "flower" and "mud" are the most beautiful. There are many ties between these two words, and the thin pen ties them together.
If you don't zoom in, you may not see that Su Dongpo's pen has such delicate parts besides softness.
Therefore, for calligraphy, the first thing is to understand his meaning. After reading it, you must enlarge the words and read every habit of his pen. You will find that Su Dongpo's pen aesthetics is related to his personality.
Others say that Su Dongpo's posture is not rigid enough to write, but when we look at the word "bitter rain" and the horizontal painting of "rain", it is actually very rigid to go down to the next part. Especially the shoulder frame is very well written.
In particular, the word "flower mud" reflects Su Dongpo's understanding of life: from gorgeous flowers to soil.
Someone said his handwriting was ugly, so he said, yes, my handwriting is "the stone on the toad".
Pay special attention to the words "empty, cold, broken and wet" in the second half. Life is not perfect, but he still hopes to live a meaning in such a decadent time.
Cold Food Post is regarded as Su Dongpo's greatest calligraphy work because he applied it to the most complicated situations. Su Dongpo didn't change so much until after middle age. Some are soft, some are hard, some are simple, some are gorgeous, and some have changed the most.
Therefore, Huang Tingjian said: Su Shi deserved to be the first of the four great calligraphers in the Song Dynasty.