Zhang Xu, also known as her mother Lu, is the niece of calligraphers in the early Tang Dynasty, that is, the granddaughter of Yu Shinan. Lu's books have been handed down from generation to generation, which is famous in history. Scholarly family cultivated his free and easy, generous and outstanding temperament, and also cultivated a knowledgeable and talented cursive master. He and Li Bai are like-minded, and their lifestyles and mental outlook are similar. Zhang Xu, like Li Bai, is ambitious and has a bumpy career. He has only served as a few junior officials in his life. Because he is often drunk, he is called to go crazy after being drunk, and then he writes books and even dips his hair in ink, so he is also called "Zhang Dian". Tang Wenzong once wrote a letter, regarding Li Bai's poems, Pei Min's sword dance and Zhang Xu's cursive script as "three unique skills". Zhang Xu and Huai Su are also called "crazy elements" because of their similar temperament; Because of the poem, he, Zhang and Bao Rong are also called "four scholars in Wu". In The Eight Immortals of Drinking, Du Fu listed him, Li Bai and He as "Eight Immortals of Drinking", describing the writing scene of "Zhang Xu's three cups of grass, taking off his hat to expose the top of the prince and throwing paper like a cloud", which was vivid and vivid, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt his temperament was good.
Zhang Xu's calligraphy, from Zhang Zhi and Er Wang all the way, has distinct levels of every word, creating a kind of unpredictable wild grass, which shocked the world. Zhang Xu once said: "At first, when I saw the princess arguing for the way, I got the meaning of brushwork." Seeing the princess arguing with her husband, she realized the relationship between looking forward and avoiding backward in brushwork. When he was in Yexian County, Henan Province, he loved to watch Gong Sundaniang dance Xihe sword, and he got the charm of cursive script.
Zhang Xu is a pure artist. He pours his emotions into stippling, and no one looks at it, and he is as intoxicated as a madman. Tang Hanyu praised in "Preface to Send a Noble Sage to a Master": "Emotion, embarrassment, sadness, happiness, resentment, longing, drunkenness, boredom and injustice, if moving in the heart, must be expressed in cursive script. Looking at things, we can see mountains and rivers, cliffs and canyons, birds, animals, insects, fish and flowers, the sun, the moon and stars, storms and fires, lightning and thunder, singing and dancing battles, and changes in heaven and earth. Congratulations, one is in one book, so the book of Xu is still as unpredictable as ghosts and gods, and it will eventually be praised by later generations. " This is a true portrayal of a persistent artist. No wonder later generations talked about Tang calligraphy. He praised Europe, Yu, Chu, Yan, Liu and Su, but he praised Zhang Xu, which is unique in the history of art. His handed down works include Stomach Pain Post and Four Ancient Poems.
Huai Su was another weed artist after Zhang Xu in Tang Dynasty. Like Zhang Xu, Huai Su is also a good drinker, full of wine and ink. People call it "drunken monk". Huai Su, a monk at the age of 10, was a disciple of Master Xuanzang. He liked calligraphy when he was young. Because his family was poor and there was no paper and ink, he planted more than 10 thousand plantains behind the temple and practiced calligraphy with plantain leaves instead of paper. Because there are banana forests in front of and behind the house, I joked that my residence is "Green Temple". He also used color plates and cardboard instead of paper. Study hard, write comprehensively, and the broken written heads are buried together, named "Pen Tomb", and the pond is called "Mo Chi" because the Xiyan Lake often turns black. He is generous and keen on cursive writing, but he has no intention of practicing Zen. He drinks and eats meat, makes friends with celebrities, and is friends with Li Bai and Yan Zhenqing. Yan Zhenqing resigned twice, seeking his brushwork. Huai Su was famous all over the world when he was young, and Li Bai was full of praise for him: "The young man's name is Huai Su, and the cursive script is chinese odyssey." Praise his words like wind and rain, if falling flowers and falling snow, "panic is like smelling ghosts and gods, always seeing dragons and snakes go far;" The left side of the plate is like a shock, like a battle between Chu and Han. "Huai Su, a literary critic in the Tang Dynasty, used his pen quickly, like a whirlwind in a shower, circling around, changing at will, and having statutes. Princes and celebrities also love to make friends with this crazy monk. " The mad monk moved to Beijing the day before yesterday. Ride a maharaja's horse in the morning and stay at maharaja's house at dusk. Who doesn't build a plain screen, who doesn't draw a white wall. The powder wall is shaken clear and the plain screen is frosted. I can't forget your swaying posture, the horse welcomes the seat, and the golden plate drinks bamboo leaves. Ten cups and five cups are incomprehensible, and after a hundred cups, they start to go crazy. "
Predecessors commented that Huai Su's Wild Grass inherited the essence of Zhang Xu, and had a new development, saying that "madness follows epilepsy". Huai Su once said: "I see many strange peaks in Xia Yun, so I need to learn from them." From the fusion and contrast between floating clouds and majestic peaks, he realized the relationship between rigidity, reality, shade and relaxation in calligraphy art, so his works were full of natural storms. He is good at using the central pen as a big grass, and the momentum is "a whirlwind of showers", and he competes to the realm of "suddenly whistling three or five times, and all the walls are full of words". Although Huai Su's handwriting is quick, straightforward and ever-changing, he seldom makes mistakes, and his calligraphy skills are excellent.
There are many books handed down from Huai Su, including Thousand Characters, Jing Jing, Notre Dame, Zang Zhen, Fa Gong, beriberi, Self-narration, Bitter Bamboo Shoots, Eating Fish and Forty-two Chapters.
Weeds is one of the most indulgent cursive scripts. It originated from this grass, but it is different in size from this grass. Wild Grass is characterized by "madness", which refers to the madness of books. Its calligraphy is bizarre and unrestrained, and it also refers to the madness of people. Calligraphers are often in a state of madness when creating, and their hearts are agitated, and all kinds of changes in the external world are completely transformed into unpredictable ink stippling. At this point, cursive script has become the pure expression of the calligrapher's life, which requires the complete input of the spirit. Zhang Zhi, Zhang Xu and Huai Su all devoted their lives to cursive script. If Zhang Zhi's Grass Today explores the possibility of integrating into individual freedom between the lines, then Zhang Xu and Huai Su's Wild Grass fully publicizes this individual freedom. Generally speaking, Zhang Xu's and Huai Su's Crazy Grass pays attention to the fantastic speed, arbitrary vertical and horizontal trend, and its flexible brushwork has a certain relationship with its crazy creative state. Aside from mystery and exaggeration, this fascination with wine as a medium actually sent the writer to the inspiration position in his creation.
Zhang Xu and Huai Su are the same, but the style of Weeds is different. As far as form is concerned, Zhang Xu cursive script likes to use a fat pen, and the lines tend to be plump, round, vigorous and full, and they are constantly entangled, which is extremely wonderful. Huai Su, on the other hand, likes to be thin and vigorous, with vertical brushwork, priorities between the lines, clear rhythm and great sense of movement. Pointillism seems to be messy, but in fact, the pen is broken, and words, lines and even lines can echo each other. From the aesthetic point of view of calligraphy, Zhang Xu's calligraphy is more black than white and stronger than strength; Huai Su's calligraphy is that Bai Sheng is better than black, winning by taste. The reason is that Huai Su's experience in practicing calligraphy with banana leaves has deeply influenced his writing style. Banana leaves are slippery and difficult to ink, which probably affects the brushwork characteristics of Huai Su cursive script. But if we look at their spiritual orientation, we may have a deeper understanding. Zhang Xu took Taoism as his orientation all his life, while Huai Su participated in the discussion and devoted himself to Buddhism. The influence of life orientation on calligraphy should be subtle. Taste it carefully. Zhang Xu's calligraphy is as bold as a sword, calling for wind and rain; And Huai Su's calligraphy, verve is precious, like a Zen monk, superb. "The colors of ink, air and paper are wonderful and moving, and the vertical and horizontal changes occur at the extreme, which is mysterious."
The calligraphy style of "Dian Zhang Kuang vulgar" embodies the cursive script "calligrapher". Calligraphy theory, who is like a person and whose book is a character, said: those who are wild and uninhibited, their books are bold and elegant; A calm and mature person has a dignified and mellow speech. It is precisely because of their spiritual temperament in calligraphy creation that the words and papers in their works are full of color and charm, and their elegance is equally immortal.