This article comes from a Chinese folk story - "Liu Gongquan Practices Calligraphy"
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As soon as Liu Gongquan entered Shoumen of Huajing City, he saw a big locust tree on North Street. There is a white cloth cover hanging under the tree, with the three characters "calligraphy and painting soup" written on it. The font is vigorous and powerful, and the brushwork is vigorous and unrestrained. There were many people gathered under the tree. He squeezed into the crowd to take a look and was stunned. I saw a dark, thin, deformed old man with no arms, sitting on the ground with bare feet, his left foot pressing the paper on the ground, and his right foot holding a large pen, writing couplets with ease. He used his pen like a god, and his handwriting was like a galloping horse, with dragons and phoenixes dancing, which won bursts of applause from the onlookers.
He knelt down in front of Calligraphy and Painting Tang with a "plop" and said: "I would like to worship you as my teacher. My name is Liu Gongquan. Please accept me. I hope the master will tell me the secret of writing..." Calligraphy and Painting Tang hurriedly Putting down the pen in his hand, he lifted up Xiao Gongquan with his foot and said: "I am a lonely deformed person. I was born without hands and cannot make a living. I have to rely on my clever feet to make a living. Although I can write a few crooked words, how can I be worthy of being a human being? Teacher?"
After Xiao Gongquan begged again and again, Calligraphy and Painting Tang spread a piece of paper on the ground, picked up the pen with his right foot, and wrote:
"Write all eight jars. Water stains waterlogged ponds black; winning hundreds of parents will lead to success."
The old man said to Gong Quan: "This is the secret of my writing since I was a child. I have been practicing for more than fifty years. There is a large tank in my house that can hold eight loads of water. I use up eight tanks of water to practice calligraphy and ink. There is a pond with a size of half an acre outside my house. I finish writing every day. I was washing my inkstones in the pool, and the water was completely black. However, my handwriting was still far from perfect!"
Since then, Liu Gongquan has worked hard to practice calligraphy, and his hands have developed thick calluses. , the clothes and elbows were mended layer after layer. He learned the freshness and plumpness of facial expressions, the cheerfulness and smoothness of European style, the bold and unrestrained style of calligraphy and painting, and the graceful charm of imperial style.