Northern Song Dynasty-Huizong Zhao Ji's "Cursive Script Thousand Characters"--Peerless Calligraphy Treasure of One Man in the World
 【Name】Thousand Characters in Cursive Script

【Category】Crazy Cursive Book

【Author】Zhao Ji (Song Huizong)

[Form] Jin Yunlong paper

【Year】Song

[Original Size] 31.5 cm in length and 11.72 meters in width

[Current status of cultural relics] Liaoning Provincial Museum

Details of "Thousand Characters in Cursive Script":


【Description】

　　This post is a rare long Huizong cursive scroll. Compared with Huai Su, it is really indistinguishable from Huai Su in terms of the familiarity and exquisiteness of the brushwork, structure, and even the artistic conception of writing. This scroll of pen and ink is written on the entire piece of gold-colored cloud-dragon paper with a total length of more than three feet. The exquisite pattern of the base text was drawn by the painter in the palace on paper, and it can be said to complement Huizong's calligraphy, and together they have achieved this unprecedented masterpiece! It is known as "the peerless calligraphy of one person in the world".

　　The overall atmosphere of this work can be described as full of energy, and the whole article is as mighty as the rushing water, and the visual consistency is always an important factor to attract the attention of the appreciators, just as Tao Zongyi explained in "Book History Huiyao" General: "The meaning is natural, and it must be traced." This is a long scroll, and cursive script is written on it, which to a certain extent restricts the display of the calligrapher's temperament. Why do you say that? Because the expressive dimension of calligraphy is from top to bottom, especially cursive script, some spontaneous strokes are often produced in the vertical space, and the space for horizontal expansion is very limited after all.

　　Looking at this post, it is full of vigor and vitality, and the spirit is leaping. Although it is a long scroll, the writing is full of vitality, beating endlessly, and never tired of writing. In the case of relatively small vertical space, Zhao Ji’s use of long lines is also very appropriate. For example, the pens at the end of the characters "hao", "di" and "ye" in the text not only adjust the proportion of the space, but also make it sparse. , Ups and downs, agile, full of lofty sentiments and far-sightedness, but also play a role in guiding and accommodating, making the work more connected. From this work, it is not difficult to find that Zhao Ji is good at using interspersed and scattered chapters. Perhaps, he got inspiration from Huang Tingjian's cursive script. Huang's cursive script is well-proportioned and personable. His masterpiece "Li Bai's Reminiscence of Old Travel Poems" is very good at using the invasion and interweaving of lines, so that some characters cross regions and invade the line space of other characters. This way of handling makes the presentation of the rules no longer limited to single row and single column, but gives people the aesthetic feeling of "street paved with chaotic stones". The way of expressing the intrusion in Zhao Ji's work can be said to capture the essence of Huang's family: weird at first, shocking at second, wonderful at third.

　　From this volume, we can also see Zhao Ji's "free" attitude when he created: for the strokes, on the basis of ensuring the quality of the lines, he writes very quickly, powerfully, wildly and unrestrainedly, inspiring the world, and has the feeling of "who can give me up". Potential; this work is done on gold-painted cloud-dragon paper, because the paper surface is smooth, making the pen and ink penetrate slowly. As a result, there are mostly sharp and sharp strokes throughout the text, but less subtle and blunt strokes. This may be the expression of the part of the beauty lost in the blind pursuit of momentum. In such a work, the handling of the painting and drawing and the turning points are too fast and sharp. If you can do what Zhang Jie said in the Song Dynasty, "let it go, it will be like the Yangtze River, billowing and rolling, rolling endlessly; Concealing, appearing and disappearing, and gesturing wildly", there is indulgence, but at the same time it can be captured, so the aesthetic feeling brought to us by this volume may be richer --- after all, subtlety is more able to arouse the aesthetic emotions of the viewers .

　　As the link between the upper and lower characters, "implicated" is the main expression in cursive script. A calligrapher who is good at writing big cursive has a wonderful grasp of entanglement: sometimes it is as thick as a main pen, and sometimes it is as thin as a gossamer; sometimes it is pulled down vertically, with the momentum of flying down; . It can be seen from this volume that Zhao Ji is good at using the oblique pulling method of involvement. On the one hand, this shows his confident writing state: like an angry man picking a stone, he is unstoppable, calm and joyful, passionate and unrestrained; but on the other hand, it also reveals his lack of flexibility in the way of implicating him, with more oblique lines, The whole article will appear chaotic, similar, and monotonous.

【About the Author】

　　Zhao Ji (1082-1135), that is, Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty, was the eleventh son of Shenzong and younger brother of Zhezong. He was successively named King Suining and King Duan. When Zhezong died of illness in the first month of 1100 AD, he was childless, and Queen Xiang made him emperor in the same month. In the second year, the name was changed to "Jianzhong Yasukuni". He reigned for 25 years. After the "Jingkang disaster", he was captured and tortured to death at the age of 54. He was buried in Yongyou Mausoleum (35 miles southeast of Shaoxing County, Zhejiang Province today). He is a talented and creative artist who can do both poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing. In terms of calligraphy, his greatest achievement lies in the original creation of "thin gold body", which has become the object of admiration for calligraphy scholars of later generations.