Deng Wenyuan (1258-1328), also known as Shanzhi and Gangshi, was known as Mr. Dengbaxi and Sulu. He was a native of Mianzhou (now Mianyang, Sichuan) and moved to Hangzhou, Zhejiang. And because Mianzhou belonged to Brazil County in ancient times, people called Deng Wen originally "Deng Baxi". He served as a Confucian scholar in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, a minister of government affairs in the south and west of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, a bachelor of Jixian and a minister of the Imperial Academy, and a bachelor of Hanlin lecturers. He died with the posthumous title Wensu. He had outstanding political achievements and was an honest official of his generation. His articles were outstanding and he could be called a leading figure in the literary world in the early Yuan Dynasty. There is a biography in "History of the Yuan Dynasty". His writings include "Brazilian Collected Works", "Internal Collection", "Sulu Zhai Manuscript", etc. Good at writing and cursive writing. The handwritten writings handed down from ancient times include "Zhangjuan in case of emergencies" and so on.
Deng Wenyuan had been friends with Zhao Mengfu since he was young, and was called his "fearful friend" by Zhao Mengfu. The two had a deep relationship. In the second year of Dade, Emperor Chengzong summoned Zhao Mengfu to write the "Tibetan Scriptures" in gold inscriptions in Dadu, and those who were able to calligraphy were allowed to follow him. Deng Wenyuan was recommended by Zhao, and they came to Beijing together, making his calligraphy famous in the world. In Deng Wenyuan's few handed down works, it can be clearly seen that he was more influenced by Zhao Mengfu than Xian Yushu. His calligraphy style is quite similar to Zhao's, such as "Huang Tingjian Songfeng Pavilion Poetry Volume and Postscript", "Looking at the Recent Han Dynasty" Shi Er Tie Postscript" and so on. Tao Zongyi's "History of Calligraphy" commented: "Deng Wen was originally in Zheng, Xing and Cursive scripts. He followed the two kings early and Li Beihai later." The patriarchal Jin people's view of calligraphy and the way of learning calligraphy were consistent with Zhao Mengfu's, and the two were active in calligraphy activities. People who have frequent contact with each other and exchange letters will naturally become infected. In addition to being good at writing official script, running script, and modern cursive script, Deng Wenyuan was also good at engraving chapters and scripts, and also practiced the beautiful writing style of regular script. Yuan Hua, a Ming Dynasty scholar, said: "Looking at his writing, it is like a god going out to the sea, flying as white as white." (see Wang Keyu's "Coral Net").
Deng Wenyuan and Xian Yushu were both under the banner of Zhao Mengfu's restoration and became indispensable leaders in the trend of restoration in the Yuan Dynasty. Xianyu's influence is not as good as that of Zhao, and Deng's influence is not as good as that of Xianyu. If Xianyu is attributed to his untimely death, then the reason for Deng is that he neglected political affairs in his later years and the titles of his books gradually faded away. There is Zhang Yu's postscript "Reading in Urgency" as evidence: "(Deng) cooperated greatly in his early years. After middle age, his title became higher and higher, and his calligraphy learning gradually declined. He handed over his pen and inkstone, and he began to speak truthfully. In his late years, Chapters and chapters are just like things. Faith and learning cannot stop like this." It can be seen that Deng was more involved in political affairs and his calligraphy became sparse, so he was unable to develop his style more distinctively in the second half of his life.
