Page 169 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

Zhu Yunming, often considered the greatest Fig. g. Anonymous (nth c). Poems byYu Xin and Xie
calligrapher of the Ming dynasty, wrote in a wide Lingyun. Northern Song dynasty (g6o-H2y). Detail of a

array of styles and scripts. Such versatility reflects handscroll, ink on "Jivc-wlorcd paper. " Liaoning

broad training, which, we learn from Zhu Provincial Museum, Shenyang.
Yunming's own words, was strictly directed by
orthodox study, without which his wilder
paternal guidance to well-established models of the experiments would have been unacceptable. The
Jin and Tang dynasties. ' 2 Although the work in the proof lay in a stele exhibiting Zhang Xu's standard
script, which was a considered a model of Tang
exhibition, a scroll of poems composed by Zhu discipline and suggested to Song dynasty viewers
Yunming himself (cat. 179), appears absolutely free, some relationship with the earlier Jin tradition
because of its relatively open, sparse structures
it in fact belongs to a long and curious tradition of aesthetic qualities generally associated with Jin
writing that is generally referred to as kuangcao writing. '' The existence of this standard-script
writing was extremely important, for it validated
("wild cursive"). Two basic historical Zhang Xu's unconventional cursive by proving
that Zhang was steeped in rules and methods.
transformations are recognized in the cursive-script Huang Tingjian prided himself on the ability to

tradition. The first occurred about the fourth —spot Zhang Xu fakes wild writing by pretenders
century and within the milieu of Wang Xizhi, with —and followers precisely because rules and
the development of what was then called "modern
cursive" (jincao). Four hundred years later another methods were lacking."' Both Su Shi and Huang

epochal change took place with the appearance of —Tingjian strongly emphasized the propriety the
wild cursive. It was associated almost exclusively —solid foundation rooted in orthodoxy governing

with Zhang Xu (ca. 700-ca. 750), one of the "Eight the dots and dashes of Zhang's drunken brush.

Immortals ofWine" and a spirited fellow given to It was what separated Zhang Xu trom his followers,
wild tantrums while in his cups. According to a
who, by merely imitating the wildness ot his
number of sources, Zhang Xu would temper his writing, were guilty of using conscious intent
to write that which should have emerged
drunken fits by channeling his energy through an
spontaneously.
ink-charged brush. Some claim that on occasion he
would even dip his unbound hair into the ink and

use that to write. '-' This was writing aimed at
revealing the fundamental nature of the calligrapher
and based on the assumption that wine was an
essential element in dissolving all inhibitions and

intentions. After this mode of writing became
established in the eighth century, a number of wild-

cursive specialists emerged in quick succession.
Poems by Yu Xin and Xie Lingyun, a celebrated piece
that for many years was erroneously attributed to
Zhang Xu, provides an excellent example of

eleventh-century kuangcao (fig. 9).' 4

Kuangcao presents interesting problems in all three
ot the aesthetic domains previously described. Yun
resonance is an important desideratum for all forms
of cursive script, but wild-cursive script promotes
an outward display of raw energy. Containment,
that subtle sense of resonating energies rippling
across characters or columns, is often lost in the
calligrapher's eagerness to open the emotional
floodgates. Similarly, methods {fa), reflective of
diligence and restraint, at first seem totally
irrelevant. As for ideas (yi), their presence would be

antithetical to the absolute naturalness demanded of
the calligrapher. But herein precisely lies the

problem. Later critics recognized that kuangcao, in

—tact, often was written with intention the

intention to be as wild as possible. Wildness was not

to be equated with genuineness, especially when

there was a ready audience and market for this new,
exciting form of performance calligraphy. Eleventh-

century critics like Su Shi and Huang Tingjian
were careful to emphasize that Zhang Xu's wild-

cursive writing was built on a solid foundation of

CALLIGRAPHY 167