Page 170 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts
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Fig. w. Zhu Yunming (1461—1527). Examples ofprose by Fig. 11. Yan Zhenqitig (709-785). "Record of theYan
four masters of the Tang and Song. Ming dynasty Family Ancestral Shrine. " Dated to 780. Detail of a
(1368—1644). Palace Museum, Beijing.
rubbing.
Zhu Yunming was probably well aware of the
writing. There is evidence here of the influence of
controversy that surrounded the wild-cursive script.
Huang Tingjian's cursive calligraphy, and this is
In fact, his own writing was also mired in it. significant, for Huang Tingjian repeatedly
Although supporters were willing to see Zhu's emphasized the importance of yun ("resonance") in
kuangcao as a natural outlet for his personality, cursive calligraphy. Viewers cognizant of Zhu
described by one friend as "bold and direct, with Yunming's standard-script calligraphy will also be
no patience for strictness and reserve," critics tempted to recognize in the writing compositional
disparaged it as "undisciplined," "careless," "self- principles that Zhu had mastered from his study of
the very early calligrapher ZhongYou (is 1—230)
indulgent," and "bordering on the heretical." (fig. 10). Samples of writing attributed to Zhong
Interestingly, Zhu Yunming s wild-cursive writing, You epitomize that association of loose
like Zhang Xu's, was apparently much forged. As compositional structures with early writing. If Zhu
the contemporary scholar Fu Shen has Yunming did apply the methods of standard-script
documented, one later calligrapher went so far as to writing to his wild cursive, it would have been
claim that all of Zhu Yunming's wild-cursive works
in circulation were outright fakes. 17 reassuring to the viewer that the underlying quality
of propriety so important to Song dynasty critics
The approach taken in the present scroll (cat. 179),
a late work dated to 1523, suggests Zhu Yunming's was indeed present. Zhu Yunming refrained from
interconnecting many of the characters, opting
solution to the problems posed by the kuangcao instead tor measured compositional interplay. The
tradition. Unlike the eleventh-century "Poems"
(fig. 9), which emphasizes a kind of zigzagging writing is dynamic and inspired, but the overall
columnar speed, Zhu's wild cursive explores a feeling is of a deep pool of complex, interweaving
energies, like swirling eddies, rather than a
broad horizontal dimension. He purposely leaves
many of the structures loose and open so that dots cascading release. Zhu Yunming successfully realized
and lines almost seem to disperse instead of a delicate balance between containment and vigor.
connecting to form distinct characters. In fact, the
untutored eye may have a difficult time He explains at the end of the scroll that he wrote
distinguishing Zhu Yunming's individual columns of after drinking and that though he was fatigued, the
CALLIGRAPHY 168
