Page 140 - Gan's Family History

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Although a great admirer of
Zhang, each of Yan's strokes (figure
35) was serious, unlike Zhang's wild
and crazy brushwork. Yan was
accomplished in Xing Shu (Walking
Style) and Cao Shu (Running Style),
both of which he wrote in a very
natural way, accomplishing his best
work when, ironically, he was angry
or sad. One of his finest works was
an obituary written for his nephew
who had been killed in a rebellion.
Although there are many corrections
in his best pieces, the nephew's
obituary in particular has been
compared to the famed Orchid
Pavilion Preface. Yan left behind
more than 20 masterpieces of his Kai
Shu (Regular Style), many of which
are still very useful to beginners
today.
Liu Gongquan
(778-865 A.D.)
Liu Gongquan was an upright,
honest, and principled minister of
the Tang Dynasty who developed a
style of Kai Shu (Regular Style) that
is still widely used in the teaching of
calligraphy. He and Yan Zhenqing
are often mentioned together as
being among the great masters of Kai
Shu (Regular Style), although their
two styles differ greatly. Yan's is thick
and muscle bound, while Liu's is slim
and skeletal; both are powerful but
one is like muscle bound wrestlers
while the other is more like a
lightweight boxer. For the past few
hundred years Chinese primary and
secondary school students who learn
Kai Shu (Regular Style) do so from
Liu's and Yan's masterpieces.
Liu lived a long life and served
fewer than three different Tang
emperors. He is perhaps best
remembered for some very honest
and famous advice that he gave to
Emperor Tang Muzhong. The
Emperor had asked Liu to tell him
the most important rule for using a
brush and Liu, risking his life
perhaps, answered that
"If a man is honest and upright,
just, and fair minded, then his
calligraphy will be upright and
correct as well."
The Tang emperor chose to take Liu’s
advice rather than throwing him in
jail for impertinence. This theory,
that if your heart is upright your
brush is upright, is well known, even
if it is not always true.
Liu studied the calligraphy of the
two Wangs, OuYang Xun, Yan
Zhenqing, and Li Yong. He also
dissected animals and studied their
anatomy. The flying action of wild
geese across the sky, the rhythm of
swimming fish, and the running of a
deer, which he felt was thin, light,
and skeletal, all influenced him.
From of his observations, and his
adoption of some of Yan's muscle and
Ou's style of structure, his own style
of Kai Shu (Regular Style) (Figure 38)
emerged.
Because he was a Buddhist, most
of his masterpieces are related to
Buddhism. He was a very popular
writer of memorials for stone tablets
and any son of that era was
considered unfilial if he did not
request that Liu write a composition
in honour of the deceased parent. Liu
is said to have worked so hard at his
practice of calligraphy and his