Page 432 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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each of the parallel vertical columns, thus provid- studied it, there was nothing in which he was not manipulate freely. Although that freedom some-
ing students with canonical models to learn from. able to achieve complete mastery" (translation times led him to flamboyant excess or to careless
Accomplished calligraphers also wrote the text, from New Haven 1977, p. 205). Zhu's particular instability, the present work shows him at his
which became so well known that viewers could interest in the cursive style was likely inspired by very best, with strong, forceful, and individual
concentrate their full attention on style rather his grandfather Xu Youzhen, who himself fol- brushwork creating pictorial structures that are
than content, on the writing performance rather lowed the Tang paragons of that style, Huai-Su truly classic in their disciplined balance and
than the denotative meaning of the characters and Zhang Xu. Zhu Yunming's highly subjective, restraint. H.R.
themselves. "wild" transformation of this mode was excep-
Zhu Yunming is widely hailed as the greatest tionally innovative, therefore drawing great
calligrapher of the Ming dynasty, peer of the opprobrium from conservative critics. His non-
greatest masters of antiquity. He was trained in conformist personality and his iconoclastic ideas
literature and guided in his early study of calligra- on history and society seem entirely congruent 286
phy by his father, Zhu Xian (c. 1435-c. 1483), and with his cursive writing, in which he at times Wen Zhengming
by his two grandfathers, the scholar-official Zhu sacrificed coherent and balanced structure in order
Hao (1405-1483) and Grand Secretary Xu You- to achieve maximum visual impact from simple 1470-1559
zhen (1407-1472). Zhu later married the daughter forms spontaneously written. TEN FAMILY ADMONITIONS
of the highly regarded calligrapher Li Yingzhen Zhu's Thousand-Character Essay of 1523 is
(1431-1493), who was also the teacher of Zhu's unusual within his oeuvre, and his colophon sug- dated to 1541
close friend Wen Zhengming (cat. 286, 317). gests that he was aware of that fact. It is written Chinese
After passing the second-level examination in in semicursive script (xing shu). The columns of handscroll; ink on paper
7
3
1492, Zhu held office for only about five years, as the text are spaced rather closely, which tends to 32.7 X 1,463.9 (l2 /8 X 5/6 /8J
magistrate in Guangdong Province from 1515 to stress lateral connections and hence balances the National Palace Museum, Taipei
about 1520, and enjoyed most of the rest of his life verticality of the columns themselves. Most of the
in Suzhou with such friends as Wen and Tang Yin individual characters have broad or squat con- This scroll is not only a superb example of Wen
(cat. 297-299). structions, but within each column Zhu estab- Zhengming's mature style of calligraphy but, con-
According to Zhu himself, his father forbade lished a rhythmic progression of vertical, sidering the content of the text as well as the
study of any modern calligrapher, insisting that horizontal, and oblique strokes that creates a artist's own inscription and the colophon, it is also
the precocious youth learn from the great masters powerful and compelling movement from begin- a document illuminating some basic cultural and
of the past. Wen Zhengming thus wrote of his ning to end. The strokes themselves are generally social values. It is inscribed:
friend: "... [Zhu Yunming] alone was able to fleshy and broad, with the clear and decisive
absorb the merits of all the different scripts. The changes in width that suggest pulsating energy. Prefect Ziwu [Chen Yide] brought the admoni-
reason is that when he was young, there was no Zhu's various earlier models had long since been tory words he had received from his father and
calligraphy he did not study; but having once internalized as a stylistic vocabulary that he could asked me to write them out so he could keep

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