Chapter 26: The Elegant Style of Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties for a Thousand Years
It's really hot today... so hot that I'm about to get heatstroke! Weakly shouting: Classmates, where are the tickets?!
After exchanging greetings with his neighbor, Auntie Li, Zhang Wen-zhong used his key to open the door and entered his own home.
In Zhang Wen's hands, apart from the take-out Yangzhou fried rice bought from a fast food restaurant outside the residential area, he also carried a bag of Xuan paper, ink and brush bought from an art store outside the residential area. He planned to use these things to personally create a valuable birthday gift for Yu Jia's grandfather.
After finishing the Yangzhou fried rice, Zhang Wenzhong tidied up the table and then walked into the kitchen. He put the prepared medicinal materials into a clay pot and placed it on the gas stove, turned on the fire, and started brewing the Chinese medicine that needed to be drunk three times a day.
Decoction of Chinese medicine takes forty-five minutes, although this period is not long, Zhang Wen Zhong does not want to waste it. He plans to make use of this time and finish the birthday gift for Yu Jia's grandfather.
Then he went back to the living room, took out the Xuan paper, ink and brush that had just been bought, and neatly placed them on the clean table.
Zhang Wenzhong first spread the rice paper on the table, then used a paperweight to gently flatten it. After that, he picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and with a flick of his wrist, began writing on the rice paper with bold strokes.
This is Zhang Wenzhong's first time using a brush to write after his rebirth, so the characters he wrote are crooked and slanted, just like tadpole script, not only very ugly, but also very difficult to recognize what he actually wrote.
The handwriting he is writing now is uglier than those who just started learning to write with a brush.
Although the words he wrote were very ugly, Zhang Wenzhong's expression remained calm and did not reveal any disappointment. He took the rice paper with the words from the table, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can under the table.
Then, Zhang Wenzhong spread out a brand new piece of Xuan paper on the table and continued to repeat his previous writing.
This time, his handwriting was still very poor. However, compared to the previous one, it had improved a lot.
It turned out that Zhang Wen-zhong at this time was purely wanting to regain the kind of uninhibited feel he had when writing in the past, so he didn't care what the content of his writing was, nor did he care whether the characters he wrote were good or bad.
At this moment, he had been writing non-stop for half an hour and had almost used up the entire stack of thick xuan paper. Zhang Wenzhong finally regained the feeling of writing with ease that he had at the beginning. A faint smile floated to the corner of his mouth. Because he knew that in his current state, he could already start making the birthday gift for Uncle Yu Jia.
Yes, Zhang Wenzhong prepared a birthday gift for Mr. Youjia's grandfather, which was a calligraphy work!
A centenarian picture written by him personally!
What is called a hundred longevity picture, is a painting composed of one hundred longevity characters, used for birthday celebrations. It sounds like writing out this hundred longevity picture is a simple thing to do. However, if you want each of these hundred longevity characters to have its own unique style and capture the essence of the character, that's a very difficult thing to do.
This time, after Zhang Wenzhong spread the Xuan paper on the table again, he didn't rush to write hastily. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and stood still in front of the table, holding his breath as he mentally arranged the 100 longevity characters.
After standing still for five minutes, Zhang Wenzhong opened his eyes.
A hint of confident smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Then he moved.
His right hand slowly stretched out, grasped the brush placed beside him, and dipped the tip of the pen in ink. His eyes suddenly narrowed, and his right hand holding the brush suddenly sped up, writing swiftly on the rice paper with a dragon-like movement.
Majestic and profound, simple yet natural, dignified and solemn is the character for longevity, in the grand seal script of the Spring and Autumn period. The rustic charm that comes face to face with it intoxicates people.
The robust and elegant longevity character, with its sturdy structure and rounded lines, is the small seal script of Li Si from the Qin Dynasty. Even across a thousand years, one can still glimpse the style of the old Qin through it.
The symmetrical and rectangular longevity character is a Lishu (clerical script) of Cai Yong from the Han Dynasty.
The elegant and dense longevity character is the regular script of Northern Wei's Zhong You; while the vigorous and natural longevity character is the running script of Eastern Jin's Wang Xizhi. The style of Wei and Jin dynasties, leaping on paper, truly intoxicates people.
There are also the Tang Dynasty's Ouyang Xun's law-abiding and extraordinary longevity characters; Li Bai's majestic, heroic, and carefree longevity characters; Yan Zhenqing's strong, dense, and ancient longevity characters; Liu Gongquan's clear, vigorous, and angular longevity characters. Each of them is showing off to the world that most glorious era in Chinese cultural history.
Next are the Song Dynasty's Huang Tingjian's unrestrained and expansive longevity characters; Su Shi's rich and plump, yet cleverly restrained longevity characters; Mi Fu's calm and powerful, yet slightly tilted longevity characters. Of course, we cannot forget the Song Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji's slender gold script. In the bright moonlight of the Song Dynasty, these longevity characters slowly tell us about that prosperous yet war-torn era.
There are also the longevity characters of Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming, the four great talents of Jiangnan in the Qinhuai River, indulging in debauchery, reciting poetry and composing lyrics, what a wonderful and carefree life!
The brushstrokes of those famous calligraphers in Chinese history are revived one after another at this moment under Zhang Wen's brush.
This hundred-year-old picture written by Zhang Wen-zhong has become the development history of ancient Chinese calligraphy... No, to be precise, this hundred-year-old picture is actually the history of ancient China!
With a heavy stroke of the brush in his hand, Zhang Wenzhong finished writing the last character for longevity. He looked up and down at this centenarian picture with a glance, suddenly burst out laughing loudly, and casually threw the brush in his hand aside. The whole set of actions was quite a bit like the unrestrained manner of a Wei Jin scholar.
There is no doubt that Zhang Wen-zhong was very satisfied with this centenarian picture he had just painted.
In this centenarian picture, one hundred longevity characters have different styles, some are simple and unadorned, while others are bold and unrestrained. Not two of the longevity characters are identical or similar. And this is not surprising. What's truly surprising is that each of the longevity characters in this centenarian picture has grasped the essence of famous calligraphers throughout history, as if they were written by their own hands.
Undoubtedly, anyone who has studied calligraphy will be shocked after seeing this centenarian picture.
Even in their hearts, a strange guess would emerge coincidentally: could this hundred-year-old painting be the joint work of those one hundred famous calligraphers in history?
It's hard to believe that in this world, there are people who can master a hundred different fonts, and they all grasp the essence of each one. To put it into perspective, even if someone only studied one font to the level of "Bai Shou Tu", they would already be considered a master calligrapher!
At the same time mastering more than 100 kinds of calligraphy...
Such things are really unbelievable and make people dare not believe.
