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The great poet Du Fu once wrote "Song of the Eight Immortals Drinking", praising Zhang Xu, Li Bai, Li Shizhi and others for their wildness, carefreeness and informality. The words are full of the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty, confident and romantic. Among these people, who did Du Fu admire the most was He Zhizhang. He wrote at the beginning: "Zhizhang rides a horse like riding a boat, and falls into a well and sleeps at the bottom of the water."

These two lines of poetry, which are very vivid, outline the casualness of He Zhizhang. Later generations praised him as the "living immortal" of the Tang Dynasty. On the one hand, he was talented, supported the younger generation, and had a noble character. On the other hand, he lived a very long life, had a smooth life, held an important position, and the emperor personally saw him off when he retired. It can be said that he lived a life worthwhile.

Many people may not know that this romantic figure is not only good at writing poetry, but also first-class calligraphy and policy essays. He is the first number one scholar in Zhejiang Province that can be traced back to history, and is also a "Cursive Saint" of his generation, along with Zhang Xu and Huaisu.Scholars believe that the earliest extant authentic cursive script was written by He Zhizhang.The Book of Filial Piety。

This work has a history of more than 1,300 years and is included in the "Xuanhe Calligraphy Collection". It was taken away by Japanese pirates in the late Ming Dynasty and later presented to the Japanese royal family. It has been collected in the Sannomaru Shozokan and is one of the "treasures of the museum". It is rumored that the island country's hiragana and katakana were created based on this work.

The whole scroll of "The Book of Filial Piety" is 27 cm long and 311.4 cm wide, with more than 1,000 characters, and the character size is about 2.5 cm. After reading this work, Li Bai praised him as comparable to Wang Xizhi, and Tao Zongyi of the Ming Dynasty said, "He Zhizhang is good at cursive and official scripts, and is highly regarded in his time. In his later years, he was even more unrestrained. Whenever he was drunk, he would write poems, alternating between cursive and regular scripts, and sometimes even writing strange and unconventional works. If he wakes up and writes again, he may not write like that."

In terms of the free and unrestrained use of the brush, even Zhang Xu and Huaisu may not be able to compare. He Zhizhang's cursive script absorbs the style of seal script, official script and official script, and takes the two Wangs as the foundation. The rules are strict, and the writing is delicate, natural and meticulous.

The "Book of Filial Piety" uses a sharp tip to enter the paper, then rubs, lifts and presses, and writes with the center of the pen. The strokes are smooth and contain strength, graceful and orderly, and the lines are drawn. The strokes are straight down at the beginning, end, and turning points. The strokes are mainly circular, without emphasis on pauses. The characters are restrained and compact, and the momentum is achieved through verticality. The composition is dense up and down, and sparse left and right. The ink color is light but not floating, but has a bit of indifference, which is deeply in line with the moderate use of the brush by the Jin people.

Japanese royal minister Kawada Tsuyoshi wrote in the postscript: "The calligraphy of this book is vigorous, with flying swans and rolling waves, thick and thin, fast and slow, with infinite changes. It is derived from the style of Wang Xizhi, and is undoubtedly the authentic work of He Jian." If we copy this work thoroughly, we will have mastered the authentic cursive calligraphy.

The Japanese royal family recently exhibited the restored version of the "Book of Filial Piety" for the first time. After much effort, we have reproduced this work in ultra-high definition 12 colors, launched an exclusive folding version, and added explanations to correspond to each other. It is very convenient for you to copy and appreciate. If you are interested, please click the link below to take a look!