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Liu Yong is a "famous figure" in both official history and folk legends. In fact, Liu Yong is also an unavoidable figure in the history of calligraphy.

Liu Yong (1720-1805), courtesy name Chongru and pseudonym Shi'an, was a native of Zhucheng, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. He had rich experience in literary creation. He wrote "The Essence of Calligraphy" and "Shi'an Poetry Collection". Liu Yong's artistic achievements were partly due to his family background. His ancestors were officials, and Liu Yong was influenced by books since he was a child. When he compiled "The Essence of Calligraphy", he wrote a preface saying that he "loved books since he was a child".

Liu Yong was a politician and a calligrapher. Liu Yong's calligraphy was just a skill, but this "prime minister of thick ink" occupies an important position in the history of calligraphy in the Qing Dynasty. In Bao Shichen's "Guochao Shupin", calligraphy is divided into five levels, namely "divine", "wonderful", "powerful", "fine" and "extreme".

In addition to the divine level, each type of calligraphy has two levels, upper and lower, for a total of nine levels. Deng Shiru alone occupies the first and second grades, while Liu Yong ranks third in small regular script, firmly occupying the first place in the regular script of the Qing Dynasty.

This "Seven-Character Poem in Small Regular Script" written by Liu Yong when he was 78 years old is a work that Liu Yong reached the pinnacle of in his later years. His small regular script set a model for an era. The "newness" of Liu Yong's small regular script is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

First, learn from others and don’t follow the beaten path.

Liu Yong was 31 years old and became a Jinshi in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign (1751). Liu Yong's small regular script was written neatly and with a neat brushwork, but without any personal color, which was similar to the "Guan Ge style" that was popular in the court and the country at that time.

After entering the officialdom, Liu Yong did not stop there. He devoted himself more to artistic exploration and finally broke the barriers of "Guan Ge style". He also created a unique new change and "alienated" his own calligraphy style.

In terms of calligraphy techniques, Liu Yong was not limited to one school or one copy. He absorbed the essence of Zhong Yao, Yan Zhenqing and Wang Xizhi, and can be said to be a master of his generation. The strokes of the whole book are full and round, the horizontal lines are thin, and the contrast between thick and thin is great.

Second, the cursive script is integrated into the regular script, which is simple and unsophisticated.

Most calligraphy enthusiasts generally believe that using the brushwork of running script to write regular script can enhance the expressiveness of calligraphy. Liu Yong not only used the brushwork of running script in regular script, but also had a clear tendency towards cursive script. His radicals are often cursive script, and even in regular script, there are some individual cursive scripts.

Liu Yong's small regular script incorporates the brushwork, brush strokes, and body posture of cursive script into small regular script, which is rare in previous small regular script. By doing so, he greatly brings out the dynamics of lines and characters, while also solving the stiffness of small regular script.

Third, the bottom and top of the stele are integrated into one.

Bao Shichen said in Yizhou Shuangji: "After Wenqing turned seventy, he devoted himself to studying the steles and seals of the Northern Dynasties. Although his energy gradually declined and he could not make further progress, his ambition and learning were well-known. Whether Liu Yong was as "dedicated" to the steles and seals of the Northern Dynasties after he turned seventy as Bao said, let's not talk about it for now. Judging from his works alone, it is undoubted that Liu Yong was influenced by the Northern steles.

His colleague Tie Bao said: "The master stole the brushwork of "The Inscription on the Buried Crane", which he got from Yang Shaoshi. In his later years, Liu Yong integrated the characteristics of the Northern steles into his works, adding squareness, clumsiness and strength to the original roundness. The expansion of Liu Yong's aesthetic vision also led to earth-shaking changes in his later calligraphy style.

Liu Yong's efforts in artistic exploration are worthy of recognition. Influenced by the trend of epigraphy, his later small regular script more or less has some characteristics of Northern epigraphy, and gradually developed his own personality, but his brushwork and the overall style shown in his works did not leave the scope of post-modernism.

Of course, due to the changes of the times and aesthetic tastes, Liu Yong's regular script has not received enough attention in modern times. However, as the calligraphy community has a deeper understanding of the art of calligraphy, his regular script will definitely have a greater inspiration for today's calligraphy creation.