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Which famous calligrapher's calligraphy is the most expensive? Some people say it is Wang Xizhi, who is the "Calligraphy Saint" and has a great status and influence, but he has no authentic works handed down, so the upper limit of the price of his works is ultimately just our guess. Others say it is Zhao Mengfu, whose authentic works have repeatedly sold at high prices, and the transaction prices of "Two Letters to Guo Youzhi" and "Imitating the Huangting Sutra" have both exceeded 100 million yuan.

However, the highest record for calligraphy auction so far was created by Huang Tingjian, whose cursive script "Dizhu Ming" was sold at the Poly fifth anniversary spring auction in 2010 for a sky-high price of 436.8 million yuan including commission. This record has been maintained to this day and is the most expensive calligraphy work. The second highest record is the Song Dynasty copy of Wang Xizhi's "Ping An Tie", which was sold for 308 million yuan.

The "Dizhu Ming" was written by the "Four Masters of Song Dynasty". The whole scroll is over 8 meters long, which can be called a magnificent masterpiece. It is worth more than 400 million yuan, which is understandable. Wang Xizhi's "Ping An Tie" is so classic that it is understandable that it was sold for 300 million yuan. However, after these two, the third most expensive calligraphy work is unexpected.

There are two reasons: first, the author of this work is not a great calligrapher, not even a first-class calligrapher; second, this work has very few characters, only 124, and it was written casually on the back of the page. Therefore, some netizens said "surprisingly" and "this is the celebrity effect".

This work is "Jushi Tie" by Zeng Gong, one of the "Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties". It was first sold at a high price of 108 million yuan in 2009, and then purchased by Wang Zhongjun, chairman of Huayi, for 207 million yuan at the China Guardian Spring Auction in 2016. On average, each character is worth 1.67 million yuan. In the words of Ma Weidu, "any character can be exchanged for a luxury car."

The "Ju Shi Tie" is 29 cm long and 38.2 cm wide, with 13 lines and 124 characters. The size of each character is about 2.5 cm. It is a letter written by Zeng Gong to his fellow townsman when he was 62 years old. It is also the only calligraphy work handed down from him. Zeng Gong was a man of great literary talent and noble character, and he was as famous as Su Shi. Both of them had sought advice from Ouyang Xiu, so they could be called "fellow students".

The explanation of the Bureau Affairs Post is: "I have a lot of free time because of the bureau affairs. I am away from the benefits of teaching and discussion. Three years have passed in a flash. I have been in a poor place and lost in the redundancy of official duties. How can I be happy? It is difficult to be close to the replacement. And I have not heard of the replacement. I am looking forward to it day and night. If I can escape the idleness, it will be the power of the wise. At the turn of summer and autumn, I left the government. I would like to thank the people around me. I hope that I can take good care of myself. I will be promoted soon. I will ask you about it here. It is not appropriate. Gong bows again. Yun Gou, the wise man without party, wrote this letter on the 27th."

Zeng Gong's calligraphy was influenced by Yang Ningshi, Ouyang Tong, Ouyang Xun, Chu Suiliang and others. His strokes are clear, vigorous, delicate and smooth, with more bones than flesh. He used a sharp tip to enter the paper, and there was a pressing action after the pen was put down. He used both the side of the pen and the square pen at the turning point, with natural angles. The characters are compact and stretched, with a structure of staggered heights, interlaced and avoided, full of dynamic momentum.

It is difficult to compare Zeng Gong's calligraphy level with that of the "Four Masters of Song Dynasty", but it excels in scholarly air and preciousness. It can also be seen that he is well versed in rules and his strokes are never in vain.

Do you think Zeng Gong's work is worth the price? Welcome to leave a message in the comment section!