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Mi Fu's running script "Ganlu Tie"
Also known as "Bi Ju Tie"
Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

High-resolution image of Mi Fu's "Ganlu Tie"
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Mi FuHe was good at poetry, calligraphy and painting, and was good at identification. He created his own style of calligraphy and painting, and founded the Mi-style landscape painting. He was a calligrapher, painter, appraiser, and collector. His calligraphy was the best among the Song people, unrestrained and unrestrained, but also strict in rules. "Song History·Literary Biography" said:Fu was particularly good at calligraphy, calm and graceful, and he had the style of Wang Xianzhi.。”

Mi Fu's running script "Poems Sent to Wei Tai", also known as "Poems in Response to Wei Tai", is suspected to be a copy.Paper, 26 cm in height and 102.5 cm in width, collected by the Wang family in Hong Kong.

Explanation:

To Mi Yuanzhang. Wei Tai. The wind blows back the green fields and the grasses sway. The rain clears the lotuses in the square pond. For several years, I wrote about red leaves in Xiao Temple. One day, I changed to white geese in Shanyin. In Xiangpu, we used to get drunk together under the moon. I still remember the song of knocking on the side of the boat in Jinghu Lake. The black clothes have turned into the old mountain. The white hair is missing me. In the second rhyme. Mi Fu. The mountain pepper and buzhu overlook the river waves. I always miss the lotus made in Chu for thousands of miles. I used to pity the handsome and idle horse. I am tired of slaves and books and don’t play with geese. How can the true leisure be abandoned by the wise ruler? In the holy time, I always sing the folk songs of the wild. Since knocking on the side of the boat, I was shocked by the summer order. There are still many clouds and objects in Luochuan. Tai, a native of Xiangyang, is good at poetry. His name is well-known in Jianghan, but he does not serve as an official. Yesterday, I stayed in the capital for a long time. On the day of returning to the mountain, Fu just arrived at the capital gate, and the old friend did not meet. I sent this poem to him, and he replied. Therefore, he and Wang Pingfu are both poets.

Mi Fu(1051-1107), originally named Fu, later changed to Fu, styled Yuanzhang, signed his surname Mi or Mi, native of Taiyuan (now Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province), born in Xiangyang (now Xiangyang City, Hubei Province). His contemporaries called him Haiyue Waishi, Yuxiong Descendant, Huozheng Descendant. A calligrapher, painter, and calligraphy and painting theorist in the Northern Song Dynasty. Together with Cai Xiang, Su Shi, and Huang Tingjian, he was known as one of the "Four Masters of Song Dynasty". He once served as a proofreader, a doctor of calligraphy and painting, and a member of the Ministry of Rites. He was known as "Mi Nangong". His calligraphy and painting were unique, and his paintings of dead trees, bamboos, rocks, and landscapes were unique in style. He was also quite accomplished in calligraphy, and was good at seal, official, regular, running, and cursive scripts. He was good at copying the calligraphy of ancient people, to the point of being indistinguishable from the original.

His main works include "Zhang Jiming Tie", "Li Taishi Tie", "Zijinyan Tie", "Danmo Qiushan Poetry Tie", etc. His "Shu Su Tie", also known as "Ancient Poetry Tie", is "the eighth running script in the world" and is praised by later generations as "the most beautiful calligraphy in China".

Mi Fu was good at poetry and prose, and was good at identification. He was also good at calligraphy and painting. His calligraphy was inspired by Wang Xianzhi, especially regular and cursive scripts. He was called "the Four Masters of Song Dynasty" together with Cai Xiang, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian. His landscape paintings were inspired by Dong Yuan, but he was innovative. He mostly used ink and wash, and emphasized interest rather than detail. He was known as "Mi's Cloud Mountains". He liked to collect ancient gold and stone artifacts, especially strange stones. His works include "Baojin Yingguang Collection", "History of Painting", "History of Calligraphy", "Waiting for Visits in Baojin" and so on.

Mi Fu worked hard on calligraphy, and his greatest achievement was in running script. Most of the famous collections of calligraphy since the Southern Song Dynasty have his calligraphy engraved on them. It has been widely circulated and has had a profound influence. Among the "Four Great Calligraphers of the Northern Song Dynasty", he is second to none. Kang Youwei once said: "Tang Dynasty emphasizes structure, while Song Dynasty emphasizes interest." This means that calligraphers in the Song Dynasty emphasize interest and personality, and Mi Fu is particularly outstanding in this regard. Mi Fu practiced calligraphy and called himself "a collection of ancient characters". Although some people thought it was a laughing stock, there were also people who praised him, saying "There is no need to boast about his natural talent, but he can establish his own style by collecting ancient characters" (Wang Wenzhi). This explains to a certain extent the reason for Mi Fu's success in calligraphy. According to Mi Fu's own account, before he followed Su Dongpo to learn Jin Dynasty calligraphy, it can be roughly seen that he was most influenced by five Tang Dynasty calligraphers: Yan Zhenqing, Ouyang Xun, Chu Suiliang, Shen Chuanshi, and Duan Jizhan.

After the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082), he began to search for the calligraphy of Jin people and got Wang Xianzhi's "Mid-Autumn Postscript". This preconceived Da Ling Postscript (Wang Xizhi's seventh son, the official Zhongshu Ling, known as "Wang Da Ling") had a huge impact on him. However, Mi Fu, who was unruly by nature, was not satisfied with Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy. As early as the Shaosheng period, he shouted "I am tired of the slave's calligraphy and will not exchange it for a goose" and "I will wash away the bad calligraphy of the two Wangs."

Despite this, Mi Fu's calligraphy at this time was not finalized. Although the "Tiaoxi Tie", "Yin Lingming Toudao Temple Stele Postscript" and "Shu Su Tie" written in the third year of Yuanyou (1088) were written within a month and a half, their styles were quite different and they had not completely stepped out of the threshold of collecting ancient characters. After the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091), when Mi Fu lived in Haiyue Temple, he also learned calligraphy from Yang Xin. It was not until "I was old and started to establish my own style. People who saw it did not know what to focus on" that I finally completed the establishment of my own style, which was probably after the age of fifty.

In the finalized calligraphy works, Mi Fu was too unrestrained and obsessed with "momentum", even in the small regular script such as "Elegy for Empress Dowager Xiang". This "momentum" is his advantage, but it also became his defect. "Finally, he made a mistake in one aspect", Huang Tingjian's evaluation was clear and should be more objective and fair. Huang Changrui of the Song Dynasty commented on his calligraphy, "He can only write running script, but not regular script and cursive script." At that time, the so-called "regular" did not have a specific meaning, and it was not necessarily the "regular script" of today. If it refers to seal script and official script, it would be appropriate. Mi Fu's seal script and official script were indeed not very good, and his cursive script was also mediocre. Later, he had a negative attitude towards the cursive script of the Tang Dynasty, and was confined to his knowledge of the cursive script of the Jin Dynasty, so it was inevitable that his achievements were mediocre. Li Zhimin, a professor at Peking University who introduced the inscriptions into cursive script, commented: "Mi Fu said that 'Cursive script does not have the personality of the Jin Dynasty, and it is just a low-grade product'. This is to defraud oneself and others by cutting off the land. The reason why Yuan Zhang's cursive script has no new ideas is that it cannot break through the barriers of the ancients."

Mi Fu's calligraphy, if we talk about the style of his calligraphy, is the best. As evidenced by his inscriptions on the cliffs of Longyin Rock in Lingui at the age of 24, his calligraphy has a little momentum, but there is no trace of his own style; the inscriptions on the "Burenian Tu" at the age of 30 also make people feel that his talent is inferior to his learning. At the age of 30, he was an official in Changsha and saw the Yuelu Temple Stele. The next year, he visited the Donglin Temple Stele in Lushan and inscribed his name on both. In the second year of Yuanyou (1087), he also exchanged six paintings by Zhang Xuan and two scrolls of calligraphy by Xu Hao with Shi Yigeng for Li Yong's "Duore Yao Gefen Tie".

Mi Fu's calligraphy works, from poems to letters and inscriptions, all haveExhilarating, unrestrained, vigorous and freshJudging from the nearly 60 existing handwritings of Mi Fu, the word "刷" vividly expresses the spirit of Mi's calligraphy. No wonder Su Dongpo said:Mi Shu's Superb Elegance. "He also said, "Haiyue's seal, official, regular, running and cursive scripts are like the wind blowing the sails and the horses galloping in battle. He is calm and refreshing, and should be on par with Zhong Wang. He is not only worthy of it.”

Mi Fu's calligraphy has a far-reaching influence, especially in the late Ming Dynasty, and many scholars such as Wen Zhengming, Zhu Yunming, Chen Chun, Xu Wei, Wang Juesi, and Fu Shan all learned a "Heart Sutra" from Mi Zi. This influence has continued to this day.

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