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Chapter 348: Cursive Master Zhang Xu
The Tang Dynasty more than a thousand years ago was prosperous.

The world is splendid, talented people emerge in large numbers, and stars shine.

It was an unprecedented era, and in many ways, the last of its kind.

The Tang Dynasty was a country that was rare in history in terms of ideological tolerance, and the atmosphere of freedom also gave birth to extraordinary cultural creativity.

Such creativity flows like blood in every inch of the Tang Empire, not just in the magnificent city of Chang'an.

In any city or village of the Tang Dynasty, one can feel the prosperity that is right in front of you.

It was in this prosperous Tang Dynasty background that a legendary figure, Zhang Xu, was born.

The calligraphy achievements of Zhang Xu, the master of cursive script, are as famous as those of Wang Xizhi, the master of calligraphy, in the history of calligraphy.

Zhang Xu's cursive script, Li Bai's poetry, and Pei Min's sword dance are known as the three wonders of the Tang Dynasty.

"The Tang Dynasty was an era of highly developed culture and art. During the reign of Emperor Li Longji, art flourished unprecedentedly."

"Li Longji worked hard to build a well-off society during his first twenty years in office."

"Under his rule, the Tang Dynasty prospered and flourished with talented people."

"A large number of people who later became famous in literature, poetry and art, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Zhang Ruoxu, Zhang Xu, Wu Daozi, Yan Zhenqing, He Zhizhang, Meng Haoran, Wang Changling, Gao Shi, Wang Zhihuan, Wang Wei, Zhang Jiuling, etc., were active in this period."

"Among these people, Zhang Xu is undoubtedly one of their brightest stars."

"During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Zhang Xu's cursive script, Wu Daozi's painting, and Pei Min's sword dance were collectively known as the three best."

"More than 50 years after Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Emperor Wenzong of Tang, Li Ang, issued an imperial edict to name Li Bai's poetry, Pei Min's sword dance, and Zhang Xu's cursive script as the three best works of the Tang Dynasty. This status is indeed very high."

"But no matter whether it is the first three wonders or the three wonders of the Tang Dynasty, they all include the famous cursive master Zhang Xu."

"Zhang Xu, courtesy name Bo Gao, was born in 685 AD in a family of officials in Wu County, Suzhou, Jiangsu."

"After he became an adult, he was recommended to serve as an official. At the age of 24, he served as a chief historian in Luoyang. Therefore, in the history of calligraphy, later generations often called him Zhang Changshi."

"During the Tang Dynasty, calligraphy was promoted to a national art by Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, the de facto founding emperor. A special department and official title for calligraphy doctors were established, so calligraphy flourished unprecedentedly in the Tang Dynasty."

"Tang Taizong Li Shimin himself greatly admired Wang Yi's calligraphy and copied it day and night."

"So he was also very good at calligraphy and was a very good imperial calligrapher."

"It was under his imperial conferring that Wang Yizhi's title of the Saint of Calligraphy was finally established for a thousand years."

"Of course, the history of more than a thousand years since then has irrefutably proved that Wang Xizhi deserves the title of the Saint of Calligraphy."

"The representative figure of cursive script before Zhang Xu was Zhang Zhi in the late Eastern Han Dynasty."

"If we say that cursive script was finally established and perfected by Zhang Zhi, it would make cursive script a rare and unique flower in the hall of calligraphy art."

"Then Zhang Xu was the first person in history to truly develop cursive script from being practical to being a pure art, making form more important than content."

"Before Zhang Xu, no matter how wildly cursive the script was written, it was basically recognizable to people who read books."

"But when it comes to Zhang Xu, he abandoned the recognizability, and cursive calligraphy became a complete lyrical dance."

"Aesthetics has become the core theme of cursive calligraphy, and whether or not one can recognize it has become secondary."

"His contribution is epoch-making and groundbreaking in the history of calligraphy art and even the entire history of Chinese civilization and art."

"For example, Zhang Xu's Four Ancient Poems in Cursive Script is simply incomprehensible to those who don't have a solid foundation in cursive script."

"Because the Chinese characters in calligraphy works have been completely replaced by dots and lines."

"The lines are endless, the numbers are connected, the dots and lines are entwined like vines, and it is hard to tell which word is which."

"However, these lines and seemingly disordered dots clearly give people infinite beauty and breathtaking artistic enjoyment."

Du Fu: Compared to Zhang Xu's high praise for Li Bai, Li Bai respected Zhang Xu's disciple, the monk Huaisu, even more.

The master of cursive script Zhang Xu was a madman, so mad that he looked down on everyone.

The great poet Li Bai was also a madman, so mad that he looked down on everyone.

Li Bai is Li Bai who drinks a lot of wine and writes hundreds of poems, and sleeps in a tavern in Chang'an.

As for Zhang Xu, he was the master of cursive script after three cups of wine. He took off his hat and exposed his head in front of the king, and his brushstrokes fell on the paper like clouds and smoke.

Zhang Xu is older than Li Bai, because Li Bai became famous earlier.

The two knew each other from the moment they became famous.

When the two madmen met, they were both already famous in the Tang Dynasty.

During the An-Shi Rebellion, the prosperous Tang Dynasty was already in turmoil.

In a tavern in a small city in Jiangsu, two displaced madmen met and drank to each other.

The waiter was not mistaken. The swordsman in white and the old man in gray kept drinking. It should be the eighth jar.

They talked first about wine, then about poetry.

Sometimes they were drinking and chatting, sometimes they were laughing out loud. Ordinary people could not understand the world of these two madmen.

Finally, Zhang Xu said that he had three hobbies in his life: writing poetry, drinking, and writing.

Except for writing, Li Bai is the first in the first two.

Therefore, Zhang Xu admired few people in his life, and Li Bai was one of them.

Li Bai later wrote a poem praising Zhang Xu for his great ambition and calling him a great man.

That day, the two of them drank from noon until the moon was dim.

Li Bai laughed loudly towards the sky and went out, while Zhang Xu roared at the sky and ran wildly.

Zhang Xu mentioned Li Bai on many occasions and praised him highly.

However, in his later years, Li Bai strongly promoted Huaisu, a disciple of Zhang Xu, and believed that Huaisu's cursive script was better than Zhang Xu's.

In his opinion, Li Bai was not good at cursive writing, his level was average, and his understanding of cursive writing was limited.

Zhang Xu himself was a poet, and his appreciation of poetry was different from Li Bai's appreciation of cursive script.

It is also because of this that Zhang Xu admires Li Bai more than the other.

The great Tang Dynasty produced many talented people.

The madman Zhang Xu stood at the pinnacle of art, still drinking, composing poetry and writing cursive script.

"Zhang Xu's imaginative artistic creations are mainly due to the environment in which he was born and his upbringing."

"When Zhang Xu was born, the Tang Dynasty was at its peak and the social environment was very stable."

"He was born into a well-off official family and learned calligraphy from his uncle since he was a child."

"Zhang Xu was not interested in anything else except calligraphy and drinking."

"Han Yu, who came a little later than him, once recorded Zhang Xu's likes and dislikes and his artistic activities throughout his life."

"Besides his love for calligraphy and his expertise in cursive script, Zhang Xu had no interest in, nor was he willing to pursue, other skills."

"Whenever Zhang Xu got drunk, he would shout and scream wildly, and write like a god."

"He devoted his life to calligraphy, and could understand the mysteries of calligraphy from watching sword dancing and listening to music."

"He put all his energy into his cursive writing, expressing all the emotions that people have, such as joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness."

“As long as I am triggered by something external, I can express and vent it in the form of cursive writing.”

"He saw things in the outside world, the sun, moon, stars, birds, beasts, insects, fish, and a series of wonderful and surprising things in the world, and he could put them all in calligraphy."

"So Zhang Xu's cursive script is unpredictable, like the appearance of ghosts and gods, unpredictable."

"He spent his entire life writing cursive script, and his name will be passed down to future generations."

"Han Yu used Zhang Xu's example to illustrate that people's hearts are filled with all kinds of complex emotions."

“But the objective external world that people can perceive is innumerable, strange and bizarre, and changes rapidly.”

"The ever-changing external world resonates with the complex inner world of human beings."

"The external world moves us, and the internal feelings move us, causing us to be surprised and happy at the same time, unable to control ourselves."

“So he expressed and vented his feelings in the form of cursive writing, which reflected his infinite tolerance for the vast external world.”

“This is the most important condition that enables Zhang Xu’s calligraphy to reach a state where changes are like the appearance of ghosts and gods.”

"Zhang Xu learned calligraphy from his uncle Lu Yanyuan since he was a child. Although Lu Yanyuan himself was not well-known in later generations, the source of Lu Yanyuan's calligraphy was the authentic and direct descendant of Wang Xizhi's method."

"Lu Yanyuan's father, Lu Jianzhi, was the nephew of Yu Shinan, a famous calligrapher and great calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty."

"When Emperor Taizong of Tang was alive, he highly praised Lu Jianzhi's calligraphy."

"Lu Jianzhi started learning calligraphy from his uncle Yu Shinan, who in turn learned from Monk Zhiyong, a direct descendant of Wang Xizhi."

"From this, we can draw a conclusion."

"The roots of this line of calligraphy can be traced back to the development of calligraphy from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, from Wang Xizhi and his son to Monk Zhiyong to Yu Shinan to Lu Jianzhi and then to Zhang Xu."

"As a famous calligrapher, Lu Jianzhi was considered one of the four great calligraphers of the early Tang Dynasty along with Chu Suiliang, Ouyang Xun and Yu Shinan."

"Lu Jianzhi was greatly influenced by Yu Shinan, but the two were good at different styles of calligraphy, and Lu Jianzhi was not as famous as Yu Shinan."

"In addition to Yu Shinan, Lu Jianzhi also studied Ouyang Xun and copied Wang Xizhi's works in his later years, gaining a deep understanding of his spirit."

"From the context of calligraphy tradition, we can see that Zhang Xu's calligraphy and brushwork are completely the authentic and direct inheritance of Wang Xizhi and his son."

Zhang Xu: The reason why I was able to create my unprecedented cursive calligraphy was thanks to Gongsun Da Niang.

That spring, during the Kaiyuan Period, the Tang Dynasty reached its peak of prosperity.

There were great poets like Li Bai and Meng Haoran, great painters like Wu Daozi, and the great calligrapher Yu Shinan, who specialized in running script, has passed away.

Spring is indeed the season when all things come back to life, and peach blossoms are flourishing beside the roadside grass.

He was drunk at that time, with his chest exposed, and in his arms was a jar filled with the best osmanthus wine.

The river bank was unusually lively, with a group of people surrounding a woman.

I saw the woman holding a sword and dancing with the sword with her agile figure, which was a very vivid picture.

This woman was called Gongsun Da Niang, and she was an expert in sword dancing. He squeezed into the crowd and watched Gongsun Da Niang's sword dancing skills with fascination. Her various dance moves were unpredictable and her movements were connected like wild imagination.

He watched in fascination, and suddenly discovered that sword dancing and calligraphy were so similar.

He suddenly tilted his head back and drank the osmanthus wine in the jar in one gulp, then ran back to the inn, not caring at all that his shoes fell off.

He came to the inn, asked for a pen, and wrote on the wall of the inn.

The handwriting is like a wild horse running free, or a dragon entering the sea.

He shook his head and kept roaring, completely ignoring the spectators who were gradually gathering around him.

He suddenly went crazy and let his hair down.

He plunged his head into the inkwell, lifted his hair and continued to write on the wall.

He used his body as a pen and his hair as wolf hair. He twisted his body and splashed ink.

He still remembered that everyone present was as crazy as he was, and everyone applauded and cheered.

He shouted loudly asking if there was any wine. The attendants around him quickly handed him the jar of wine, and he drank it all in one gulp.

His calligraphy was just like Gongsun Da Niang's sword dance, sometimes graceful and agile, sometimes with sudden wind and sand, sometimes sharp and piercing, and sometimes turbulent. Everyone around him was stunned.

He finally put down his pen, roared, and ran out the door.

The next day, he listened to people talking about what happened yesterday and felt very proud.

He never took his weird behavior to heart and never cared what others thought.

Because he has clearly realized that calligraphy is everything to him.

His only concern in life is how to freely release the passion for calligraphy, and freedom is the starting point of all creativity.

"In addition to being able to learn from the ancients, Zhang Xu was also good at observing natural phenomena, just like some of the great calligraphers in history."

"I learned from nature and imitated nature, which led to a qualitative leap in my calligraphy."

"It changed cursive script from being a lyrical and practical art in Zhang Zhi's time into a purely lyrical art, making it less about content and more about the beauty of form."

"This gave rise to a concept of calligraphy art that was completely different from that of previous dynasties."

"Form is content. Form is more important than content. Beauty is the core and soul of cursive writing. Whether it is legible or not is no longer important."

“This change is profound, and it is consistent with the artistic propositions that followed.”

“The mission of art is to bring beauty, and art exists to open up the human heart and emotions.”

"After Zhang Xu reached adulthood, his art had reached perfection and his reputation was known throughout the Tang Dynasty."

"All the scholars in the cultural and intellectual circles at that time were proud to witness Zhang Xu's wild cursive calligraphy in person."

"Among the many great poets of the Tang Dynasty, many were also good at calligraphy, such as He Zhizhang, who left home at a young age and returned home as an old man, and Li Bai, the exiled immortal."

"They themselves are calligraphers, especially good at cursive script, but their reputation as calligraphers is overshadowed by their reputation as poets."

"Zhang Xu was good at cursive writing but not at other things, so he had no interest in becoming an official in the court."

"However, due to his great fame, his cursive script is a unique style in the Tang Dynasty."

"When he came of age, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, who loved art, was in power, so he would not be allowed to not be an official."

"There was no other way. After being recommended many times, Zhang Xu had no choice but to become an official."

"The ministers in the court were somewhat worried about having someone like Zhang Xu, who was talented and had a strange personality, serve as an official."

"So they had no choice but to send Zhang Xu to serve as a local official, and he was appointed as the county lieutenant of Changshu County, Jiangsu Province."

"When Zhang Xu was the county lieutenant in Changshu County, it was very interesting."

"Because local people like his calligraphy very much, many people go to the county government to file lawsuits in order to obtain the court verdicts written by him."

"The outcome of the lawsuit is secondary. They just want to get the verdict written by Zhang Xu, the master of cursive script."

"As a result, Zhang Xu has a lot of mundane things to deal with, which is very annoying."

"He was originally eccentric and had strange behavior, and later on his behavior became even more abnormal."

"He would wash his hair with ink at every turn, and would not ride in a sedan chair. He would run naked on the way to the county government office, shouting and screaming."

"For a while, the people of Changshu County looked at him in astonishment, thinking that Zhang Xu had gone mad."

"This situation was reported to the court by his superior government, and the court of the Tang Dynasty was helpless."

"In the end, there was no other choice but to transfer Zhang Xu to Luoyang, the secondary capital of the Tang Dynasty, to do clerical work and serve as the Chief Clerk of the Zuoshufu."

"This job suits him, writing documents, drinking, and writing like crazy when drunk."

"Because of the favor and support of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, no one in the court could do anything about Zhang Xu's behavior."

Li Bai: In calligraphy, I am far inferior to Zhang Xu. Zhang Xu's cursive calligraphy is worth a hundred gold coins and I cannot compare with it.

The Gusu City of the Tang Dynasty was a paradise-like place.

In March, willow catkins are flying all over the city of Gusu.

In Wu County, ten miles south of Gusu City, there lived a family with the surname Dong.

Because my mother was sick and the family had no money to treat her.

Dong Sheng heard that Zhang Xu was quite generous and was also from the same hometown as him.

So he asked someone to write a letter to Zhang Xu for help, hoping that Zhang Xu could give him some money.

At this time, Zhang Xu was in Changshu, a hundred miles away, serving as the Changshu County Lieutenant.

When Zhang Xu received the letter that day, he was moved by Dong Sheng's filial piety.

But he had no savings because he had been living a dissolute life for many years.

So he wrote three pieces of cursive script, signed them as "Madman Zhang Xu", and sent them back to Dong Sheng together with a letter.

The letter told Dong Sheng that the three pieces of cursive calligraphy were worth a hundred gold coins, which made Dong Sheng skeptical.

That day in Wu County, the willow catkins had passed and the sun was scorching hot.

Mr. Dong held three pieces of cursive calligraphy and sold them on the street, but no one was interested.

Most people are curious. Many people don’t understand what is there to sell with a few pairs of words they can’t understand.

Dong Sheng endured for a long time and was really hungry and thirsty. He was extremely disappointed with Zhang Xu.

I feel even more sad that my mother is seriously ill but I can do nothing about it.

Dong Sheng then started crying in the street, cursing Zhang Xu for using three pieces of lousy calligraphy to perfunctorily deal with him and that his mother would not live long.

Dong Sheng doesn’t understand the value of Zhang Xu’s cursive calligraphy, but that doesn’t mean others don’t know.

When the scholars on the street learned that Dong Sheng was selling Zhang Xu's cursive calligraphy, they immediately rushed to buy them all.

That’s it, if you don’t mention Zhang Xu, you can’t sell it.

As soon as Zhang Xu's name was mentioned, the three pieces of cursive calligraphy were sold out.

Mr. Dong took a hundred gold coins home to treat his mother's illness.

Dong Sheng later wrote a letter to Zhang Xu to express his gratitude for his help.

"In 717 AD, the fifth year after he ascended the throne, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang took Wu Daozi and others from Chang'an to the secondary capital Luoyang for an inspection."

"This was very normal in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, mainly for the sake of national security and economic water transport."

"Going from Chang'an to Luoyang and from Luoyang to Chang'an, shuttling back and forth for work is basically the norm."

"During this trip to Luoyang, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, brought with him the painting saint Wu Daozi."

"As the best painter of his time, Wu Daozi's fame as a painter saint is no less than that of Zhang Xu."

"Although he was five years older than Zhang Xu, Wu Daozi once sought instruction in calligraphy from Zhang Xu. From this point of view, it is also true that Wu Daozi was a student of the same generation as Zhang Xu."

"Of course, Wu Daozi's spirit of learning and studying in order is always worth learning for future generations."

"This time, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was accompanied by Wu Daozi to the eastern capital Luoyang. It happened that the mother of General Pei Min, who was stationed in Luoyang, passed away."

"Pei Min arranged for his mother's funeral to be held at the famous Tiangong Temple in Luoyang so that the monks could pray for her soul."

"It was at this opportunity that the three great masters of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozi, the master of cursive calligraphy, Zhang Xu, and Pei Min, the master of sword dance, came together to stage a performance show of the three masters competing on the same stage in the history of Chinese culture and art."

"Zhang Xu, the cursive script master of the Tang Dynasty, is a peak in the history of cursive script. He had many disciples, among whom Yan Zhenqing was the most famous."

"Among the disciples of the next generation, the one who has the greatest historical fame is the master of cursive calligraphy, Monk Huaisu."

"In the long history of cursive script, Zhang Xu and Huaisu are both known as the twin peaks of cursive script in the history of Tang Dynasty calligraphy."

Wu Daozi: Zhang Xu was not only extremely good at cursive calligraphy, but he was also very good at training disciples.

Zhang Xu attracted many celebrities with his unique cursive calligraphy art.

Yan Zhenqing, a great calligrapher who created the Yan style, resigned from his official position twice and devoted himself to studying calligraphy under Zhang Xu to learn about it.

Among the disciples of the next generation, the most famous monk Huaisu received the true teachings of Zhang Xu.

The wine-drinking and meat-eating monk Huaisu was generous and casual, not fussy about details, liked to drink and eat meat, and called himself a crazy monk.

Huaisu always picked up his brush and wrote with great vigor and power when he was drunk.

Because Huaisu is also famous for his cursive calligraphy, he and Zhang Xu are collectively known as the two best in cursive script.

This is why Zhang Xu's cursive calligraphy is so popular among people.

Because Zhang Xu's calligraphy has reached the highest level of unity between the calligrapher and the person, it vividly expresses the agile and unrestrained state of cursive script.

Zhang Xu's cursive calligraphy is like a pot of fine wine, or even like an aphrodisiac.

Every stroke is shining, every tension and relaxation is explosively beautiful.

Like a dancing flame, it subverts people's inherent impression of calligraphy.

He is so unrivaled that only Zhang Xu himself can reach his level, it is hard not to like him.

(End of this chapter)