Calligraphy in National Palace Museum, Song dynasty

Alex Hughes

Dec 21, 2022•6 min read

Welcome to the National Palace Museum's collection of Song dynasty calligraphy! Here, you can explore some of the most beautiful and intricate pieces of calligraphy from this period. You will find works such as Commentary on the Book of Changes, Letter to Prefect Yuanbo (In a Pure Autumn), Letter to the Commandery Administrator Huizhi (In the Depths of Autumn), Calligraphy of the Four Song Masters, The Cold Food Observance, Poem in Seven-character Verse, Poem, On Szechwan Silk and Letter to Officer-Gentleman Tu. These works are all unique and stunning examples of Chinese calligraphy from the Song dynasty. Come take a look at these incredible artifacts today!

1. Commentary on the Book of Changes

Zhu Xi (1130-1200), whose style name was Yuanhui and whose sobriquet was Hui'an, was a native of Wuyuan in Huizhou in present day Jiangxi province. Zhu was an important proponent of Lixue (also known as neo-Confucianism) who left behind an enormous corpus of written works, including the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books, which exerted a heavy influence on the generations that followed him. This volume, which comprises excerpts from the Commentaries on the Book of Changes (Yizhuan), is the only extant example of large calligraphic characters written in Zhu Xi's hand.

2. Letter to Prefect Yuanbo (In a Pure Autumn)

Lu You was a talented and untrammeled scholar who excelled at poetry and prose, his works possessing an unusual quality of splendor full of dramatic sentiment. Reflecting the trend at the time, he was the most important poet of the Southern Song period. Lu wrote this letter in the Qiandao sixth year (1170) to his friend, Zeng Feng (style name Yuanbo).

3. Letter to the Commandery Administrator Huizhi (In the Depths of Autumn)

Zhu Xi was a famous thinker of the Southern Song period who spent his life pursuing the ambition of establishing a new order for the country. He wrote this letter in the eighth lunar month of the Shaoxi fifth year (1194) after leaving his post as Administrator of Tanzhou (modern Changsha, Hunan) and on his way back to the capital. In it, he mentions the government affairs to be addressed in Tanzhou. Near the beginning of the letter, he relates the sad news of "national mourning," referring to the death of Retired Emperor Xiaozong in the sixth month of that year However, in the following month, after Emperor Guangzong abdicated in favor of Ningzong, Zhu Xi had the opportunity to go to court and serve as an Instructor, bringing him joy as well The brushwork throughout the letter is brisk, the dots and strokes rounded and smooth with sedate lines that are also fluid. Moreover, the line spacing has a sense of continuity that expresses freedom and easy naturalness Zhu Xi, known for creating a grand synthesis of Song Neo-Confucian thought, had a great impact on Chinese culture. This work, one of the few surviving traces of the brush from his hand, is thus all the more important

4. Calligraphy of the Four Song Masters

The first section of this handscroll is the "Haiyu" modelbook, a letter written by Cai Xiang in his thirties to his friend Han Qi and an excellent example of Northern Song calligraphy in the style of Yan Zhenqing (709-785). The second section is "Poetry in Rhyme for the Master of the Three Colleges" done by Su Shi at the age of 52. Steady and firm, the calligraphy is not confined to conventional methods and serves as a classic example of Su's free-spirited style The third is "Letter to Mingshu" by Huang Tingjian, in which the movement includes the methods of Huaisu's (737-799) brush turns. Strong and thorough, the character forms slant mostly to the right, creating for a high-spirited feeling The fourth section is the "Daowei" modelbook done by Mi Fu at the age of 49. It ranges greatly from light to heavy and fast to slow, being a masterful work in terms of technique and spirit In the early Qing dynasty, the collector Li Zongkong (1620-1689) had these four treasures of Northern Song calligraphy mounted together, the handscroll becoming a standard bearer for the study of Chinese calligraphy

5. The Cold Food Observance

Su Shih, a native of Szechwan, is probably best known by his sobriquet, Tung-p'o. A bold personality and direct scholar-official, he was accused of literary slander and banished from the capital. Although his career had its vicissitudes at the hands of political opponents, he has always been considered an immortal in the art of poetry and prose. TITLE: ORIGINAL_TEXT: SUMMARY: This piece represents poetry that Su Shih wrote during exile to Huang-chou in It was transcribed into a work of calligraphy sometime thereafter Despite Su's upbeat character, the poetry has an air of dejection to it The characters and the distance between them, for example, seem to vary rhythmically according to the emotional content In terms of semi-cursive script, the size of the characters here ranges considerably Su Shih once said of his own calligraphy that it is "everything from short to long, plump to bony" Here, the size of the characters is sometimes reserved, other times bold. Characters that particularly stand out include those in lines 2 (nien), 5 (chung), 11 (wei), and 13 (chih) from the right, where their last vertical stroke trails down for some distance to stand out against the blank paper The variation in the thickness of and distance between the lines as well as the size of the characters help to give this work a uniquely individual quality In fact, Su Shih's calligraphy represents one of the more personal styles of the period Furthermore, another great Sung calligrapher, Huang T'ing-chien (1045-1105), wrote a colophon for this work sometime before the ninth lunar month of

6. Poem in Seven-character Verse

Huang T'ing-chien was a native of Fen-ning, Kiangsi. At the age of 23, he received his Presented Scholar (chin-shih) civil service degree.

7. Poem

The common name for Emperor Hui-tsung was Chao Chi. Reigning as the eighth emperor of the Sung dynasty from 1101 to 1125, Hui-tsung was known for his extravagant lifestyle, which is believed to be part of the reason for the near collapse of the dynasty and his own demise at enemy hands. However, he was also known for his passion for painting, calligraphy, poetry, and prose. His painting and calligraphy are marked by exceptional refinement and observation to detail His paintings of birds-and-flowers, in particular, are renowned for their realism and beauty

8. On Szechwan Silk

Mi Fu, a native of Hsiang-yang in Hupeh province who went by the style name Yüan-chang and was known as Mi Nan-kung, was an official but also a famous poet, painter, calligrapher, and collector in the Northern Sung period. Along with Ts'ai Hsiang, Su Shih, and Huang T'ing-chien, he was known as one of the Four Sung Masters of calligraphy. This handscroll of prized Szechwan silk was made in 1044 under the reign of Emperor Jen-tsung.