Self-portrait of Zhao Mengfu
Zhao Mengfu, songxue Daoist, also known as Crystal Palace Daoist, Zhejiang Wuxing people. Famous calligraphers, painters and poets from the late Southern Song Dynasty to the early Yuan Dynasty, grandson of Zhao Kuangyin, the eleventh grandson of the Song Taizu and the descendant of the Zhao Defang faction of the Qin King.
Zhao Mengfu is erudite and versatile, can write poetry, understands economics, works calligraphy, fine painting art, is good at gold stones, tonglulu, and appreciates. In particular, he has the highest achievements in calligraphy and painting. Zhao Mengfu is good at seals, li, true, xing, cursive, especially known for its calligraphy and writing. His style of writing is charming and elegant, his body is strict and neat, his penmanship is mature, and he created the "Zhao Body" book, which is called "the four masters of the Book of Letters" together with Ouyang Zhenqing, Yan Zhenqing, and Liu Gongquan.
Part of Zhao Mengfu's "Eight Songs of Du Fu Qiuxing"
Zhao Mengfu is the god of technique, and when we look at his works in his twenties, they already have a great atmosphere, such as the book "Du Fu Qiuxing Eight Songs". The expressiveness of his pen has long been good enough, not only because the pursuit of technique has reached a considerable height, but also because the expression of meaning is also quite rich. For the next forty years, technical "good" never became a problem for him, and whether he could write the best and most representative works only depended on whether there was a suitable scene.
Many scholars regard the works written by Zhao Mengfu on formal occasions as representative works, such as writing official documents, inscriptions, etc., which is true in the script, and Zhao Kai is indeed a fairly rigorous font, and it is often very well written seriously. But in terms of writing, it is just the opposite, and his best works are written at random.
Zhao's life, as the emperor of the Song Dynasty, was cautious and cautious all his life, even if his eyesight and realm were exquisite, but the power of the rules was exceptionally strong in his pen, so that most of his works when he was serious would fall into a deliberate attempt to be refined. His works are often inadvertently good, such as writing letters to relatives and friends, such as the Ten Books of The Book.
Only in the informal state, such as writing letters to relatives such as aunts, Shi Minzhan and Gao Renqing, teachers such as Zhongfeng monks, etc., can he unload his burden, break through the shackles of that powerful rule, and walk at will, adding a touching and rich sense of beauty to his extremely exquisite techniques.
When many people talk about the works of a famous artist, they often think that the more serious and wonderful the writing, the more late, such as the calligraphy of the last years of a calligrapher's life, is often considered to be the most representative work. In fact, this is not all the case, at least not in Zhao Mengfu's case. The more casual his words are, the more wonderful and moving they are.