At a certain stage, the fundamental principles of all kinds of learning in the world are the same, especially Chinese culture has this characteristic.
In the Taoist "yin and yang theory", the cathode gives birth to yang and the anode gives birth to yin, all beautiful things reach a pole and will go to the opposite side of things, the same is true in the field of art, often ugly to the extreme expression is exactly a kind of beauty, and often this beauty makes many people discouraged!
Calligraphy is not an art that anyone can appreciate, and when it comes to the category of aesthetic expression, you need a certain aesthetic ability, which often needs continuous learning to gradually improve.
Yan Zhenqing has such a work, once criticized by many people as an ugly book, this work integrates five kinds of books, some people think that "ugly" to the extreme, but also some people think that this is exactly a kind of "great beauty", this work is said that no one can understand it so far!
This work is Yan Zhenqing's famous "Send Liu Taichong Shu".
In 772 AD, that is, the seventh year of the Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing was 63 years old, and his writing style was already pure and famous in the world, becoming a generation of grandmaster-level figures respected by thousands of people.
After the outbreak of the "Anshi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing served as the Taishou of Pingyuan, that is, the secretary of the Dezhou Municipal Party Committee today, he tried every means to resist the rebels, this Liu Taichong was the one who made a great effort around him, Yan Zhenqing received a lot of help from him, the two had a good relationship, Yan Zhenqing in order to thank this person, he wrote his own article, wrote this famous "Send Liu Taichong Narrative".
It was not until the Song Dynasty that it gradually came out, and was first seen in the records of Mi Fu.
By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was compiled by the famous collector Liu Yuangang into the "Zhongyitang Fa Ti", which is now one of the largest museums in China, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.
Yan Zhenqing's "Send Liu Tai Chong Shu" from the overall text point of view, there are calligraphy, there are line books, there are cursive writing, from the characteristics of the use of pens and knots, as well as the brush strokes of the lishu and the lines of the seal book, is a kind of work of mixed five kinds of calligraphy.
And the five kinds of books are mixed and matched, but they are not messy at all, and their perfect fusion shows that Yan Zhenqing has opened up the five bodies and integrated them, so that it can be sent to the pen and be natural.
"Open up the five bodies" can be said to be one of the basic skills of a true calligrapher, the five kinds of books can influence each other, mutual growth, for example, the basis of the book is the script, the basis of cursive is the seal book, the square fold in the book is directly attached to the book, learn a kind of book body, through the repeated "nourishment" of other book bodies, your calligraphy can have real vitality!
We know that Yan Zhenqing makes good use of the "seal brushwork", and the line that can be expressed in this work is basically this "seal brushwork", and one of the biggest advantages of this brushwork is that no matter how much you enlarge this work to copy, it will not lose its momentum because of the enlargement of the glyph.
From this point of view, the "Second King"'s brushwork does not have this characteristic, which is also an important reason why Yan Zhenqing can be compared with the "Second King"!
Yan Zhenqing's "Send Liu Tai Chong Shu" is not as famous in the history of Chinese calligraphy as his "Three Drafts" ("Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript", "Battle for The Seat Post", and "Confession of Uncle Manuscript"), but the aesthetic realm created by this work and the unique creativity it possesses are beyond the reach of other works.