Wen Zhengming's eldest son, Wen Peng, wrote the Five Laws of Cursive Poetry Axis and scattered nature

Wen Peng is the eldest son of Wen Zhengming, the four talents of the Ming Dynasty, with profound knowledge and outstanding talent, poetry, calligraphy and painting, and seal carving, and is respected by posterity as the founder of China's seal carving art, which is not inferior to his father. The stone seal itself has great superiority, Wen Peng first used Qingtian stone to rule the seal, under the influence of his social status and personal charm, the stone seal quickly became popular among the literati, ending the era of copper seals in China for more than 2,000 years, and entered the era of stone seals with scribes as the main body, strong personal style, and famous masters.

Wen Peng was a doctor of the Two Capitals Guozijian, known as Wen Guobo. His seal engraving, with his stable style and loose rules, created the first school in the history of printing, the "Wumen Sect", also known as the "Three Bridges School". He inherited his father's collection of books and paintings, and has a collection of books called "QingbaiTang", which collects ancient books and contemporary calligraphy and painting works of the Song and Yuan dynasties. The collection is printed with "Yuyangzi" and "Qingbaitang". Di Wenjia also likes to collect books, the library building has "Return Hall", and the collection of books is printed with "Wufeng Mountain People", "Yuanzhu Room", "Wufeng Woodcutter" and so on. The Wen family's collection of books was scattered between the end of the Ming Dynasty and Chongzhen, and Qing Dynasty bibliophiles such as Zhang Pingfeng and Zhang Jinwu once collected Wen's old collection, most of which were Song carved rare books. His son Wen Yuanfa (文元發), also known as Zi Zi (字子悱), was also fond of collecting books in Weihui Province, Henan Province, and his collection of books was printed with "Erchu Spirit"; Sun Zi Wen Meng, Zi Wen Qi, and Hunan, also had books printed with "Shi JingTang" and "Two Days Pingzhang". In this way, the four generations of the Wen Zhengming family like to collect books, the origin of family learning, and the influence is far away, but in the end it was obliterated, no wonder Chinese there is a saying that the rich are not more than three generations.

The "Cursive Five Laws poetry axis" now in the Shanghai Museum This post is obviously influenced by his father Wen Zhengming, a total of four lines, according to the author's opinion, the technique is not as good as his father, but Jin Shiqi, compared with his father, is too much, so it is difficult to make up his mind, so it is difficult to make up his mind, which is also the charm of art, diverse styles, inclusive. The calligraphy is delicate and dignified, the lines are thin and powerful, and the pen is deep in the bone. Most of the square pen to start, the pen is unrestrained, the silk is continuous, like a dry vine around the tree, especially wonderful, such as the fourth line of the word "turn Xiao", mainly with the dry pen, it seems vigorous and old. The second line of "Spring First", even the pen is as strong as a leak in the house. But interspersed strain, in and out of the rotation, natural generation, tight knots, in one go, the mood is getting more and more intense. Looking at the method, there are ingredients from Huaisu, the lines are elastic, so that the rotation is free, the pen and ink are dripping, and the momentum is unrestrained, just like the flowing water of the clouds, which is very lyrical. There are setbacks, xu diseases, clear strokes, and most of the twists are arc-shaped, and reading them makes people feel that there is a law to follow, and it is full of changes. The knots are loose and appear loose and natural. The word "Qing" in the third line, inserted straight from the right side into the left side, is novel and ingenious, and it is breathtaking. The fourth word of the second line, "state", begins with the pen, such as a high peak falling stone. The word "Wen Peng" is dropped, Wen Da, Peng Xiao. Qing Wang Wenzhi's "Fast Rain Hall Inscription" said that Peng Shu was "less skilled than his father, and Xiao San's qi was far more than that.".

Wen Peng's status in printing was much higher than in calligraphy, and in the history of the seal genre art, he wrote brilliant poems. Of course, his calligraphy and seal engraving nourish and complement each other. His seal engraving has the meaning of "opening the dynasty and opening the sunset show", the work is based on ease and elegance, calm and beautiful, Bai Wen deliberately traces the Han law, and Zhu Wen takes the song and Yuan relics and comes up with a new meaning. Wen Peng pioneered the seal side section, changed the maladies of the plate stagnation since the Yuan Dynasty, restored the Tradition of Han Seal, he proposed that seal engraving should be based on the six books as the criterion, advocated that seal engraving must be proficient in the six books, in order to enter the print, and worked hard to create practice, and achieved unprecedented achievements, because he carved the six books, the seal text did not involve grotesque, and also drew nutrition from the Qin and Han seals, so his seal did make the printing altar look new at that time. As a two-capital national expo with a high status of calligraphy and painting, Wen Peng's advocacy and participation in seal engraving is of great significance to the art of seal engraving in the initial stage. Under the initiative of Wen Peng and others, the wind of seal engraving rose for a while, and calligraphers and painters participated in the creation of seal carving, creating a situation in which literati self-carved themselves and competed with calligraphy and painting, and Wen Peng became the forerunner of the literati seal engraving genre. Due to the widespread use of stone seals, it has played a great catalytic role in the development of seal engraving art. Zhu Jian, a famous seal engraver of the Ming Dynasty, described: "Since the three bridges, all of them have been from Si, Zhen, Qin and Han, and Yi Shengzai! It can be seen that Wen Peng's important position in the history of the development of the literati genre seal engraving art. After Wen Peng, the great development of Indian studies has been influential at home and abroad for four hundred years. There are many people who specialize in Wen Peng, and later generations call it "Wu Men Sect".

Author: Zhi Ronghui

About the Author:

Zhi Ronghui is a calligrapher, calligraphy critic and writer. He is currently a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, the Chinese Literary and Art Critics Association, the Fujian Writers Association, and the Chinese Poetry Society.

Zhi Ronghui is good at grass, and all five bodies can be. His works have participated in many domestic and foreign calligraphy exhibitions, been collected by major art museums across the country, and published in major calligraphy newspapers and periodicals across the country. In March 2019, he held a solo calligraphy exhibition at the Zhuhai Guyuan Art Museum. Combined with creative practice, he has written more than 100 calligraphy theories and commentaries published in Calligraphy Herald, Calligraphy Newspaper, China Calligraphy and Painting Daily, Calligraphy, Collection Express, and Guangming Daily. He usually likes literature, and his essays have been published in Literature and Art Daily, China Art News, Xiamen Literature, Fujian Daily, etc.