Wen Duan Honggang
Zheng Xiaoxu (1860-1938) was a powerful poet and calligrapher in modern times, especially his calligraphy, which was known for its calligraphy and calligraphy, and was unique in both knots and styles. On the knot, the font is thin, tall, straight, and steep, forming a vigorous, clear, simple and dignified style.
Mr. Sha Menghai (1900-1992), a master of calligraphy, gave a high evaluation of Zheng Xiaoxu's calligraphy in the book "Calligraphy in the Past Three Hundred Years", saying: The only one who can correct zhao Zhiqian's drifting, Tao Junxuan's board stagnation and Li Ruiqing's vibrating pen drawbacks is Zheng Xiaoxu, whose works have a fierce color and are also songxiu's fun, living like his poetry, in Chong Yi, with an agitated atmosphere.
"Calligraphy in the Past Three Hundred Years" is an important work written by Mr. Sha Menghai in 1929, who, with a historical vision and rigorous attitude, took stock of the figures who have made outstanding contributions in the two fields of epigraphy and theology in the past 300 years, and the calligraphers he mentioned and recognized in the book have left a high reputation in the history of calligraphy.
Zheng Xiaoxu was born in Fujian Minhou a scholar Xiang Mendi, the family is rich, since childhood to read poetry, he in calligraphy, the early stage of learning the thesis, has been Yu Shinan, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and other masters of the book post for a long time copied, at the same time on the "Pavilion style" knot and penmanship also carried out a lot of research.
On the whole, Zheng Xiaoxu's early calligraphy has the characteristics of charming, elegant and neat, and the structural shape looks very good, but the bone strength of the calligraphy lines is insufficient, and there are not many evocative places.
In 1889, at the age of 29, Zheng Xiaoxu was admitted to the Cabinet Officiation and had the privilege of worshipping under the literary titan Tonggong (1830-1904), a literary titan who was proficient in poetry and painting. After the guidance of Weng Tonggong, Zheng Xiaoxu began to spend a lot of time on the study of epigraphical calligraphy, and carried out a series of innovations, the flat font of the Wei stele body was stretched by him into a thin and tall posture, and absorbed the brushwork of Li Si, Li Yangbing, Deng Shiru, Wu Changshuo and other seal calligraphers, and finally formed a thin, steep, soft and rigid aesthetic characteristics, which had a great influence in the modern book world, and was called "Zheng Pai" calligraphy by insiders, and the celebrity merchants who sought his ink treasure were endless every day.
In early 1912, after Puyi abdicated, as a qing dynasty widow, Zheng Xiaoxu left the capital to live in Shanghai. He spent most of the last 20 years of his life in Shanghai.
Zheng Xiaoxu left many classic calligraphy works in his lifetime, including letters, inscriptions, plaques and other genres. One of his most famous calligraphy works is undoubtedly the four inscriptions "Bank of Communications".
Bank of Communications is one of the earliest established banks in China, founded by the famous economist, banker and vice minister of finance Mr. Liang Shiyi (1869-1933) in the 34th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1908), at the beginning of its establishment, the head office was located in Beijing, and later, the head office moved to Shanghai in 1928, and has developed to this day. Today, the Bank of Communications is one of the six large state-owned commercial banks in China, with outlets throughout the country.
After the establishment of the Bank of Communications, it has not found a satisfactory plaque. It was because at that time, Liang Shiyi was dissatisfied with the calligraphers who were active in the capital, in terms of popularity, influence and strength, so the matter of writing a plaque for the Bank of Communications was also postponed again and again, and in the early days, it could only be used in printed fonts.
It was not until the Bank of Communications moved to Shanghai in 1928 that Liang Shiyi learned that zheng Xiaoxu, a calligrapher, had been living in Shanghai, so he decided to invite Zheng Xiaoxu to write a plaque for the Bank of Communications.
At that time, Zheng Xiaoxu's fame in Shanghai Beach was thunderous, and there were too many people who begged him to buy words every day, so that his family was in the market every day, which seriously affected his normal life, so he could only improve the way of Runge and turn away some of the people who bought words.
In the 1920s, Zheng Xiaoxu's calligraphy works were already priced at 10 oceans per word, but even so, it was still impossible to stop rich people from attaching themselves to elegance. For those rich people, it is a very face-saving thing to have Zheng Xiaoxu's ink treasure. But for the general public, Zheng Xiaoxu's calligraphy is definitely a luxury, and it can only be addicted to the eyes.
After Liang Shizhi found Zheng Xiaoxu and explained his intentions, Zheng Xiaoxu neither resigned nor refused, but said lightly: Write four words 4000 oceans.
At that time, 4,000 oceans was equivalent to a year's salary of a university professor, and a good quadrangle could be bought in Beijing. When Hu Shi, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun and others first came to Teach at Peking University, their monthly salary was only 280 oceans, and they did not get 4,000 oceans a year. It can be said that the runge given by Zheng Xiaoxu is ridiculously high.
However, the bank with deep pockets immediately agreed to Zheng Xiaoxu's request, and they valued Zheng Xiaoxu's strength and influence in the calligraphy circle, so there were four big characters of "Bank of Communications" that had been used for more than 100 years.
It can be seen that the four words of "Bank of Communications" inscribed by Zheng Xiaoxu are rigorous in knots, vigorous in pen, showing the aesthetic characteristics of vigorous simplicity, solemn atmosphere, solemn and elegant, very attractive, and very consistent with the concept of striving for progress and surpassing oneself advocated by the bank, which is also the fundamental reason why this signboard has been used for more than 100 years.
True calligraphy people, good at learning to apply, know how to absorb the advantages of many famous artists through the way of eclecticism, for my use.
Zheng Xiaoxu in his lifelong exploration, it is in this way, his youth calligraphy is mainly copied from famous scholars, pay attention to the technical level of tempering, personal style is not obvious. In middle age, he was bold and innovative, and when writing calligraphy, he often absorbed the penmanship of seal writing and Lishu, commonly known as "Lihua", which effectively enriched the style of solemnity, majesty and thickness of the font. In his later years, when he mastered a profound foundation, he began to seek a breakthrough in the shape of fonts and strokes, consciously changed the way some strokes were written, and finally reached the realm of "people are old and old".
Zhang Qian, a senior disciple of Zheng Xiaoxu and a famous calligrapher, once had an appropriate evaluation of Zheng Xiaoxu: Mr. Zheng's early dexterity in his works was slightly insufficient and did not shine; the middle-aged majestic and magnificent, far surpassing his contemporaries; in his later years, He Wei Xiongqi was comparable to Qin and Han.
This sentence completely summarizes Zheng Xiaoxu's calligraphy achievements in his life.