Running Script Excerpts from Huai Su’s Autobiographical Essay, Hanging Scroll
Zheng Xie
Qing Dynasty
- MEDIUM:Ink on paper
- FORMATS:Hanging scroll
- DIMENSIONS:Height 184 cm; Width 96.5 cm
Introduction
This work was created in 1760 (the 25th year of the Qianlong reign), when the 60-year-old Zheng Xie was serving as magistrate in Weixian, Shandong. Throughout his life, Zheng repeatedly transcribed excerpts from Autobiographical Essay by the Tang dynasty cursive master Huai Su, a text recounting Huai Su’s experiences in writing cursive script, his artistic insights, and the praise he received from the literati—long cherished by calligraphers across the ages.
In this piece, Zheng’s brushwork alternates between thick and thin, long and short, employing center, side, angular, and rounded strokes with equal mastery; the structure varies from sparse to dense, upright to slanted, following the flow of the brush. The composition’s interplay of slant, density, and spacing is natural yet dynamic, evoking the effect Zheng described as “paving the street with scattered rocks.” He referred to this style of running script as his own “Six-and-a-Half Script” (liù fēn bàn shū), fully expressing his unrestrained personality. The prominent Qing literatus Jiang Shiquan praised his work, saying, “With his brush, he has truly founded a school of his own.”
