Chu
Yun-ming's excellent art of calligraphy
includes
the styles 'k'ai' (official), 'hsing' (running hand) and 'ts'ao' ('grass'
or draft), all of them being accomplished perfectly according the
rules. Yet first of all, he was famous for his 'grass'-style calligraphy.
He was studying the works of T'ang and Sung dynasty like 'Huai Su'
and 'Huang T'ing Chien'.
Chu
Yun-ming did a lot of writings, yet this scroll is representative
for his plain, virile and not at all flourishing brush style.
The scroll is 34.3 cm in height and 503,6 cm in length containing
five poems of Li T'ai-po and Shih Chiao-jan in 'modern' seven-words
'chueh chu:' style. The original nowadays is kept in Soochou City
Museum.

When
purchasing a copy of Chu Yun-ming's famous brush writing about 30
years ago, I still was ignorant thinking the calligraphy being done
by a contemporary artist. Learning that the calligrapher lived during
Ming dynasty, I hardly would believe this for his strokes' 'freshness'
giving me the vivid impression of the artist only now, just a few
moments ago, having stopped his writing and put his still wet brush
aside ...
Almost half a millenium ago, the calligrapher was tracing back the
T'ang poets' short glimpses, emotions and thoughts in sight of a famous
landscape, a drifting cloud, a cup ready filled with sparkling wine,
or longing back for a home left behind - or a beloved fellow poet
already long since gone many centuries ago ...
Isn't
this a fascinating and thrilling
bridge
suspended across time?

