Calligraphy Couplet in Stone Drum Style, Wu Changshuo

Exhibition Label: “From the Way of Writing to the Weight of Writing," Jun-2007, Ai-lian Liu "Alas! I am fond of antiquity, yet I was born too late. When asked why not returning home, he replied "I have good reasons." The two lines in this couplet are excerpted from poems by Han Yu (768-824CE), a Tang poet who composed the Ode of the Stone Drums. The “Stone Drums” are stone blocks engraved with ancient inscriptions dating back to the Eastern Zhou period (770-221 BCE), which were rediscovered in the eighth century. During the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), epigraphic studies had garnered much scholarly attention, and various ancient scripts were enthusiastically emulated by Qing calligraphers. Wu Changshuo was especially known for his Stone Drum style calligraphy. He obtained a rubbing of the Stone Drums at about age 30 and was captivated by the simple and ingenuous spirit of this ancient script. He valued the archaic simplicity of the Stone Drum script, yet updated the ancient style with his own powerful expression that is bold and monumental. As a revivalist in the early-20th century, Wu combined the cultivated taste of the literati and the unpretentious simplicity of the Stone Drum script to assert his individuality as well as his roots in traditional culture. Archive Label?: In the late 19th century, many scholars and artists became interested in the calligraphy of the stone drums from the Zhou dynasty (11th century B.C. to 256 B.C.), known as the "stonedrum style" calligraphy. This style well matches the content of the couplet by Wu Changshuo: I am so fond of antiquity that I regret I was born late: When asked why not go back, I replied "It is too far." As indicated by the small characters on the right couplet, the two lines came from two different poems by the Tang dynasty scholoar Han Yu (768-824 C.E.) and are here recombined into a couplet. On the left column, the artist signed his name "kutie" (Bitter Iron), which is a pen name he usually used before he was 60. (After 60 he usually used his standard name Wu Changshuo.) Each character is carefully balanced and corresponds perfectly to the other characters. Even the space between the characters is well-calculated. The curvilinear strokes and the elongated structure of each character reveals a sense of strength and elegance, testifying to the skill of the artist.