The other day someone posted a question about scripts, left to right, right to left, top to bottom. And illustrated his query with a bit of calligraphy lifted from the internet, which perked my eye. The calligraphy shown was a Tang dynasty era imitation of the 'ti huang soup letter' or rehmania decoction letter (地黃湯帖) by Wang Xianzhi (王献之 344 CE to 386 CE). One interesting thing is the collector seals all over, showing a considerably older script which is still used for sealcarving. In the letter Mr. Wang mentions that his new wife (or concubine) had taken rehmania decoction, which seemed to have cured her ailment (not detailed), but was still having problems sleeping.
Last night I too had problems sleeping.
Which is the only thing we have in common.
Wang Xianzhi is known for his excellence in semi-cursive script, which is more legible than cursive, and quite elegant to the eye. His father Wang Xizhi (王羲之) was also famous for that. Together both Wangs form a peak of the style.
And of course reading up on all this inevitably provided a rabbit hole down which I tumbled, exploring the many side tunnels, which continue over the next few days as time permits.
No, the painting above has nothing to do with either Wang or the semi-cursive forms of calligraphy. It merely overlaps in time reading about those. The first computerized brushstrokes were laid on Monday, the last early yesterday evening.
Most of it was done on Wednesday and Thursday.
It's a jungle in here.
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