Zhao Mengfu has many written works handed down from generation to generation, and his representative works include "Thousand-Character Essay", "Luo Shen Fu", "Dengba Stele", "Returning to Xi Ci", "Lanting Thirteen Postscripts", "Red Cliff Fu", "Tao Te Ching" ""Qiu E's Tombstone Inscription" and so on. He is the author of 12 volumes of "Notes on Shangshu" and "Collected Works of Song Xuezhai".
Zhao Mengfu is known as one of the "four masters" of regular script. His self-created "Zhao style" is known as one of the "four major styles" of regular script. Zhao Mengfu's representative work in regular script is "Xuanmiao Temple Rebuilding the Three Gates". Because Zhao Mengfu believed in Taoism, he highly respected Taoist culture and had inscribed inscriptions for some Taoist temples many times.
After studying the calligraphy of famous calligraphers of the Jin and Tang dynasties, especially the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, Zhao Mengfu created his own calligraphy style, known as "Zhao style". Together with Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan and Ouyang Xun, he is also known as "regular script". "Four Families".
In addition, his running script is also very famous, and he can be called "one of the four great masters of Chinese running script". The other three are Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing and Su Dongpo, all of whom were born in Zhao Mengfu. In the previous hundreds of years. The essence of their calligraphy was learned by Zhao Mengfu, who was truly a man who excelled in his work.
The development period of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy was after middle age, because before middle age, he was imitating others. Zhao Mengfu was born into the royal family of the Northern Song Dynasty, and his ancestor was Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Mengfu's birth was an unfortunate beginning. When he was just born, the Song Dynasty was already on the verge of collapse. By the time Zhao Mengfu became an adult, the Song Dynasty had perished and the Yuan Dynasty was established.
After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu lived in his hometown and studied calligraphy. Later, he was recommended to Kublai Khan, who praised his talent and appearance. Although Zhao Mengfu held an official position in the Yuan Dynasty court for a period of time, he was quickly dismissed from office due to the many internal conflicts in the Yuan Dynasty.
Zhao Mengfu studied calligraphy and reading at home. With a lot of time, Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy has made great progress. Zhao Mengfu is proficient in almost all calligraphy. He began to no longer stick to the calligraphy experience of his predecessors, but came up with his own ideas, and later created his own calligraphy font. He has many representative works, the most famous of which are "Luo Shen Fu", "Tao Te Ching", "Four Body Thousand Character Essay", etc.
Introduction to Zhao Mengfu
Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), whose courtesy name was Zi'ang, also known as Songxue, was also known as Songxue Taoist, also known as Shuijinggong Taoist and Oubo. In his middle age, he was named Mengfu. He was Han nationality. A native of Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang).
A famous painter in the Yuan Dynasty, one of the four masters of regular script (Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, and Zhao Mengfu). Zhao Mengfu was erudite and talented. He was good at poetry and prose, understood economics, was good at calligraphy and painting, was good at epigraphy and stone, knew laws and regulations, and understood appreciation. In particular, he achieved the highest achievements in calligraphy and painting, creating a new style of painting in the Yuan Dynasty, and was known as the "Crown of the Yuan Dynasty". He is also good at seal script, official script, Zhen script, Xing script, and cursive script, and is especially famous for his regular script and running script.
Reference for the above content: Zhao Mengfu (official, calligrapher, painter, poet in the late Song and early Yuan Dynasties) - Baidu Encyclopedia