Huang Tingjian(1045-1105), one of the “Four Great Masters of Song”, wrote “The Zhushangzuo Scroll”, now in the Palace Museum Beijing, around 1100 when he was exiled to Qianzhou, Sichuan. This calligraphic masterpiece holds a unique place in Huang’s cursive calligraphies, for it is the only one bearing Huang’s signature Shangu Laoren (Old Man of the Valley), accompanied BY a 13-line colophon, both of which are written in large running script.

The paper first attempts to reconstruct the history of ownership of this scroll from Emperor Song Gaozong (r. 1127-61), Emperor Qianlong(r. 1735-1795), and numerous private collectors, until the present day. The paper then analyzes the stylistic characteristics of the brushwork of the scroll, including variations in the beginning and ending stroke of each character, the twists and turns of the brushstrokes, and Huang’s best-known trembling movements within a stroke. Other prominent principles include the constant shifting of the axis of the characters and characters invading the spaces of other characters.

Huang Tingjian once declared: “in the past several hundred years, there have been only three who have comprehended these (ancient) methods, … Zhang Xu(ca. 675-750), the monk Huaisu (725-785), and myself.” This statement clearly shows Huang deeply admired and followed these two Tang masters as his model in cursive script. The paper hence compares and contrasts Huang’s work with those of Zhang Xu and Huai Su, showing Huang’s debt to the two masters in incorporating the seal and clerical scripts into his cursive writing, yet simultaneously departing from them in his use of dots, wavy strokes, ink tones, and the arrangement of columns in a much more free and spontaneous manner.

Among the “Four Great Masters of Song”, only Huang Tingjian engaged in cursive calligraphy. Su Shih (1037-1101) never attempted cursive writing. Mi Fu (1051-1107)’s famous “Poem Written in a Boat on the Wu River”, written in a semi-running and cursive script, shows the Eastern Jin master Wang Xizhi (303-361)’s tradition and influence. In this regard, Huang Tingjian’s introduction of the rounded brushwork and asymmetrical characters of the Eulogy for Buring a Crane into the Zhushangzuo Scroll is much more revolutionary and perceptive than that of Mi Fu. Huang Tingjian singlehandedly pioneered and revived the cursive script tradition in the Song Dynasty. After the two Tang masters Zhang Xu and Huaisu, no one in the Song or later periods surpassed the achievement of Huang Tingjian in cursive script.