Zhi Yong Popularised the Thousand-Character Essay 智永推广《千字文》

Zhi Yong’s famous calligraphic work is ‘The Thousand-Character Essay in Regular and Cursive Scripts’ (Zhencao Qianziwen). As the title implied, it was written in both regular and cursive scripts. A copy of it is now kept in Japan. The copy is said to be an authentic copy. However, some suggested that it was actually written by someone in the Tang dynasty. Another rubbing copy is now collected by Beijing Palace Museum.

The ‘Thousand Character Essay’ was reportedly composed on the order of the Liang dynasty emperor Wudi (464-549) as a form of instruction in calligraphy for his princes. Rubbings were made from works by the master calligrapher Wang Xizhi in the imperial collection to compile a list of one thousand non-repeating characters. Zhou Xingsi (?-521) was then ordered to put them to rhyme, creating lines of four characters each. The contents of the essay touch on a variety of subjects, including nature, society, history, and ethics.

Since all the characters are unique and of appropriate length (as well as familiar and popular among readers), the Qianziwen became a primary choice of text among learners of calligraphy and this turn motivated calligraphers to create model books for study, resulted in many great transcriptions of this text.

Copied and written in various calligraphic forms innumerable times through the ages, the Qianziwen became an important part of mainstream calligraphy. Consequently, almost all renowned calligraphers through the centuries made transcriptions, turning the text into a unique cultural phenomenon in the history of Chinese calligraphy.

The Qianziwen calligraphic textbook was originally intended for the exclusive use of the imperial family. It was Zhiyong who made it available to the common people. Zhi Yong spent more than 30 years to write more than thousand copies of the essay in calligraphy and selected 800 copies for distributing to all the Buddhist temples and monasteries in eastern China. Before long, recitations of the textbook could be heard throughout China.

Some were passed to Korea and Japan and had a significant influence on the development of calligraphy in these countries. In the 19 century, copies of the essay even made their way to Europe in the hands of French and English visitors to China.

This has ensured that Zhi Yong is remembered in the Chinese calligraphy history.

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智永的书法传世作品为《真草千字文》。如帖名所示，它是以楷书与草书学的。现传世的有墨迹本为日本所藏，论者认为墨迹本为智永真迹，也有人疑为唐人临本。另有拓本为故宫博物院藏。

据说，《千字文》是梁武帝（464-549）梁武帝下令在宫中收藏的大书法家王羲之书法拓本中取出不重复的一千个字，供皇子们学书用的。周兴嗣被令为这千字编为四字韵文。它的内容取材广阔，包括了自然、社会、历史及道德等等。

由于没有一个字重复，长度适当（加上该文广为人知与流行），《千字文》成为书法爱好者用来学习书法的第一选择，并由此鼓舞了书法家书写更多法帖。

经过历代无数人的临摹与用不同书体来书写，《千字文》成为书法重要主流。历代许多大书法家都有书写，因而在书法历史上形成了一个独特的文化现象。

《千字文》原本是皇家独用的书法练习本。智永把它带到普通人民的手中。智永花了超过三十年的时间写了千多本《千字文》并从中选了八百本分赠给中国东部的寺庙与僧院。不久，咏诵该文就遍及全国。

有一些书法本还传到了朝鲜与日本，重要地影响了书法在这些国家的发展。在十九世纪，这些书法还经过来访中国的法国与英国人带到了欧洲。

这就确定了智永在书法史里为世人所知。