Wong Kok Liang 黄国良

Wong Kok Liang (Wang Guoliang 1920 – 2004) was famous for his calligraphy written in clerical (lishu) script.

Wong Kok Liang was also called Wong Long, or Shigong. He was born in 1920 in the Wanning County, Hainan Province of China. He entered the Jian Yi Teachers’ College in 1935 for a 4-year course. After completed his study in 1939, the Japanese invaded China and he moved to Singapore to seek his fortune. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, he worked briefly in Singapore before he was employed as teacher in a school in Riau of Indonesia for one year. On 1 July, 1947, he joined Nanyang Siang Pau and worked for 32 years until his retirement in 1979.

After his retirement, he became a calligrapher teacher for a number of organisations, and had many students who are good at writing calligraphy in clerical script. In order to provide a platform for the learners of calligraphy to interact with each other and thus exchange experiences in learning calligraphy, he worked on setting up a calligraphy society. In 1992, the Hanshi Calligraphy Society was registered and he became its advisor and calligraphy teacher.

He passed away on 24 March, 2004.

He talked about his calligraphy learning journey during an interview. As he was a young boy in village, his father encouraged and guided him in learning calligraphy, and he had developed a special love of calligraphy. He father started him with the script of Wei stele. A few years later, as he learned more about the subject, he decided that the clerical style of Weng Fanggang would benefit him more, so he switched to focus on learning Weng’s calligraphy.

He once said, ‘after I have mastered the basics of the clerical script, I came across the Caoqian Stele, which I found it to be especially bony, and the writing style is leisure and strong. I had therefore decided to move from Weng’s calligraphy to Caoqian stele.’ He later also practiced the scripts from the Han steles. In fact, he had never stopped learning the clerical script.

Wong Kok Liang had achieved much in writing the clerical script (lishu). He paid much attention to the execution of the strokes and organising the structure, and wrote them conscientiously. His learning attitude was indeed a good model for us to follow. In the last years of his life, he worked hard on learning the walking script (xingshu). However, perhaps because he had not spent much time in writing this calligraphic style, we have not seen much of his good works in xingshu.

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在新加坡书法界，黄国良 (1920-2004) 以专写隶书而闻名。

黄国良，也称黄龙，或石公。1920年在中国海南省万宁县出生。1935年进入万宁县立简易师范，并于1939年毕业。毕业后，因日本入侵中国而移居新加坡。1945年日本投降后，曾到印尼廖内的端本学校当过一年的教师。1947年7月1日加入‘南洋商报’，在那里工作了32年，直至1979年退休为止。

退休后，他在不少社团教导书法，培育出了不少书写隶书的好手。为了加强学员们的联系，促进书法交流，他提出创办一个独立的书法学会，于是，‘汉石书艺学会’就于1992年正式成立，并担任其顾问与导师。

他于2004年3月24日逝世。

黄国良曾在接受访问时谈到学习书法的经过。幼时在家乡，受到父亲的鼓励与开导，因此特别喜欢书法。他父亲引导他从魏碑入手，几年后他涉猎日广，发现翁方刚的隶书更有学习价值，于是，便集中精神在翁方纲的隶书上。

他说：‘学隶书有了基础后，有一次接触到曹全碑，觉得曹全碑特别有骨气，字体风情飘逸而又坚强，于是，我又从翁方刚的隶书转移到曹全碑上面。’后又临写汉碑。一生学习隶书，从未中断。

黄老在隶书上的造诣，堪称大家。尤其是他笔划结构，一丝不苟，可谓后学之典范。于晚年又孜孜不倦地学习行书。可能是学习行书的时间不长吧，所能看到他好的行书作品不多。

Empress Wu Zetian 武则天

Empress Wu Zetian (623-705) is the only female Emperor in the history of China. Just as other emperors of the Tang dynasty, the Empress was a patron of arts, a great admirer of calligraphy and, one may say, an accomplished calligrapher herself. She lived to be 82, and held power for 50 years.

She entered the palace at the age of 14 and was initially conferred the title of ‘Cairen’ (concubine of medium rank), but was unable to win much favour with Emperor Taizong. Emperor Taizong's son, Li Zhi, however, was deeply infatuated with her. After the death of Taizong in 649, Li Zhi was enthroned as Gaozong and Wu Zetian became empress in 655. Since Li Zhi had poor health, Wu Zetian was the actual ruler of the country. When Li Zhi died, Wu Zetian managed to stabilize the political situation based on her abundant experience of political intrigue. In 690, Wu Zetian ascended the throne and changed the name of the dynasty to Zhou.

Emperor Wu was influenced by Taizong on his love of calligraphy. The court official Wang Fangqing, who was the 10th generation descendent of Wang Xizhi’s family, kept a large collection of calligraphic works at his mansion. Wu Zetian requested that his ancestors' calligraphy be passed to her. Empress Wu treasured the calligraphy very much and was so attached to them that she would look at them every day. She also displayed the calligraphy to the officials for them to view. In addition to using the calligraphy as model books to practice her calligraphic skill, she also ordered that the calligraphy be carved and the rubbings made into a collection known as ‘Wansui Tongtian Calligraphy’ (Wangsui means emperor, long life and Tongtian means as high as sky. Wansui Tongtian was one of the era names of Empress Wu). The rubbings of the collection were distributed to officials and the original calligraphy returned to Wang Fangqing. The rubbing method of producing ‘Wansui Tongtian Calligraphy’ started a new way of producing and preserving calligraphic works. This had contributed much to the development of calligraphy.

She is said to be good in Xing Shu and the Flying White style, a type of scripts that incorporated the images of birds and flowers into the characters. However, there are few materials on Empress Wu’s calligraphy available today. The texts and calligraphy of the ‘Ascension of a Prince to the Immortal Realm’ stele is said to be written by her.

The stele was carved in the sixth lunar month in the year 699 and is currently kept in the Deity Temple at the Gou Mountain in Yanshi City, Henan Province. It comprises 34 lines with 66 words per line. The stele’s title, which comprises 6 bigger words, was written in Flying White (feibai) style. The Flying White style is said to be created by Zhong Yao (151-230). However, there was no calligraphy of Flying White survived today. These six words in Flying White style were the only survived work today.

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武则天（623-705）是中国历史上唯一的女皇。和唐朝的其他皇帝一样，武则天是艺术的热心支持者，她喜爱书法，本身也可以说是个相当有成就的书法家。她活到82岁，共执政了50年。

她14岁进宫，被封为‘才人’，但是唐太宗并不十分注意她，倒是太宗的儿子李治深深的迷恋她。公元649年太宗逝世后，李治登基为高宗，武则天于公元655年成为他的皇后。由于李治身体不好，武则天就成为真正的统治者。李治去世后，武则天凭着她丰富的政治经验，把政治局势平稳下来。公元60年，武则天登基为王，并把国号改为‘周’。

由于唐太宗喜爱书法，这影响了武则天。当时朝廷官员王方庆是王羲之家族的第十代后人，家藏书法墨迹很多。武则天向王方庆访求其世祖的法书。武则天对这些墨迹视若珍宝，早晚观赏，爱不释手，还遍示群臣。不但自己常临习，而且命人全部刻成《万岁通天帖》（‘万岁通天’为武则天年号之一），颁赐群臣，并把原迹还给王方庆。《万岁通天帖》开了书法史上刻帖的先河，影响深远。

据说她精于行书与飞白体，一种把鸟与花加入字内的书体。但是，武则天留下来的书法资料不多，只有《升仙太子碑》是武则天亲自撰文并书丹镌刻的碑刻。

这块碑刻于699年六月，现存于河南省偃师县缑山仙君庙。共有行草书三十四行，每行六十六字。有飞白书碑额书‘升仙太子之碑’六大字。飞白书据说为钟繇 (151－230) 所创，但并无墨迹传世，这六个字是目前所知仅有的飞白体墨迹。

Bian Cai Sadly Lost the Authentic Lanting Xu 辩才痛失《兰亭序》

The calligraphy sage Wang Xizhi’s representative works include the ‘Inscription of Calmness’, the ‘Inscription of Crescent Moon’, the ‘Inscription of Clearing-Up After Snowing’, etc. Among them the most famous one is the Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion written in walking style (xing-shu). The preface of a collection of poems written by some friends when gathering at the Orchid Pavilion (or Lanting) near Shaoxing of Zhejiang Province for the Spring Purification Festival, it comprises 28 lines and 324 characters, with each character in different shapes. The original is lost, but there are a number of fine tracing copies and rubbings.

The original copy of Lanting Xu was given to Wang Xizhi’s son Wang Xianzhi. After Wang Xianzhi, the calligraphy was lost for nearly 300 years until in the year 636, the emperor of Tang dynasty Taizong obtained it through cunning means from the monk Bian Cai, who was a disciple of Zhi Yong, an seventh-generation descendent of Wang Xizhi.

A story recorded by He Yanzhi and collected in the Taiping Guangji (Tai Ping Anthologies) tells how Emperor Taizong obtained the original copy from Bian Cai.

Half-way through his reign, Emperor Taizong of Tang decided that he would learn the calligraphy of two Wangs, i.e. Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi. He had collected all their calligraphic works, except the Lanting Xu, which is known to be the best calligraphy of walking style. It was later learned that the authentic work was in the hands of Monk Bian Cai. Tang Taizong sent emissaries on three occasions to retrieve the text, but each time, Biancai responded that it had been lost during troubled times and he had no idea what it was now.

Prime Minister Fang Xuanling recommended that imperial historian Xiao Yi be despatched to retrieve it from Bian Cai by all means. Xiao Yi disguised as a wandering scholar, and he quickly became a good friend of Bian Cai, as they shared common interests in playing chess, citing poetry, talking about painting and calligraphy. One day, Bain Cai can’t help showing off the authentic Lanting Xu that was hidden behind the roof beam. Xiao Yi later stole the copy and brought it back to the capital for Emperor Taizong.

After he got it, Emperor Taizong cherished Lanting Xu as if he had found a most rare treasure. He ordered that copies to be made for giving away to members of royal families and his court officials. He said to his son on his death bed, ‘I know you are a son of filial piety. I would like to request a favour from you and I am sure you will not disappoint me. Will you?’

With that, the authentic Lanting Xu was buried with the emperor in his mausoleum.

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书圣王羲之的代表作品有《平安帖》，《初月帖》，《快雪时晴帖》，等。其中最出名的是以行书为兰亭聚会诗集而写的序文。这篇春天在浙江绍兴的兰亭修禊时，友人创作诗文集的序文共有28行，324子，字字情态不同。原本已失，但是有不少很好的摹本、拓本流传于世。

王羲之把原本传给儿子王献之。王献之以后的大约300年原本不知所终，直到公元636年唐太宗从辩才和尚那里以狡猾的方法获得。辩才是王羲之第七代后人智永的徒弟。

《太平广记》收何延之《兰亭记》记载唐太宗任何从辩才手中获得《兰亭序》：

至贞观中，太宗锐意学二王书，仿摹真迹备尽，唯被世人称为‘天下第一行书’的《兰亭序》未获。后访知在辩才和尚（王家的七世孙智永的弟子）处，三次召见，辩才诡称经乱散失不知所在。

房玄龄荐监察御史萧翼以智取之。萧翼隐匿身份，乔装潦倒书生，投其所好，弈棋吟咏，论书作画成忘年交，后辩才夸耀所藏，出示其悬于屋梁之《兰亭序》真迹，《兰亭序》遂为萧翼乘隙私取此帖长安复命。

据说，唐太宗李世民得到《兰亭序》真迹后爱不释手，太宗命令拓数本赐太子诸王近臣。

临终，语李治：“吾欲从汝求一物，汝诚孝也，岂能违吾心也？汝意如何？”

于是，《兰亭序》真迹葬入昭陵。

Pingfu Tie: The Earliest Authentic Chinese Calligraphy 平复帖: 最早的传世书法墨迹

The Pingfu Tie (A Consoling Letter) has a special position in the history of Chinese calligraphy as it is recognised as the earliest surviving Chinese calligraphic work written on paper and is often referred to as the ‘father of all calligraphic examplers’. It was originally a letter written by a great literature master Lu Ji (261-303) to one of his friends who was very ill.

Lu Ji’s grandfather and father were famous generals of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. After Eastern Wu was subjugated by the Western Jin in 280, Lu Ji moved to the imperial capital, Luoyang, where he became prominent in both literature and politics. However, he was too scintillating for the comfort of his jealous contemporaries; in 303 he, along with his two brothers and two sons, was put to death on a false charge of high treason.

Lu Ji wrote much lyric poetry but is better known for writing fu, a mixture of prose and poetry. He is best remembered for the Wenfu (‘On Literature’), a piece of literary criticism that discourses on the principles of composition.

Lu Ji also became famous because of his calligraphic work ‘Pingfu Tie’. The script is a transitional form between early cursive script Zhang Cao and current cursive script. Some scholars believe it was a cursive form of official script.

Its brushwork, done with a ‘dry’ brush and characterised by a simple and vivid style, exhibits a stocky roundness that brims with latent energy. Because it was written on paper, nature has left its mark on the piece, blurring and fading caused by repeated folding, handling and moisture stains have added to the feel of antiquity. Age-induced coarseness of the paper support also makes the lines appear grave and remote.

This piece has, as it were, re-created by the hand of nature. It was donated by Zhang Boju to the Chinese government in July 1956.

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‘平复帖’在中国书法史上有一个特别的地位，因为它被认为是书写于纸的最早传世书法墨迹，常被称为‘法书之祖’。这幅帖原来是大文学家陆机（261-303）写给一位生病友人的信件。

陆机的祖父陆逊与父亲陆抗都是三国东吴的名将。280年，东吴被西晋灭亡后，陆机移居首府洛阳，成为文学与政治界有名人士。但是，为奸臣所嫉妒，于303年被诬叛国莫须有罪名，他与两个哥哥及两个儿子都因此而被判死刑。

陆机虽然写诗，但以赋闻名。他名留千古的文学创作评论作品是‘文赋’。

陆机也因为他的书法作品‘平复帖’而闻名于世。这幅帖的文字是章草到草书的过渡。有学者认为它是篆书的草写。

这幅用‘秃笔’书写，具有简朴与活泼风格特色，显示浑圆之无穷内涵力量。因为书写于纸张，岁月已经在它的身上留下了痕迹。重复的折叠、触摸与湿气痕迹已使书法显得朦胧与褪色，增加了古拙的感觉。岁月造成纸张粗野，字与行间看来沉重与遥远。

这幅作品可说是被自然之手从新再创造过。1956年七月，一个名叫张伯驹的人把它捐给了中国政府。