Cai Yong Created ‘Flying-White’ Calligraphy 蔡邕创飞白体

Cai Yong (132-192), also named Bojie, was a famous scholar and calligrapher in East Han dynasty. His highest post was Left Zhonglang-General, a military position which commanded imperial guard troops. So he is also called Cai Zhong Lang by people afterwards. He was also a theorist of calligraphy. Click here to learn more.

His clerical script was famous, and the comment was that ‘Cai Yong’s script is vigorous and with mysterious expressive power.

In 175, the fourth year of Xiping period under the Han Emperor Ling’s reign, Cai Yong and others made effort in revising the six Confucian classics which at that time contained too many wrongly used words and strained interpretations. They did this with the approval of the emperor so that the learners would not be misled. He also obtained the permission of the emperor to inscribe all the six classics on stone tablets and erect them in front of the imperial library. There were all together 46 tablets known as Stone Classics of Xiping Reign, also known as the Classics of the Imperial Library. They had great influence on later classic study and collation. It is said that when the tablets were elected, thousands of people instead came to study the calligraphy every day. They came in carriages that blocked the place and caused massive traffic jam. This was indeed a rare scene in the ancient China.

One day, he was summoned to see the emperor at Hongdu, the imperial library. The gate of Hongdu was in repair. While waiting for the call of the emperor outside of the gate of Hongdu, he saw the trails of the brush of workers brushing calcareousness on the wall. He was impressed by the trails and thought that was novel. He was inspired by the trails. After some research and study, he created the flying-white style of calligraphy, whereby the writing brush was used in a quick and elegant way to give the impression of being carefree and energetic.

Empress Wu Zetian (624 - 705), the only empress in Chinese history, probably was the only person in the history admired the flying-white techniques. She managed to develop her own style of flying white decorated with bird drawings. Her calligraphy was like her character, strong, expressive and bold.

Today, flying white is not an often used technique.

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蔡邕（132-192），又名伯喈，东汉著名学者与书法家。官至左中郎将，所以后人也称他蔡中郎。他也是一名书法理论家。请点击这里。

他的隶书很有名，有“蔡邕书骨气洞达，爽爽有神力”的评价。

175年，汉灵帝熹平四年，蔡邕等正定儒家经本六经文字。当时这些经籍中，含有甚多误谬文字与芽凿附会的注释。正定六经由皇帝诏允，以不贻误后学。又得皇帝批准将六经书丹于碑，命工镌刻，立于鸿都门外。碑凡46块，这些碑称《熹平石经》，亦称《鸿都石经》。对后来经书的学习与整理，影响很大。据说石经立后，每天反而又1000多人来摹写其书法。这些人所乘坐的车把整个地方阻塞了，这在古代的中国确实是少见的景象。

有一天，他被皇帝在鸿都门召见。当时鸿都门正在被修建。他在鸿都门等待皇帝召见时，看到工人把石灰粉刷上墙壁的痕迹。他被这些痕迹所迷住了，认为很有新意。他被粉刷痕迹所鼓舞。几经研究与学习后，他发明了书法飞白体，运笔矫捷飘逸，给人以潇洒不拘、精神焕发的感觉。

在历史上，中国唯一的女皇帝武则天（624-705）可能是唯一迷于飞白体的人。她总算是发展了她自己的飞白体，以飞鸟来装饰。她的书法犹如她的个性，刚强、表情十足、有胆气。

现在，飞白体已不常用。