草圣张旭 Zhang Xu: The Sage of Calligraphy of Cursive Script

The development of calligraphy of Cursive Script had reached a new height during the Tang dynasty, and it is not surprising that it produced Three Outstanding Calligraphers for Cursive Script. He Zhizhang is one of them. The other two are ZhangXu and Huai Su.

He Zhizhang: http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2012/01/he-zhizhang.html
Huai Su：http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2013/11/huai-su-whose-calligraphy-of-cursive.html

Zhang Xu, also named Bogao, was a native of Suzhou. He became an official during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. He had the official title of Administrative Adjutant and was known as Administrative Adjutant Zhang.

Zhang was known as one of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup. Legend has it that whenever he was drunk, he would use his hair as brush to perform his art of Chinese calligraphy, and upon his waking up, he would be amazed by the quality of those works but failed to produce them again.

Though well known for his cursive script, he also excelled in the regular script. According to Zhang Xu himself, he picked up cursive script writing from watching the sword dance performed by Gongsun Danian, a top dancer of the time. In a departure from the tradition of discrete characters found in the cursive style of Wang Xizhi and Sun Guoting, Zhang Xu adopted the crazy cursive script style of writing the characters in a continuum, broadening the horizon of calligraphic expression. For this, he was known as the Sage of Calligraphy of Cursive Script (草圣).

Han Yu, a prominent poet of Tang Dynasty noted that “Zhang Xu is dedicated to Cao Shu and has lifted it up to a level so dazzling that you can hardly imagine.” Du Fu, another great poet of Tang Dynasty even dedicated a poem to Zhang Xu part of which states: “Three cups of alcohol rouse Zhang Xu’s ingenuity which will make him take off his hat and wield his brush before people of high ranks, and brilliant masterpieces come into shape”. Zhang was good at expressing his thoughts and feelings with abstract lines in a way never seen before. It could be stated that even though he uses the traditional techniques he manages to attribute uniqueness, creativity, diversity, freshness and daring to his works thus being head and shoulders above his predecessors and becoming an artistic symbol of the prosperity of Tang Dynasty.

Apart from the Regular Script “Note of Stele in Langguan”, his other two most famous works which are still cherished today are “The Stomachache Note” (Du Tong Tie), Four Ancient Chinese Poems (Gu Shi Si Tie).

草书发展到了唐朝，达到了一个高峰，所以出现了“草书三杰”，就不令人惊奇了。贺知章就是唐朝草书三杰之一。其他两人是张旭与怀素。

贺知章：http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2012/01/he-zhizhang.html
怀素：http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2013/11/huai-su-whose-calligraphy-of-cursive.html

张旭，名伯高，是苏州人，在唐玄宗的朝廷当官，位居“长史”，所以亦称“张长史”。

张旭也是“饮中八仙”之一。据说当喝醉了时，常以头发来写字，醒来后亦惊叹写得好，但是无法重写。

虽然他以草书出名，但是他也精通楷书，据说自己的说法，他是观看了当时出名的舞者公孙大娘舞了“剑器舞”后才领悟出草书书写的道理。他的草书与王羲之和孙过庭的字字独立不同，所写的狂草字字牵带连缀，扩大了情感表达，因此被称为“草圣”。

韩愈言“往时张旭善草书，不治他技”。唐代诗圣杜甫特为其写诗曰：“张旭三杯草圣传，脱帽露顶王公前，挥毫落纸如云烟。”张旭书法线条书法抒情，可说前无古人。

除了楷书《郎官石柱记》，张旭的传世名帖还有《肚痛帖》与《古诗四首》。

张旭草书的章法大致可以分为单字界限清晰和单字界限不清晰这样两类。前者如《晚复帖》，后者如《古诗四帖》。两类作品书写时的心态有所不同。前一类作品书写时注意力可以主要放在字结构上，同时关注各字的连缀即可；后一类作品书写时以线条疏密及连续性的控制为首要目标。狂草中空间的疏密有时出现强烈的变化，但张旭的作品中，疏密变化都是逐渐发生的。换言之，由疏到密，或由密到疏，都有个过渡阶段，《肚痛贴》中从“肚痛”到“不可”这样突兀的变化只是个特例。