Chu Suiliang

Born in 596 in Qiantang (modern Zhejiang ). Came from a noble scientific family. He was the son of Chu Lian, a mid-level official. in his youth he supported the speech of Li Shimin against the Sui Dynasty . After that, Chu Suilian’s court career developed brilliantly. After the death of Yu Shinan, he took his place in the immediate environment of the emperor Tai-tszung . Tradition says that once the emperor asked Chu Suilian that he served as a court historiographer about whether he would bring information about his indecent act to the chronicle. The calligrapher’s response was unequivocally positive, prompting the emperor’s approval. Upon accession to the throne of the emperor Gao-zong, Chu Suiliang served as governor of Henan .

The usurpation of power by Empress Wu Zetian and her repression policy provoked a protest in society. Chu Suilyan defiantly sends governor powers to the capital of regalia and awaits execution, which has already befallen many opponents of the empress. However, the calligrapher’s fame was so great that he was left alive, but sent to exile to the south, first to Tanzhou (modern Changsha , Hunan Province ), then to Guizhou (Guangxi Province), and then to Aizhou (Annam, environs of Hanoi, Vietnam). Only after the fall of Wu Zetian was he posthumously rehabilitated. The principle of the calligrapher went down in the history of China as an example, following the Confucian ethics and to the end of his civic duty.

At first, Chu Suiliang copied the steles made in the guveni, zhuanshu, deprive and zhenshu handwritings of the Han , Wei, and Jin dynasties . Then he concentrated on the study of manuscripts, and the main reference point for him was the scrolls of Yu Shinan, for whose style he was looking for penetration into the mastery of the brush in a letter in the handwriting of “Two Van”. He repeatedly copied the originals of Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi , who were in the Imperial Assembly. As a result, his features found live mobility, the work of the brush became inspirationally diverse, and the configuration of energy flows (shea) was unusual and powerful. The calligraphic heritage of Chu Suilian was significant. However, the originals of his manuscripts are lost. From a long list of steles created by him, prints from 13 monuments have been reached so far.

In the work of a calligrapher, two stages are distinguished. The first stage is represented by the stela 642 of the year “Men Fashi Bey,” dedicated to the Buddhist mentor Men. The stele was made in the “kaishu” handwriting, prints of 769 hieroglyphs were preserved. The calligraphy of the stele demonstrates the strong and solid work of the brush, in the technique of which there is a clear continuity with the monuments of the Northern kingdoms. In the plastic of risks, squareness prevails, hieroglyphs are monumental and durable. In the plastic of the right-hinged hinges, a connection with the protostatus of the Dotan pore is felt. The rounded writing technique prevails over the square.

Around 649, dramatic changes took place in the work of Chu Suilian, as a result of which his style reached its climax, and the brush technique became especially virtuoso. The stan “Yan Tashen Jiaoxuy”, built around 653 in connection with the beginning of the construction of the “Great Wild Goose Pagoda” (Tayant), was intended to store the sutras brought by the Buddhist preacher Xuanzang in 647 from his pilgrimage to India, the best example of the late style of the master. Two parts were preserved from the monument: the first stone - 21 columns of 42 characters each, the second - 20 columns of 40 characters each. The peculiarity of the charter of Chu Suilian is determined by thin elastic features with difficult endings. A beautiful deflection appears in the middle of the devil. The composition of hieroglyphs finds additional spatiality. In hieroglyphics, feminine grace is emphasized instead of the former monumentality, which gave rise to some critics to compare his calligraphy with “a courtly beauty who bends even under the weight of silk robes”.

• Chang Leon L.-Y., Miller P. Four Thousand Years of Chinese Calligraphy. - Chicago, London, 1990
• Tseng Yuho. A History of Chinese Calligraphy. Hong Kong, 1998.
• Chu Suiliang and his Calligraphy Gallery at China Online Museum
• A partial model of Chu Suiliang's The Emperor's Preface to the Sacred Teachings - History and English Translation of one of Chu Suiliang's representative calligraphic work.
• 褚遂良 雁塔 圣教 序
• 藏品 - 法 書 - 王羲之 行書 蘭亭 序 卷 （傳 唐 褚遂良 摹本）
• 英譯 雁塔 聖教 序