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Lot Essay
A Brush Moving like a Dragon: Zhu Yunming’s Nineteen Ancient Poems in Cursive Script
One of the four talents of the Wuzhong (now Suzhou) area of the Ming period, Zhu Yunming (1460-1526) was well-educated at home since childhood. Later he became a pupil of Li Yingzhen and married his eldest daughter. In 1492 Zhu passed the imperial examination, yet failed the subsequent ones. He became a magistrate in Guangdong after he was 55 years old and eventually retired and lived as a recluse.
Zhu’s intelligence and erudition make his poems outstanding and refreshing. Learnt from the calligraphy models of the Wei and Jin masters, his running script and especially cursive script calligraphy manifests his character and emotions, and was praised by the Ming politician and scholar Wang Shizhen as the best calligraphy of the world.
Zhu Yunming executed Nineteen Ancient Poems in Cursive Script after considerable wine consumption on the fifteenth night, eighth month of renzi year (1492). On that day he took the provincial examination and so he relaxed himself with wine and calligraphy afterwards. This very long handscroll with expressive brushstrokes of gradations of ink tones was a good omen for Zhu: he passed the examination and became a provincial graduate. Nineteen Ancient Poems in Cursive Script was authenticated by the modern artist Tang Yun (1910-1993), who inscribed on the a titleslip and impressed a seal of authentication on this special piece of calligraphy.
One of the four talents of the Wuzhong (now Suzhou) area of the Ming period, Zhu Yunming (1460-1526) was well-educated at home since childhood. Later he became a pupil of Li Yingzhen and married his eldest daughter. In 1492 Zhu passed the imperial examination, yet failed the subsequent ones. He became a magistrate in Guangdong after he was 55 years old and eventually retired and lived as a recluse.
Zhu’s intelligence and erudition make his poems outstanding and refreshing. Learnt from the calligraphy models of the Wei and Jin masters, his running script and especially cursive script calligraphy manifests his character and emotions, and was praised by the Ming politician and scholar Wang Shizhen as the best calligraphy of the world.
Zhu Yunming executed Nineteen Ancient Poems in Cursive Script after considerable wine consumption on the fifteenth night, eighth month of renzi year (1492). On that day he took the provincial examination and so he relaxed himself with wine and calligraphy afterwards. This very long handscroll with expressive brushstrokes of gradations of ink tones was a good omen for Zhu: he passed the examination and became a provincial graduate. Nineteen Ancient Poems in Cursive Script was authenticated by the modern artist Tang Yun (1910-1993), who inscribed on the a titleslip and impressed a seal of authentication on this special piece of calligraphy.