It may seem strange that an Outer Barbarian, who writes Chinese badly, should
express any opinion on a Chinese master of the art of calligraphy such as Liu
Zhengcheng. But I am happy to do this because I admire him so much, for his
mastery of every aspect of this supreme art - its variety of forms and styles, its
aesthetics, and its history. The latter is displayed in his vast compendium of key
examples, of which I understand that he has already published no less than sixty
volumes, and in his modestly titled Outline of the Art of Calligraphy (Shufa yishu gailun), published in 2008. This is a fascinating, detailed account of the history of
the art in China from its remote beginnings to the present day. Lucid and richly
illustrated, it is the best survey of the subject in any language. I hope an English
edition will be prepared for its many potential foreign readers.
Liu Zhengcheng’s achievement is the more remarkable since he did not come from a
scholarly background. What he has become today is the result of his own intense
study and boundless enthusiasm for his subject. At the same time, his eager curiosity
has led him to travel abroad in his researches into the origins of writing world-wide,
notably in England, of which he has given a lively account in his Yinglun xingse,
published in 2006.
Liu Zhengcheng is generous with his time, and I have learned a lot from him. But it is
not only with his time that he is generous. When he wrote in his beautiful hand a long
eulogy for my wife Khoan and myself, had it mounted, and presented it to me in a
specially-made box, he did not, like his spiritual ancestor Wang Xizhi, expect me to
give him a goose in exchange. It was simply a very precious gift.
I am writing these words on a cool early autumn day in Oxford, wearing one of the
three padded jackets that Liu Zhengcheng’s delightful wife Fu Shuqun has given me.
It reminds me of the evenings I have spent at their house, of the wonderful food and
the scintillating talk, usually about calligraphy, illustrated with characters written on
scraps of paper, or on the tablecloth - a sure sign of a successful evening in the
world of the Chinese literati in which Liu Zhengcheng is so distinguished a figure. So
is great pleasure for me to express in these few words my admiration for him as a
calligrapher, a historian, a scholar, and a dear friend.
