LCA008

Lulu's Water Paper Book-Cao Shu, Zhi Yong

A Chinese Calligraphy Book for Zhi Yong's Cao Shu Style. It is made of Water Paper for Endless Practice


Calligraphist: Zhi Yong
Style: Cao Shu
Edition Information: Chinese, 26 pages, 14.8 in x 10.4 in / 37.0 cm x 26.0 cm, softcover

 

Lulu’s Water Paper Book is a series of tools designed to help beginners and advanced artists alike learn and practice calligraphy. Each book features an ancient and famous note in a specific style for you to imitate that will allow you to easily and quickly learn calligraphy. Best of all, every book in this series is made of Magic Water Paper, which uses water instead of ink. The marks you make on this material will disappear about two minutes after you have drawn on it. At that point, you can start over again – it is endless practice. Furthermore, this product has the added bonus of being environmentally friendly!

This note, written in Kai Shu style, tells a story of Zhi Yong, a monk and great calligraphist that lived during the Sui Dynasty (581 AD – 618 AD). He himself was a decendent of the Calligraphy Sage Wang Xizhi and was once approached by some scholars while he was teaching calligraphy in a temple where he had practiced for over 30 years. The scholars asked him for his secrets of calligraphy, and he replied that the only secret was practice.

When he saw the scholars were disappointed with the answer, he told them a story of Wang Xizhi, who once blackened a whole pond of water to practice his art. Later, he led the scholars to a tomb under a tree where he had buried all his brushes that had lost their hair due to long-time usage. The amount of brushes buried in the tomb surprised the scholars and inspired them to practice harder.