Tang Calligraphy and Painting

Tang was strong and culturally flourishing, and calligraphy, painting, music, dance and sculpture all reached brilliant heights. Calligraphy produced many masters. In early Tang, Ouyang Xun's regular script, steep and strict in structure, is called the “Ou style”. Zhang Xu of High Tang and Huaisu of mid-Tang excelled in wild cursive, unrestrained and free. Yan Zhenqing was one of Tang's most influential calligraphers. A loyal official who held Pingyuan and resisted the rebels during the An Lushan Rebellion, he was later strangled while trying to persuade the rebel general Li Xilie, and later generations admired both his character and his writing. His upright, strong and sturdy script is called the “Yan style”, with works such as the Duobao Pagoda Stele and the Stele of Yan Qinli; his Draft Eulogy for My Nephew, written in mourning for a nephew killed in the rebellion, is called the “second-best running script under heaven”. Liu Gongquan of late Tang wrote in angular, bold, powerful strokes, the “Liu style”, and later people used “Yan's sinew, Liu's bone” to describe their calligraphy. Tang painting covered figures, landscapes, birds and flowers and religious subjects. Yan Liben of early Tang excelled in figure painting, capturing both form and spirit, and his Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy depicts Taizong receiving the Tubo envoy Gar Tongtsen. Wu Daozi of High Tang was Tang's most famous painter, skilled in Buddhist and Daoist figures and landscapes, with vigorous strokes, dynamic lines and fluttering robes, praised as “Wu's sashes flutter in the wind”, and later honored as the “Sage of Painting”. Landscapes by Li Sixun and Wang Wei, ladies by Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang, and horses by Han Gan were also famous.