Hello dear friends. So, today we'll be speaking about the disciple of Yan Zhenqing about the great calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Gongquan. As we said, the persons who are going to master their skills in the Kaishu style, have to study the works by Yan Zhenqing and by Liu Gongquan by both of them. Because only knowing the principles of these two great masters, gives the possibility to try oneself in his own manner of casual calligraphy. Without it, nothing can be started, nothing can be even thought about. So, Liu Gongquan, what we know about him. He continued the tradition of his great teacher of Yan Zhenqing, but of course the characters of Liu Gongquan are quite different. He continued the principles. He continued the philosophic ideas of aesthetics that Yan Zhenqing worked out, but the actual fulfillment, the actual work with the brush, the actual form, shape of a character of Liu Gongquan are quite different from the works by Yan Zhenqing. Liu Gongquan was born in a family of officials and he was beautiful educated, he was very fluent in ancient classical books. At the early years, he passed the exams for the highest educational rank which was [inaudible]. He got this rank and he continued his official duties as long as he continued mastering his calligraphic skills. The works by Liu Gongquan, his calligraphic steles, his calligraphic works have become well known, not only in China, but in the countries abroad. In some of them like in Korea, his works were recognized as the best samples of the imperial calligraphy and became the samples for all the calligraphers for many many hundreds of years. Liu Gongquan, we remember that his teacher, the characters by Yan Zhenqing where called Zhou, the muscles, and the calligraphy by Liu Gongquan was called Gu, the bones. Why so? Well, because first of all, the calligraphy by Liu Gongquan, It makes a skeleton for all the experiments in shape of the casual style that a person may do after mastering him. But of course, the shape of the characters' themselves, the aesthetics of calligraphy by Liu Gongquan, has some very special features that we must discuss and we must actually observe on the very works by this great calligrapher. So, please have a look at one of his masterpieces which is Xuan mi ta bei. So, here, we can see the very essence of his calligraphic style. So, please have a look. When we see characters of this kind, the first thing that comes into your mind is that the parts of the characters are not harmoniously written, that the equilibrium in parts of the characters is very wrong. But when these parts are set together in one character, the character becomes absolutely harmonious. Why so? A mystery. Just have a look. The upper part of this character is twisted somewhere to the left. The lower part is twisted somewhere to the right. But when we set them together, the character generally is absolutely harmoniously written. So, Liu Gongquan plays with the equilibrium of parts of the character and while the parts may be twisted, lacking the equilibrium, the character, generally is absolutely harmonious and all the parts. So, this thing about his calligraphy being sort of bones, yes. The strokes of his characters are absolutely marvelously done. They are very concise. They are full of energy. No matter how thick they are. For instance, here, we can see a very very thin horizontal and a very very thin left fallings chug. But still, they are full of strength, they are full of power. So, this structure is very obvious here in big characters we can see them. This structure is very obvious. The lines are very concise. The lines are filled with power. No matter what lines we're speaking of. The horizontal strokes, the hooks here. These hooks are very sharp and this chokes also are there as sharp as if they are broken at the end. But actually, that doesn't spoil the impression. On the contrary, it gives the impression of great power and harmony. So, look at those hooks. Look here. Look at those horizontal strokes. Even some vertical strokes seemed to be unfinished, but actually this impression of having the stroke broken, actually, it all helps to make the whole character look perfectly. So, mastering Kaishu style, one has to practice characters by Yan Zhenqing, and after that, the characters by Liu Gongquan, and to tell the truth, this is not as simple as it seems. Though this structure of the character is absolutely obvious, so we can see all the details of his brush work. But when you start copying characters by Liu Gongquan, it happens that this play with the proportions that we just spoke of. It becomes very tricky. You try to copy it and the character you write starts to fall apart, starts to be absolutely disproportional. It is perfectly done by Liu Gongquan. But it's very hard, very difficult to copy. Nevertheless, when you master in copying, this pulsation of Xi that was demonstrated in the works by Yan Zhenqing, and this play with proportions that was demonstrated by Liu Gongquan. After that, you really understand a lot about cultural style and you can work on your own style, but not earlier. The great master of calligraphy of Kaishu of Tang Dynasty and one of the great masters of calligraphy of all the times, Liu Gongquan.
