Zhu Fei: A Shaoxing Calligrapher Devoted to the Ancients

Zhu Fei: A Shaoxing Calligrapher Devoted to the Ancients

Zhu Fei was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, in June 1945 — the city of Wang Xizhi’s Orchid Pavilion and one of the great homes of Chinese calligraphy. He serves as vice president of the Calligraphy and Painting Collection Committee of the China Collection Association, chief calligrapher of Badou Art, honorary president of Shaoxing’s Moqu Society, adviser to the Shaoxing Calligraphy and Painting Society, and a certified extracurricular calligraphy teacher under the China Education Society.

He has practiced since childhood without pause. His regular script follows Ouyang Xun; his running script draws on the Two Wangs — Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi — and on Zhao Mengfu, with forays into Han clerical writing and the northern stele tradition. Running-regular script is his specialty: graceful and fluent, rich in spirit, precise in every stroke. In 1986 he co-founded the Moqu Society calligraphy group; in 1989 he founded the Shaoxing Calligraphy and Painting Society; and in 1996 he invented a new finishing technique for rice paper, developing a line of raw xuan papers now sold across China. His published historical studies include *The Story of Doumen* and *Riddles of Doumen*; his calligraphy albums include *Two Manners of Zhu Fei’s Running Script*, *Spring Night Banquet at the Peach and Plum Garden*, *Spring Mountains in Red and Black*, *Dreams Chasing the Jin and Tang*, and *How Dark the Painted Brow*.

*”Ink as Friendship” — exhibition of calligraphy by Zhu Fei and his students*

The Pursuit of the Ancient

Zhu Fei writes in pursuit of what the Tang-era critic Dou Meng called “the ancient”: “to remove the commonplace is to be ancient.” Sun Guoting’s *Treatise on Calligraphy* states the rule — “the ancient does not defy its own time; the modern does not repeat its own abuses.” For Zhu Fei there is no standing on one’s own without the old, and no bridge to the present without it.

His foundation is Tang calligraphy. He studied Ouyang Xun’s Huadu Temple and Xuanmi Pagoda steles closely for their command of structure and rule, and he has long admired Yan Zhenqing for his grave, expansive manner — the two temperaments reinforcing each other. The stone inscription he wrote for the Guyue Longshan Group shows it: large characters cut deep, correct and sinewy, with the air of a temple hall. His running script passes through Wang Xizhi, Mi Fu, Huang Tingjian, and Zhao Mengfu, yet sheds their mannerisms and returns everything to an upright, open bearing.

A Reader’s Brush

Zhu Fei reads as diligently as he writes — Chinese classics, history, philosophy, aesthetics, and calligraphy theory — and it shows at the brush tip. His calligraphic renderings of the *Dao De Jing* and the *Analects* carry a scholar’s ease, the learning flowing out of the ink rather than displayed on it.

Calligraphy, he says, is practiced with diligence, managed with temperament, understood through insight, and nourished by a calm state of mind: no restlessness, no chasing quick results. Whatever school you follow, carry it to its utmost — “reach the places even the ancients did not reach.” The Tang critic Zhang Huaiguan wrote that “art is achieved below; virtue is achieved above,” and Zhu Fei keeps praise and blame at an even distance. His best work is restrained rather than showy — unhurried strokes, ink neither wet nor dry, structures composed and steady — the bearing of a gentleman.

Zhu Fei’s Calligraphy: A Closer Look

*Zhu Fei’s calligraphy: “I Write My Own Script”*

*Source: adapted from an essay by He Xibin in China Calligraphy magazine.*

If a piece here speaks to you, Badou Art’s advisers can help you commission calligraphy by Zhu Fei or by our other master calligraphers for your home, office, or as a gift.

Source: https://www.badouart.com/14024.html