Huai-su: "Thousand-character Essay" in Cursive Script

T'ang dynasty

Handscroll / ink on silk

Handscroll : 33.7 x 1730.0cm (including postscript)

Huai-su (725-?) was a native of Ch'ang-sha, Hunan province. His secular name was Ch'ien, and his style name was Ts'ang-chen. This handscroll is also known as the "Ch'ien-chin-t'ieh" ("Thousand Gold Volume") after the comment by Yao Kung-shou of the Ming dynasty that it is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Huai-su is well-known for his K'uang ts'ao ("wild cursive script"), but this work, which was produced late in his life when he was sixty-three, indicates his state of mind in old age in its simple and temperate atmosphere.