Couplet in standard script

Object Details

• Artist

  Fu Shan (1607-1684)

• Label

  A native of Shanxi Province, Fu Shan was famous as a poet, calligrapher, painter, scholar, and physician. He showed early signs of genius but failed the provincial examinations and never held government office, surviving instead through his skills as a medical doctor.

  Famed for his unique style of cursive, Fu Shan rarely wrote the kind of large standard script seen on this matched pair of hanging scrolls. Seeming almost to vibrate with dynamic force and inner tension, the brushwork is bold, heavy, and muscular, with individual characters measuring one or more square foot in size. The monumental effect reveals Fu Shan's debt to the stone inscriptions of Yan Zhenqing (709--785) of the Tang dynasty, whose work he studied and often copied. Fu Shan's aphoristic text may be translated:

  If the spirit is settled, the mind naturally ranges afar;

  When your body is at ease, the more you can enjoy.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Masterpieces of Chinese Calligraphy (June 7, 1994 to March 20, 1995)

  From Concept to Context: Approaches to Asian and Islamic Calligraphy (July 28, 1986 to February 6, 1987)

  Chinese Calligraphy (May 9, 1980 to November 14, 1980)

  Chinese Art—Stone Sculpture (September 1, 1979 to March 14, 1982)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Calligraphy

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1630s, 1680s

• Name

  Fu, Shan

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Art, Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Standard script

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Calligraphy (visual works)