Cai Xiang (1012 – 1067 AD) was first of the four great Song dynasty calligraphers.
He influenced the other three calligraphers of his era.
He even taught his cousin, the hated official Cai Jing (1047 – 1126), how to wield the brush…
Let’s look closer at his life and work.
Contents
Brief biography
Cài Xiāng (蔡襄), literary name Junmo, was born in Xianyou County, Fujian Province during the reign of the third Song dynasty emperor: Zhenzong.
His father, Cai Xiu (蔡琇), had been a farmer but became a low-ranking official for Quanzhou in Fujian Province. And his mother was the daughter of a well-known scholar named Lu Ren.
Cai Xiang passed the imperial exam in 1030. Remarkably, he was just 17 or 18 years old when he passed.
(Other successful candidates were often in their late 20s or older.)
And when he was 24 years old, he wrote a controversial poem in support of political reformers.
Thereafter, he earned himself a reputation as an upright and honest official.
He was a cultured man known for his poetry, calligraphy, and expertise on the then-booming Tea trade.
He published A Monograph on Tea (茶录) somewhere between 1049 – 1053, in which he wrote about the selection, preparation, and enjoyment of tea.
Cai was promoted to a number of different roles during his career as an official, including the minister in charge of transport and envoys in Fuzhou.
But it was his calligraphy which brought him access to the highest circles of power, including the emperor himself.
The Northern Song dynasty and reform
The issue of political, educational, and economic reform loomed over the early Song dynasty (now retrospectively called the Northern Song because of the loss of half its territory to the Manchus in 1127).
Cai was an advocate of several types of reform. For example, despite his own success in and because of it, he expressed dissatisfaction the education system.
This was the famous imperial examination system that the government recruited the small number of successful candidates from.
It was, Cai argued, not practical enough for students to be so focused on exclusively literary knowledge.
He argued that it left them unprepared for the many different challenges government work would face them with.
This debate would continue in the decades after Cai passed away.
His associate and admirer, the famous official-scholar Su Shi (1137 – 1101), was in fact imprisoned and exiled due to his opposition to reforms.
Cai also passed comment on other social issues, such as public morals. He once complained:
Nowadays, it is common that a man considering a marriage does not take into account the status of a family but solely the family’s wealth.
– Quoted in The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China by Dieter Kuhn (Harvard: The Belknap Press, 2009), p. 140
Cai Xiang’s calligraphy
Early on, Cai diligently studied and practiced the styles of the influential Sui and early Tang dynasty officials Yu Shinan (558 – 638 AD) and Yan Zhenqing (709 – 785 AD).
He was also influenced by his contemporaries Zhou Yue (dates unknown, lived first half of the 11th century) and Su Shunqin (1008 – 1049 AD).
Like all of these above names, Cai is remembered as an influential innovator in calligraphy.
The Four Great Song Calligraphers
Cai’s work is generally said to have initiated the development of his fellow three members of ‘the four great Song calligraphers’ category:
- The legendary Su Shi (1037 – 1101 AD)
- The cursive script master Huang Tingjian (1045 – 1105)
- The eccentric but brilliant Mi Fu (1051 – 1107 AD)
Critiques and praise of Cai’s calligraphy
However, like Zhou Yue and Su Shunqin, Cai’s calligraphy was occasionally critiqued during and after his lifetime.
The Song dynasty emperor Gaozong (r. 1129 – 1162), for example, said that Cai had met adequate but not outstanding levels.
And Cai’s contemporary Ouyang Xiu (1007 – 1072) thought that Cai tried too hard to master all the scripts equally, which prevented him from innovating.
However, the Ouyang also claimed that Cai was the greatest calligrapher of the era. And Su Shi praised Cai as a great calligrapher to learn from.
天资既高，积学深至，心手相应，变化无穷，遂为本朝第一。
– Ouyang Xiu
[Cai Xiang’s] natural talent was high, he was deeply learned, his hand and mind were aligned [/very skillful], he could endlessly change styles, he is first rank in this present dynasty.