Huang Tingjian: Sarcasm, Exile, and the Making of a Song Dynasty Master

Huang Tingjian (1045 – 1105 AD) was one of the most original calligraphers in Chinese history.

He was also a celebrated poet and art critic.

His famous grass script calligraphy was said to be inspired by ripples on water.

During his career as an official, outspoken officials risked torture and exile.

So, discerning meaning in Huang’s words can be like looking through rippling waters.

Contents

Biography

1045 – 1064: Early life (& family background)

Huáng Tíngjiān (黄庭坚) (sometimes known as Huang Shangu) was born during the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 AD) in the southern city of Fenning (today’s Xiushui county, Jiangxi province).

His ancestors had fled Fenning from northern China during the chaotic Five Dynasties period (907 – 960 AD) that had followed the collapse of the Tang dynasty (618 – 907 AD).

He came from many generations of scholars and officials, dating back to the Han dynasty prime minister Huang Ba (? – 51 BC). 

His great-great grandfather had set up a large library in Fenning for members of their clan.

Before Huang’s Tingjian’s time, 18 of his recent relatives had passed the imperial examinations.

Huang’s mother, Lady Li (d. 1091), was an accomplished painter and musician. Her brother, Li Chang (1067 – 1090), was an official and well-known book collector.

And Huang’s father, Huang Shu (1019 – 1058) was the prefect of Kangzhou. He was known for his talent in poetry and prose, and introduced his son to the poetry of Du Fu (712 – 770 AD) and writings of Han Yu (768 – 824 AD). 

Unfortunately, Huang père died aged only 40.

Huang Tingjian was only 13 or 14 years old at the time. So, he was sent to live with maternal uncle, Li Chang, in Anhui province. Here, he resumed his education amidst his uncle’s extensive library.

1064 – 1067: Huang takes the imperial examinations

Huang failed his attempt at the imperial exam in 1064, aged 19. But he passed it on his second attempt in 1067, aged 22.

This was a relatively young age to receive ‘presented scholar’ (进士) status.

This achievement marked the culmination of years of intense learning and favoured candidates – like Huang – with literary strengths.

1068 – 1069: First official post

Huang’s first post was a relatively minor role as district defender in Ye County (today’s Pingdanshan, Henan Province). 

Here, he saw streams of survivors of the 1068 – 69 Tianjin earthquakes pass through Ye Country. Meeting them inspired a poem:

迩来后土中夜震，有似巨鳌复戴三山游。
倾墙摧栋压老弱，冤声未定随洪流。
Recently, the goddess Houtu shook the earth at midnight.
It was like the Giant Turtle Ao carrying three mountains on his back.
Walls fell, houses were destroyed, the old and weak were crushed.
Voices of grief were carried along by the floods.

– Extract from ‘The Refugee’s Sigh’ by Huang Tianjian

1070: Loss of first wife

Huang’s first wife died in 1070. She was the daughter of the well-known scholar of Sun Jue (1028 – 1090 AD).

1072: Teaching post and second marriage

In 1072, he gained certification to teach at the illustrious imperial college: the Damingfu Academy (in today’s Handan city, Hebei province).

Wang Anshi himself has noticed Huang’s talent and helped ensure he got this post.

Huang would go on to teach here for seven years. And also rose to concurrently hold the post of official history compiler.

The same year he married, Miss Xie, with whom he had a daughter. 

1978: Meeting Su Shi

Huang was introduced to the greatest literary figure of his time, Su Shi (1037 – 1101) in writing before meeting in person. 

Huang’s uncle, Li Chang, and his father-in-law, Sun Jue, had helped put them in touch.

By this time, Huang was known for his literary talent. Su praised Huang’s poetry and the two soon exchanged poems.

Huang became known as one of the ‘four disciple scholars of Su Shi’ (苏门四学士), along with:

• Zhang Lei
• Chao Buzhi
• Qin Guan

Su greatly influenced Huang’s poetry, calligraphy, philosophy and artistic theory.

1079

Loss of second wife, adopts new name

Huang’s second wife, with whom he had had a daughter, died in 1079.

Shortly after, he adopted the name ‘Daoist of the Mountain Valley’ (山谷道人) after visiting the Shang’gu. 

From this time on, he would sign a lot of his calligraphy and colophons (comments written beside calligraphy and paintings) with this.

Caught in a conspiracy

In 1079, Su Shi was arrested on charges of slandering the court with his criticisms Wang Anshi’s New Policies.  (Of course, by extension, this meant that Su had also been criticising the emperor’s judgement…)

People around Su were also caught up in this. One of these was Huang, who was charged with having circulated Su’s critical poems.

Huang was not outspoken like Su. Huang’s oblique criticisms – when they did come – were always heavily disguised under subtle literary references. 

However, his writing was not under the spotlight. Had it been, things could have been worse for him. In this case, he was sent to a relatively remote post as subprefect in Jizhou (today’s Ji’an, Jiangxi province).

Huang once wrote to his nephew:

Su’s writing is the best in the world. His only shortcoming is that he likes to rebuke people – in this, you must not follow his example!

1084: 40-year-old Huang names son ‘Forty’

Huang’s third wife’s name is unrecorded. This is likely a sign she was his servant or former concubine. 

Together they had a son named Huang Xiang (1084 – 1132), whose childhood nickname was ‘Forty’.

This was Huang’s age when his son was born and the age his own father had passed away.

Huang Xiang would grow up to pass the imperial examination and work as a lecturer.

1085: The Zhezong Emperor’s reign beings

The Zhezong Emperor (r.1085 – 1100 AD) came to power when he was only eight years old.

The regency around him, led by the Empress Dowager Gao (1032 – 1093 AD), was against Wang Anshi’s reforms and began dismantling them.

This was good news to Huang, Su, and many others. Many were recalled from their remote and minor posts. 

Huang was brought back to the capital Bianliang (today’s Kaifeng, Henan Province) and given a position in the History Institute.

This can be seen as the height of Huang and many other anti-reformers careers.

1091 – 1093: Mourning his mother

Huang’s mother passed away in 1091. He had helped nurse her through a long period of illness. 

It was customary for officials to return home, bury their parent, and mourn for an official period of three years when they lost a parent.

Huang travelled back to Fenning, about 430 miles (700 km) south of Kaifeng, with the coffins of his mother, aunt, and two wives.

During this period, he appears to have written no poetry.

1093: The Zhezong Emperor brings back the reforms

Unluckily for Huang, Su, and other reformers, the Empress Dowager Gao passed away in 1093. 

Power naturally moved over to the young (16 years-old) Emperor Zhezong. He began reviving the New Policies.

Convicted of sarcasm…

For the reformists around Zhezong, revival of the New Policies also created an opportunity for revenge.

Su Shi was one of the first be targeted. He was sent on what would be his final and toughest exile in the far south of China.

Huang was charged a few months later, accused of being a co-conspirator in a case led by Wang Anshi’s zealous son-in-law, Cai Bian. 

His role in the History Institute required him writing the recent dynasty’s history – his enemies alleged that this included many examples of Huang’s sarcasm.

Huang was sent into internal exile in Quanzhou, Fujian province, and later on moved to other remote locations. 

This period lasted about ten years.

1100: The Huizong Emperor’s reign (1100 – 1126 AD)

The Zhezong Emperor died aged just twenty-three. The throne was then passed onto Zhezong’s younger paternal half-brother, Huizong (1082 – 1135 AD).

The political winds changed dramatically once again.

Amnesty on anti-reform exiles

Wang Anshi’s reforms were cancelled, and Huang – like many other exiled officials – was allowed to return from exile.

Su Shi died en route during his return from exile in 1101. 

Huang saw his son married in Sichuan, then travelled (or meandered) back to Fenning, visiting many friends along the way.

Anti-reformists targeted again

Unfortunately for Huang (and many others), his respite from political persecution and exile did not last very long. 

The political situation changed yet again, and people seen as anti-reformist were once again targeted. 

The Emperor had entrusted great power to the notorious official Cai Jing (1047 – 1126). 

Huang eventually died en route to exile in the south of China in 1105 AD.

Huang’s calligraphy style

Today, Huang is remembered as one the greatest Song dynasty calligrapher of grass script (sometimes referred to in English as fully-cursive script).

He is also considered one of the four great calligraphers of the Song dynasty, along with:

• Cai Xiang (1011 – 1062)
• Su Shi (1137 – 1101)
• Mi Fu (1051 – 1107)

His mature running script period begins after 1094. He is said to have felt enlightened on this form of writing whilst walking mountains during his exile in Jianxi.

His upright brush produced rounder, more flexible characters than his previous style. His supple and responsive brush strokes look more natural and sustained than his earlier work.

He was also excellent practitioner of running script and regular (or standard) script.

He studied the work of past calligraphers diligently, including Wang Xizhi (303 – 361 AD) and Yan Zhenqing (709 – 785 AD).

But he was also influenced by the contemporary prominence of the literati-art that he would later come to be remembered for.

Huang and Mi Fu

Huang has long been contrasted with his contemporary (and friend) Mi Fu. Both are seen as giants of calligraphy with different approaches to the art.

Huang once wrote of Mi:

余尝评米元章书如快剑斫阵，强弩射千里，所当穿彻，书家笔势亦穷于此。然似仲由未见孔子时风气耳。
I once commented on the calligraphy of Mi Yuanzhang [Mi Fu] as being like a fast sword chopping in battle, or an arrow fired a thousand miles, piercing through everything it meets. 
A calligrapher’s brush strength cannot exceed this. 
However, [Mi Fu also] has an air about him like Zhong You before he met Confucius.

– Huang Tingjian, ‘Colophon on Mi Yuanzhang’s Calligraphy’

Huang’s reference to Zhong You, one of Confucius’ disciples, is a backhanded compliment. Zhong You become less unruly once Confucius had taught him.

Huang similarly complimented and critiqued the Five dynasties period calligrapher Yang Ningshi (873 – 954 AD). He stated that despite Yang’s excellence, he did not appear to adhere stricly enough to the rules of calligraphy.

Ripples on the water

Huang is famously said to have received a sudden inspiration about calligraphy from the water’s surface.

Whilst living in exile, he was passing by a gorge on the Yangze River.

One version of events has it that he noticed the ripples fisherman’s oars made on the water. Another that he observed the powerful water’s surface itself.

Huang and Su Shi joke about one another’s styles

Su and Huang would often meet up and practice calligraphy together. Neither was afraid to critique the other’s calligraphy. 

It’s said that Su once said that Huang’s ‘rowing boat calligraphy’ (see below) looked like snakes hanging over tree branches. 

And Huang said that Su’s characters looked like expanding frogs being crushed by rocks.

Huang’s artistic philosophy

Huang’s artistic philosophy was a lot like those in his inner circle. He was a literati-scholar, which is something different from the professional painters at the time.

Chinese literati practiced ‘the three perfections’ of calligraphy, poetry, and painting (they were generally in this order of importance). 

Their artistic philosophy was not like that of professional painters. They saw their art as essentially an overflow of their inner selves. It was certainly not something they would ever be paid for.

Let’s look closer at how Huang himself explained it.

Outer art reflects inner self

Like many Song officials, Huang was primarily a Confucian but also showed affinity with Daoism and Chan Buddhism. 

One of Huang’s core beliefs reflects aspects of all three of these schools of thought.

This was in the ability of calligraphy, poetry, and art to reflect the artist’s inner self, which in turn needed to be cultivated.

He wrote the following comment more than once:

胸中中有万卷书，笔下无一点俗气。
In his breast there were ten thousand books, in his brushwork, no speck of vulgar spirit.

– Huang Tingjian comment on another artist’s painting

This line was very likely directly inspired by lines from a poem by Du Fu, who lived about four centuries earlier:

读书破万卷，下笔如有神。
I have read 10,000 volumes, and it is as if I were guided by the spirits when I write.

– Lines taken from ’22nd Ode to Official Wei Zuo’ by Du Fu

Absolute concentration

Besides absorbing and reflecting what one read, Huang also believed in achieving mastery through concentration (and meditation).

This was something that went hand in hand with developing skill over time.

He once wrote:

The cook’s cutting up of oxen and the woodworker Qing’s carving a bell stand went with their having clarity in themselves and a concentration like the spirits, so closely joined that nothing could come in between. Only then could they achieve excellence.

– Huang Tinjian

These reflect the writing in Zhuangzi, a foundational book of Daoism written in the 3^rd century BC text.

The flow of life is always constrained by its banks, but the activity of the understanding consciousness is constrained by no limits.

The cook was cutting up an ox for the king […] Wherever his hand hit the carcass, wherever his shoulder leaned into it, wherever his foot braced it […] the sound of meat falling from the bone would resound, and the sound of his knife passing through it would, too; each sound ringing out the perfect pitch…

   The king said, “How wonderful it is that skill can reach such heights!”

   The cook replied, “What I love is the Way, which goes beyond mere skill.”

– Zhuangzi (3.1-2)

Elsewhere, Huang links this state directly to meditation and the Way (道 [dào] – which appears in Daoism and Confucianism). And he links these both to calligraphy:

In studying calligraphy, copying can frequently catch formal likeness, but in general one takes pieces of earlier calligraphy and by looking at them closely one closely reaches a state of complete absorption (入神[rùshén]).

– Huang Tinjian

One hill, one valley

One of Huang’s monikers is the Valley Daoist (山谷道人 [Shāngǔ Dàoren]).

In his writings, he references ‘One hill, one valley’ (一丘一壑 [yīqiū-yīhè]) several times.

When he mentioned this, he was generally referencing the inner cultivation that calligraphers, poets, and painters expressed through their work.

Writing on one of Su Dongpo’s paintings, he commented:

Hills and valleys were naturally in his mind from the beginning. So that he made old trees twisted by wind and frost.

– Huang Tingjian comment on a painting by Su Dongpo