Yan Zhenqing (709 – 785 AD) was an official, military commander, and calligrapher.
He is considered one of the greatest calligraphers of the Tang dynasty (618 – 906 AD) and the embodiment of an ideal Confucian official.
Both of these aspects of his life are irrevocably interlinked.
In fact, both reflect one the Analects most famous passages:
子曰：“吾十有五而志于学，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳顺，七十而从心所欲，不逾矩。”
Confucius said: “At fifteen I set my mind upon learning. At thirty, I took my stand. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the will of heaven. At sixty, my ear was attuned. At seventy, I follow all the desires of my heart without breaking any rule.”
– The Analects (2.4)
Unfortunately, Yan’s peak artistic period in his 70s was abruptly halted – he was executed.
But he died as bravely and uprightly as lived.
Contents
Biography
Family background and early life
Yán Zhēnqīng (颜真卿), courtesy name Qing Chen (清臣 – ‘pure official’), was born in 709 AD in Wannian, near the Tang dynasty capital, Chang’an (today’s Xi’an, Shaanxi Province).
He came from a distinguished family of officials that had lived by the capital for five generations.
His paternal great-great-grandfather was Yan Shigu (581 – 645 AD), a well-known politician, scholar and skilled calligrapher.
And before that, his clan was linked to Confucius’ favourite disciple, Yan Hui, something Yan particularly proud of.
During the Tang dynasty, the elites were a mixture of military and aristocratic types. They often proudly preserved their genealogy.
Yan Zhenqing’s father, Yan Weizhen (669—712), was a middle ranking official. He died when Yan was just three years old.
Yan’s mother taught him to read and write and a paternal aunt educated him in poetry.
It’s said that in order to practice calligraphy as a youth, he would use loess (the yellow soil common in northern China) to practice writing on walls with brooms.
One of his elder brothers, Yan Yunnan (694 – 762 AD), was also a strong influence on him. Yan once recounted an anecdote:
Our family had a crane with a broken leg. When I was small, I would play by writing on its back. Yunnan rebuked me severely, saying, “Even though it cannot fly away, is it not terribly inhumane to have no consideration for its wings and feathers?” I have remembered that all my life.
– Quoted in Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), p. 33
Yan passed the imperial examinations in 734, aged 25, and married the same year.
During the Tang dynasty, these exams accounted for between 6 – 16% of officials’ routes to office.
They involved demonstrating good:
- Physique
- Speech
- Literary composition
- Calligraphy
- Knowledge of The Thirteen Classics.
Tutorage under Zhang Xu (‘Crazy Zhang’)
A 22-year-old Yan is said to have sought out the great calligrapher Zhang Xu (ca. 675 – 759 AD) as a tutor.
Zhang was known for his eccentric behaviour, including dipping his long hair into ink and using it to write calligraphy.
He was also known as ‘Grass Sage’ (草圣) because of his skill at cursive script (sometimes translated as grass script).
Unfortunately, Zhang appears to have shown little interest in instructing Yan. He merely advised the younger man to ‘learn from nature’.
Disappointed, Yan left to accept his official minister post. However, when he was 38, he left his post to once again try and learn under Zhang.
This time, he was successful, and Zhang greatly helped yan develop as a calligrapher.
735 – 755 AD: Early career
After passing his exam, Yan’s career got off to a good start.
He worked in the capital and in 736 was selected to sit for another exam, the Examination for Selecting the Preeminent. This was an exam that focused on literary abilities in poetry and prose writing.
After passing this, he was appointed the prestigious position of editor at the palace library.
His mother passed away in 738 and he returned home for a custom mourning period of three years.
He returned to the capital in 741.
And the following year he selected to sit another – even more prestigious – exam: the Examination for Erudites of Outstanding and Extraordinary Literary Expression.
This was supervised by the emperor himself, Xuanzong (r. 712 – 756 AD).
Yan passed this in first rank and was appointed to District Defender of Liquan. This prestigious area contained the royal summer palaces and mausoleums.
His career progression continued throughout the following decade. He roles included:
- 746 AD: Court Gentleman of Comprehensive Duty and District Defender of Chang’an
- 747 – 749 AD: Investigating censor
- 750 AD: Palace censor
- 752 AD: Military roles (including Vice Director for the Ministry of War).
During this time, Yan began to gain a reputation as both a skillful calligrapher and outspoken official, attributes that would go on to define his life.
755 – 763: Yan’s life during the An Lushan Rebellion
The An Lushan Rebellion (755 – 763) was one of the most significant and destructive rebellions in China’s history.
The Tang dynasty survived for another century and a half after the rebellion. However, its power and prestige were significantly reduced.
Yan’s heroic actions during the rebellion: Resistance at Pingyuan
753 AD: Preparations and poker face
In 753, Yan had been sent to be the governor of Pingyuan, a walled city (located in today’s Shandong Province).
It was just 186 miles (300 km) from An Lushan’s headquarters in Youzhou (today’s Beijing).
Civil war was brewing across the empire when Yan arrived in Pingyuan. So he began preparations for a siege immediately by preparing moats, recruiting 10,000 troops and storing supplies.
At the same time, An Lushan sent generals to meet and asses Yan Zhenqing. Yan’s goal was to buy time by persuading them that he was harmless to them and oblivious to their intentions.
He greeted the enemy generals cordially, taking them on rambling excursions in the surrounding countryside.
Meanwhile, preparations within the walled city could continue in secret.
Yan’s ruse appears to have worked.
754 AD: Epitaph for Yuan Dexiu
In 754, Yan wrote out an epitaph, with text by the politician Li Hua, for the Confucian scholar Yan Dexiu (696 – 754).
It was inscribed into a stele (stone, post-shaped monument) with a heading by the great seal script calligrapher Li Yangbing (721 or 722 – 777 AD). (Li Yangbing was a friend of the great poet Li Bai (701 – 762 AD)).
Unfortunately, it doesn’t survive today. But it was mentioned in the Tang History.
755 AD: War begins and Yan shows decisiveness
It wasn’t long before An Lushan’s forces had swept across large areas of China, even taking its second capital, Luoyang.
The rebel leader had persuaded some government troops to switch to his side, and kidnapped (or killed) others. He sent a messenger, Duan Ziguang, to Pingyuan.
Duan brought the heads of three loyalist officials who had resisted the rebel forces with him… His offer to Yan was clear: switch to the rebel side or share the same fate.
Yan now showed himself to be the exact opposite of the distracted official the rebels thought he was.
First, he ordered Duan to executed by being cut in half. Next, he had the officials’ heads buried with full ceremony.
And then he dispatched his troops to join forces with other government troops nearby, where they scored an important victory against the rebels after a day’s fighting.
757 AD: Defence and then abandonment of Pingyuan
Pingyuan was soon targeted again by An Lushan’s forces. However, Yan managed to organise backup from nearby government troops.
Afterwards, he transferred power over to a colleague and continued to organise defence around the north east of China.
But then Pingyuan was surrounded again.
Knowing that defence was not as likely this time time, Yan travelled about 560 miles (900km) southwest through the winter to Wudang (in today’s Hubei Province).
The fact that he was not martyred at Pingyuan would trouble him for the rest of his life…
In the meantime, the imperial court had regrouped in about 430km (700km) west of Wudang, in Fengxian(today’s Shaanxi Province).
The new emperor, Suzong (757 – 62), was pleased with Yan and promoted him to the post of Minister of Justice.
Yan, however, went beyond modesty and asked to be punished rather than praised for his actions:
… integrity would demand that I risk death amid danger and defend the orphaned city to the last, but I believed that returning to indict myself at the imperial court would be better than being seized by rebel hands….
– Quoted in Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), p. 42
My humble desire is for You Majesty to censure heavily this one official, myself, in order to demonstrate the justice of Heaven and to let the subcelestial realm know there are laws that must be appreciated.
The emperor replied:
Though you did not hold Pingyuan, your efficacy was great. From afar you returned to court, profoundly aiding our aspirations.
– Ibid.
Later career
758 – 764: Praise doesn’t change Yan
Yan made a point of criticising other officials for improper behaviour. This was a Confucian principle that in practice few ever stuck as rigidly to as Yan did.
Because of this, he was sent to work away from the court in Chang’an 758 AD. This was also the year he composed his famous Draft of a Requiem for my Nephew (see below).
Over the course of the following years, he was assigned posts in locations across the empire.
These included:
- Raozhou (in today’s Jiangxi Province), about 621 miles (1000km) from the capital (Chang’an)
- Shengzhou (in today’s Zhejiang Province)
- Pengzhou (Sichuan Province)
and more.
764: Letter on Controversy Over Seating Protocol
The Letter on Controversy over Seating Protocol is one of Ya Zhenqing’s most well-known calligraphic masterpieces.
It was originally done in ink on seven sheets of paper. And it contains 1,194 characters written in a mixture of running and cursive script.
Yan’s Song dynasty admirer Mi Fu (1051 – 1157) wrote of it:
《争座位帖》有篆籀气，为颜书第一。字相连属，诡异飞动得於意外。
– Mi Fu, History of Calligraphy
Letter on Controversy over Seating Protocol has the air of seal script about it and is Yan’s best work. Its characters are intentionally connected to in a flying movement, yet their fantastic shapes and forms are not premeditated.
The content is a letter from Yan to the official Guo Yingyi essentially telling him off for having seated a court eunuch at the head of a table.
This act, Yan warns him, is not simply incorrect protocol, it is also a sign of incorrect morality.
765 – 785 AD: Upright, too upright
Owing in part to his persistent criticisms of other officials, Yan was demoted in the 760s.
This was the same decade he turned 60 (in 769). And in the last two decades of his life, he worked across various parts of the empire.
This included postings in Jizhou, Fuzhou, Huzhou, and more.
During this time, his calligraphy continued to improve. Perhaps due to his demotions, he began to experiment and innovate more.
The Emperor Dezong ascended to the throne in 779. This caused changes in many ministers’ roles.
Yan was promoted to junior instructor of the heir apparent. His appointment stated:
His establishment of virtue and pursuit of its practice put him in the first of the four classes, and his admirable literary works and great learning make him kindred to all the philosophers.
– Quoted in Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), p. 129
On the surface, this looks like a return to favour for Yan. However, the minister behind, Lu Qi, it was primarily motivated by his dislike of Yan’s outspokenness.
This new role, whilst prestigious, actually had less power than the role Yan had been in prior to it.
What made this particularly shocking was the fact that Lu Qi was the son of one of the officials whose heads Yan had so loyally buried during the incident at Pingyuan (described above).
And things got worse…
783 – 785: Yan’s capture and execution
In 783, a Tang military commisioner named Li Xilie revolted against the Tang. He sacked the city of Ruzhou (in today’s Henan Province) and set up a camp nearby.
Lu Qi then ordered Yan to travel to Li Xilie’s camp and demand he surrender to the government.
Despite the risk in this, the elderly Yan – ever the loyal and upright official – accepted the order.
Once Yan arrived, he was immediately taken captive by Li Xilie. At first, he was treated well.
Li wanted to persuade Yan to defect to his (Li’s) side. Yan outright refused, allegedly stating:
… I am nearing eighty. In my official career, I have reached the post of grand instructor. I will preserve the virtue of my elder brother in death and beyond. How could I be coerced by the likes of you?
– Quoted in Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), p. 141
Yan’s refusal to entertain Li’s offer led to him being imprisoned in harsher conditions.
Meanwhile, letters to the court by Yan’s friends and family asking for him to be ransomed were intercepted by Lu Qi.
In 785, Yan was hanged.
He was posthumously given the rank of Minister of Education and the title of 文忠 (‘culture/cultured loyal’).
Yan’s calligraphic style
Yan Zhenqing is known as one of the ‘four great masters of the regular script’ (楷书四大家), along with:
This is the most popular form of script in China today.
He created at least 20 regular script masterpieces during his life.
But he was also skilled in the other main styles, running script and cursive script.
Yan was an innovator whose style marked a distinct break from the popular style of the early-Tang dynasty.
Before him, styles were generally seen to be thinner and harder-edged. But he introduced a more muscular and square style.
His regular script is so distinct that it is also known as ‘Yan script’ (颜体). It served as a model for many of his predecessors, including during his life time and afterwards.
书如其人
The calligraphy reflects the man
– Chinese saying
Yan’s style is often described as reflecting his personality: upright, natural and powerful.
One distinctive feature of Yan’s brushwork is his use of the semi-horizontal zhé (磔) brush stroke (sometimes called the ‘dismemberment’ or ‘axe’ stroke).
His often had an interesting curved tip at it’s end. This is done using skilful timing and positing of the brush tip.
What impresses many about Yan is that his calligraphic abilities got better as he got older. He is said to have practiced hard for many years before his talent blossomed.
In the last ten years of his life (he was executed at age 76), he produced 10 masterpieces.
Yan’s legacy
Tang dynasty (618 – 606 AD)
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (906 – 960)
Yan’s style greatly influenced the greatest calligrapher of this brief, violent period: Yang Ningshi (873 – 954).
The Song dynasty (960 – 1279) revival
Yan’s influence on Song dynasty calligraphy was profound.
Ouyang Xiu (1007 – 1072) was the first prominent Song figure to promote Yan’s reputation.
Ouyang’s influence on the subsequent generation of literati, such as:
- Su Shi (1037 – 1101): The leading cultural and artistic figure of the entire dynasty
- Huang Tingjian (1145 – 1105): The Song dynasty’s leading cursive script master
- Mi Fu (1051 – 1107): The eccentric, opinionated and brilliant calligrapher and collector
and others.
The only other comparable figures were Wang Xizhi (303 – 361 AD) and his son Wang Xianzhi (344 – 386 AD).
Wang Xianzhi was particularly promoted by the early Song emperor Huizong (r. 1100 – 1126 AD).
Huizong was a clearly a genuine lover of art and calligraphy, but he also used them as political tools to influence culture.
Ultimately, Yan was popular because of the Confucian virtues his biography demonstrated. So, his calligraphy served as a counterweight to Wang Xizhi’s for both aesthetic and political reasons.
Politically, Yan was an upright Confucian scholar-official who had gained entry through his success in the examinations and official work. This was the class of scholar-officials most of the great Song calligraphers were from.
By contrast, Wang was an aristocrat. His elegant, Daoist-inspired work had long had state backing.
Wang’s flamboyant irregular characters stood in contrast to the ones Yan created with his solid, upright brush method.
Despite this contrast, Yan had not seen himself as a part of a distinct school. Far from it, in fact: he saw himself as working at least in part in the Wang tradition.
Notable works
Requiem for my Nephew
Yan Zhenqing’s Draft of a Requiem for my Nephew (祭姪文稿) (sometimes translated as Requiem for my Nephew or Eulogy for a Nephew) was written in 758 AD, about midway through the An Lushan Rebellion.
It details the life and death of his nephew Yan Jiming, who was killed by rebels in Changshan, western China.
It is written in the ‘running’ or ‘semi-cursive’ style of Chinese calligraphy. It’s not known where the final version this piece is a draft of is.
However, the fact that it is a draft adds some authenticity and interest to it.
Yan’s many corrections remain clearly visible, so we gain insight into the great calligrapher’s working process.
Poem for General Pei
Yan’s Poem for General Pei (裴将军诗) is a short piece of calligraphy (just 93 characters) that is probably Yan’s most experimental and innovative work.
It exists within a larger piece, Poem on Seeing off General Pei (送裴将军诗帖).
The original of Poem for General Pei no longer exists. The closest to that it is an ink rubbing of a stone inscription of it.
It was written in contains just 93 characters written in a mix of standard script, running script, and grass script, an unusual (and innovative) mixture within a single piece in its time.
The characters are large (up to 10cm) and arranged in varied columns of between three to five characters.
In the context of Yan’s other calligraphy, the piece is remarkably bold and expressive.
To see what the piece looks like, click here (I can’t currently find a version of the image with rights to use. Hopefully I will eventually!)
Authorship issue
It isn’t known for certain that the poem was written by Yan Zhenqing.
This is because the existing ink rubbing, and poem’s text, are not signed by Yan. And it was not included in the earliest collection of Yan’s writings, which was compiled between 1056 -64 (about 279 years after Yan’s death).
However, it did appear in the second edition of Yan’s collected words, in 1215. Many fakes were (often unknowingly) passed around throughout Chinese history though.
Amy McNair remarked:
[…] we should note that the content of the poem is perfectly plausible for a person of Yan Zhenqing’s background. Pei Min [General Pei] was a friend and contemporary of Zhang Xu, under whom Yan Zhenqing studied cursive script, and other poems celebrating the general’s daring exploits were written by Wang Wei (701 – 761) and Yan’s brother-in-law Cen Shen.
– Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), p. 78
The poem’s text content is as follows:
![Original Chinese text (in simplified Chinese characters) and English translation of 'Poem For General Pei' 裴将军 by Yan Zhenqing. Chinese text: 君制六合/猛将清九垓/战马若龙虎/腾陵何壮哉/将军临北荒/烜赫耀英才/剑舞跃游电/随风萦且回/登高望天山/白雪正崔嵬/入阵破骄虏/威声雄震雷/一射百马倒/再射万夫开/匈奴不敢敌/相呼归去来/功成报天子/可以画麟台/Whilst the great sovereign ruled all six directions [1],/
your fierce forces brought peace in the nine boundaries./
Your war horses were like dragons and tigers,/
magnificently galloping over hills!/
As you, General, approached the northern wilderness,/
your brilliance and bravery shone./
Your sword danced like leaping thunder,/
and echoed along the winds./
You ascended and looked out from the heavenly mountains,/
where white snow-covered rocky peaks./
As you destroyed the vain barbarians,/
your resounding magnificence rumbled like thunder./
A single arrow felled one hundred horses,/
a follow-up scattered ten thousand men./
The Xiongnu [2] didn’t dare fight [you],/
they shouted as they fled./
Successful, you reported back to the emperor./
Your portrait could hang in the Qilin Pavillion [3].
1 Six directions: North, South, East, West, Heaven, Earth/below
2. Xiongnu: A people then outside China’s borders.
3. Qilin Pavillion: A pavilion where great official’s portraits were hung during the Han dynasty.](https://ink-and-brush.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Poem-For-General-Pei-1-scaled.webp)