Huai su autobiography sample
Life autobiography sample.
Huai Su Autobiography
“Autobiography”, the Tang dynasty masterpiece of “wild” cursive script by the monk-calligrapher Huai-su (懷素, ca.
Huai su autobiography sample
737-799), is a handscroll measuring 28.3 centimeters tall by 755 centimeters long. The calligraphy itself is divided into 702 characters arranged in 126 lines. In terms of the dimensions, number of characters, and size of the script, this piece stands out as unique among all the examples of cursive script from the Tang dynasty or before.
Huai-su dated the scroll to the twelfth year of the Dali (大曆) era, which corresponds to 777 in the Western calendar, making this a classic from about the age of 40.
In the Song dynasty (960-1279), three “Autobiography” handscrolls reportedly existed.
This handscroll, now in the collection of the National Palace Museum, is apparently the only one to have survived. A record of connoisseurship indicates it was in the court of the Southern Tang (937-975), an