The Yongle Emperor of the Ming admired the regular script of the calligrapher Shen Du and called him “our dynasty’s Wang Xizhi.” The court gave Shen Du its important texts to write. The scholars of the time then imitated his hand one after another “to cater to the emperor’s taste.” The style is also called taige ti, the cabinet style.
The Leader Writes the Comment
China’s Regulations on the Assessment of Civil Servants were issued on December 28, 2020. In the annual assessment, “the responsible leader analyzes the civil servant’s performance and related circumstances comprehensively, writes a targeted comment, and proposes an assessment grade and requirements for improvement.” The head of the agency, or an authorized assessment committee, then sets the grade.
Scratching Through the Boot
At democratic life meetings, the members of a Party leadership team are expected to criticize one another. In November 2018, inspectors of the Tianjin Party committee reported that at some units, criticism “sees the matter but not the person” and is gexue saoyang, scratching an itch through the boot. The idiom means to miss the point.
In 2023, the Party’s organization newspaper again called for criticism that does not “make light of things or scratch through the boot.”
Reminder Talks
Article 21 of the Communist Party’s Regulations on Intra-Party Supervision, adopted on October 27, 2016, sets out two kinds of talks. When a leading cadre shows the first signs of a problem in thinking, work style or discipline, “the responsible person of the Party organization concerned should promptly hold a reminder talk with him.”
For a minor violation, “the responsible person of the higher-level Party organization should hold an admonishment talk with him.” The cadre then gives an explanation or a self-criticism. After the principal leader of his Party organization signs it, it goes to the higher discipline commission and organization department.
Tracing Red Characters
描红 To trace the red. A beginner’s exercise in calligraphy. The learner follows model characters in red with an ink brush, stroke by stroke.
临摹 To copy. The Song scholar Huang Bosi explained: lin is to copy with the model beside the paper, mo to trace with thin paper laid over it. The Guoyu dictionary calls both “the path every beginner in calligraphy must take.”
字帖 A copybook. The model that learners of calligraphy copy.
范文 A model essay. A text held up in teaching as an example to learn from.
口传心授 Passed on by mouth, received by the heart. The Ming scholar Xie Jin wrote: “In learning calligraphy, without passing on by mouth and receiving by heart, one cannot reach its refinement.”
Three Hundred Tang Poems
Three Hundred Tang Poems was compiled by Sun Zhu, who called himself Hengtang Tuishi. It holds 311 poems in six volumes and was first printed in 1764. A saying about it is still quoted: 熟读唐诗三百首，不会作诗也会吟 “Read the three hundred Tang poems until they are familiar, and even a person who cannot compose poems will be able to chant them.”
One variant ends differently. Such a person “will also be able to make up verses.”
The Mustard Seed Garden Manual
The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, named after Li Yu’s villa in Nanjing, first appeared in 1679. It sets out in detail the techniques for painting landscapes, plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, and flowers, birds and insects. The bibliographer Zhao Wanli called it “a bridge to the study of painting, used by most beginners.” Huang Binhong, Qi Baishi, Pan Tianshou and Fu Baoshi all used it as a model to learn from.
Before his travels, Qi Baishi’s landscapes followed mainly the manual and the style of the Four Wangs. On learning from others, he said: “I learn from others. I do not imitate them. What I learn is the spirit of brush and ink, whether the outward form looks alike or not.”
The Six Principles of Painting
In the Southern Qi dynasty, the painter Xie He wrote the Classified Record of Ancient Painters. Its preface explains that the ranking of paintings is a matter of their merits, and names six principles that few painters master in full. The first is qiyun shengdong, spirit resonance and life. The sixth is chuanyi moxie, transmission by copying models.
Copies of the Orchid Pavilion
Wang Xizhi’s Orchid Pavilion Preface is called “the finest running script under heaven.” When Emperor Taizong of Tang obtained the original, he ordered Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang, Feng Chengsu, Ouyang Xun and others to copy it, and gave the copies to princes and close officials.
Taizong’s last will ordered the original buried with him. Of the surviving copies, the Shenlong copy, identified as the work of Feng Chengsu, is considered the best. It is in the Palace Museum.
What is known today as the Orchid Pavilion Preface is a copy.
Model Operas
On May 31, 1967, a People’s Daily editorial named eight “revolutionary model works,” geming yangbanxi, then playing in Beijing. Five were Peking operas, among them Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy and The Red Lantern. Two were ballets, The Red Detachment of Women and The White-Haired Girl. One was the symphonic Shajiabang.
From 1969 to 1972, they were filmed for release across the country. More than 300 forms of local opera adapted them. Filming, recording and adaptation were all strictly required not to depart from the model. A saying went: “Eight hundred million people, eight shows.”