Huai Su

Also known as Cang Zhen · Shamen Huaisu · Zui Su · Lutian Anzhu

Huaisu, courtesy name Cangzhen, was born into a Qian family of Lingling in Yongzhou, though the opening line of his Autobiography (Zixu tie) gives his home as Changsha; he became a monk as a boy. Lu Yu's Biography of the Monk Huaisu says he was too poor to buy paper, so he planted more than ten thousand banana plants and wrote on their leaves, and practiced on a lacquered tray and board until he wore them through. He studied brush methods with Wu Tong and consulted Yan Zhenqing, and the 'Song of Cursive Script' traditionally ascribed to Li Bai was written in his praise. In 777 he wrote the Autobiography, gathering the verses that leading men of the day had composed about his cursive; the scroll is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and his short Bitter Bamboo Shoots note is in the Shanghai Museum. Fond of wine and given to writing when drunk, he was paired with Zhang Xu as 'mad Zhang and drunk Su'.