Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Zhang Huaiguan
High Tang calligraphy theorist and Hanlin academician whose Shu Duan ranked calligraphers and recorded the phrase 'three-tenths into the wood'.
A desk holds an unrolled sheet bearing three bold black ink strokes, with a rack of many brushes above it, a stone ink slab and ink stick, a porcelain bowl, a red lacquer box, a dish of red seal paste and a paperweight; a small seated figure shows through a round window onto bamboo.
Also known as Zhang Huaiguan of Hailing
Zhang Huaiguan, from Hailing, served Emperor Xuanzong as a Hanlin academician during the Kaiyuan era and was renowned for calligraphy and its theory. In works such as the Shu Duan and Shu Yi he graded historical calligraphers into divine, marvellous and capable classes, making him one of the foremost Tang theorists of the art. His Shu Duan records that Wang Xizhi's brush penetrated 'three-tenths into the wood', the source of the idiom.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras (713–756 CE)