Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Feng Chengsu
Tang copyist at the Hongwen Academy who traced Wang Xizhi's calligraphy for Emperor Taizong; the Shenlong copy of the Lanting Preface is attributed to him
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 Zi Wanshou
Feng Chengsu, courtesy name Wanshou, came from Xindu. Chu Suiliang records that in 639, as a junior official attached to the Hongwen Academy, he was ordered to trace Wang Xizhi's Essay on Yue Yi, and copies were given to Zhangsun Wuji and five others. He Yanzhi's Record of the Lanting Preface names him with Zhao Mo, Han Daozheng and Zhuge Zhen as the court tracers who copied the Lanting Preface for the emperor to give to his ministers. His epitaph says he rose to clerk of the Secretariat and died in 672 at the age of fifty-six. The Lanting Preface copy in the Palace Museum, Beijing, known from its small Shenlong seal, is traditionally attributed to him.
Life and times
Dates 617 CE-672 CE