Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Zhiyong
Monk calligrapher of the Chen and Sui, seventh-generation descendant of Wang Xizhi, who practised for thirty years and gave away over 800 copies of his Thousand Character Classic
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 Lay name Wang Faji · Chan Master Yong
Zhiyong, born Wang Faji in Shanyin, today's Shaoxing, was a seventh-generation descendant of Wang Xizhi and lived as a monk at Yongxin Monastery, where he was called Chan Master Yong. Tang writers say he copied for thirty years and gave more than 800 copies of his Thousand Character Classic in regular and cursive script to monasteries in eastern Zhejiang; so many visitors came for calligraphy that his threshold had to be sheathed in iron. He passed the Wang family method to Yu Shinan. He Yanzhi's Lanting ji says he left the original Orchid Pavilion Preface to his disciple Biancai. The Palace Museum holds a Song rubbing of the Guanzhong stone version of the Thousand Character Classic.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Chen and Sui dynasties