Women in the arts
A Read the profile of Wei Shuo. Write a T if a sentence is true, an F if it is false or an NM if it is not mentioned.
Lady Wei: shaping Chinese calligraphy
Wei Shuo was one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese calligraphy. Born in Shanxi, Lady Wei—as she was known—came from a family of calligraphers. She learnt calligraphy by copying the works of Zhong Yao, a master of kaishu. She later became the teacher of Wang Xizhi, who is widely viewed as one of the greatest calligraphers ever. His free and running styles are thought to be influenced by her teaching.
Lady Wei was a master of kaishu and lishu, and her ideas had a great influence on the regular style of Chinese calligraphy. She developed her own style after studying the work of Zhong Yao. Her characters are taller and thinner than earlier ones. This new style left a lasting mark on later calligraphy. People compared her calligraphy to a dancing girl or to a gentle breeze—it seemed so full of beauty and life.
It is said that Bi Zhen Tu was written by Lady Wei. In this book, she gave detailed directions for calligraphy. She said that people should use the strength of their whole bodies to write Chinese characters. She also described how to write the seven basic strokes for Chinese characters. For example, she explained that the horizontal stroke (—) should look like a distant cloud, and that the dot stroke (、) should look like a falling rock. These and many of her other ideas have become an important foundation of later Chinese calligraphy.
1 Lady Wei came from a family with a background in calligraphy.
2 Lady Wei learnt calligraphy directly from Zhong Yao.
3 Lady Wei’s characters are taller and thinner than earlier ones.
4 Lady Wei taught calligraphy to other students besides Wang Xizhi.
5 In her book, Lady Wei explained in detail how every Chinese character should be written.