Lofty Song Yu and Calligraphy

This windswept figure is rendered in a style as bold and lofty as the accompanying cursive inscription. His name is Song Yu, a politician and poet at the court of King Qingxiang (d. 263 BCE) of the Chu Kingdom. Song is a disciple of Qu Yuan, a famous patriot in Chinese history for having committed suicide when King Qingxiang declined to take his advice. Qu Yuan and Song Yu are believed to have been the authors of the famous anthology titled Songs of Chu (Chuci). After Qu went into exile, Song wrote “Nine Variations (Jiubian)” in support of Qu’s purity and incorruptibility.

The calligraphic inscription introduces a well-known admonition story between Song and King Qingxiang. According to the Anthology of Literature (Wenxuan), the king rested in a palace when a sudden gust of wind blew in. Enjoying the wind, the king said “How delightful this wind is! And I and the common people may share it together, may we not?” His courier Song replied that two kinds of winds exist—one for his majesty alone and the other for ordinary folks. Song’s response served as a wise admonition to the unambitious king, and it later became a famous poetic text titled “Rhapsody on the Wind (Fengfu).”