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Bizhentu 筆陣圖 is an essay on calligraphy written by Wei Shuo 衛鑠 (272-349; this assumption goes back to Zhang Yanyuan 張彦遠), courtesy name Maoyi 茂漪, from Anyi 安邑 in the commandery of Hedong 河東 (today's Xiaxian 夏縣, Shanxi), a female artist living under the Eastern Jin dynasty 東晉 (317-420). She was a niece of the calligrapher Wei Heng 四體書勢 (d. 291; see his Siti shushi 四體書勢) and was married to Li Ju 李矩, governor (taishou 太守) of Ruyin 汝陰. Authorship is occasionally attributed to her disciple, the famous calligrapher Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (thesis of Sun Guoting 孫過庭), while yet others hold that neither of both had written the text. Wang Xizhi might have written the afterword, Ti Bizhentu hou 題筆陣圖後. Part of the text is based on an earlier essay called Bimiao 筆妙 and attributed to Li Si 李斯 (d. 208 BCE), who is believed to have written the writing textbook Cangjiepian 倉頡篇.
The essay explains the use of the brush and its handling, but the most famous part of the text is the enumeration of seven different shapes of brush strokes, also called the "seven momenta" (qishi 七勢). These are sometimes expressed in an image (lost?) called Bizhen churu zhanzhuo tu 筆陣出入斬斫圖, or Bizhentu "Chart of the formations of the brush", with military analogy (zhen 陣 "military formation", zhanzhuo 斬斫 "beheading, cutting off").
| 一 | 如千里陣云， 隱隱然其實有形。 |
Thousand miles of mighty clouds, concealed is its true shape. |
| 丶 | 如高峰墜石， 磕磕然實如崩也。 |
Shattered stones from lofty summits, falling down in a mountain-slide. |
| 丿 | 陸斷犀象。 | Extending, but inflected like rhino horns and elephant tusks. |
| 乚 | 百鈞弩發。 | [Heavy] like a hundred ounces launched from a crossbow. |
| 丨 | 萬歲枯藤。 | Thousand-years old withered trees and rushes. |
| 乀 | 崩浪雷奔。 | Waves from a crushing mountain, rolling into the distance like thunder. |
| 𠃌 | 勁努筋節。 | The neck of a crossbow, contracted muscles. |
The essay is quoted in Zhang Yanyuan's Fashu yaolu 法書要錄, Chen Si's 陳思 (1225-1264) Shuyuan jinghua 書苑菁華, the Shufa zhengzhuan 書法正傳 and Zhu Changwen's 朱長文 (1039-1098) Mochibian 墨池編, and included in the series Shuofu 說郛, Xu baichuan xuehai 續百川學海 and Lidai shufa lunwen xuan 歷代書法論文選.