Chunyu zashu 春雨雜述

Chunyu zashu 春雨雜述 "Miscellaneous notes of Spring Rain Studio" is an essay on calligraphy written during the early Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Xie Jin 解縉 (1369-1415), courtesy name Dashen 大紳, style Chunyu 春雨, from Jishui 吉水, Jiangxi. He obtained his jinshi degree in 1388 and was a bachelor in the Palace Secretariat (zhongshu shujishi 中書庶吉士) and then Hanlin Academician (Hanlin xueshi 翰林學士). Xie is most famous for his function in the supervision of the encyclopaedical project Yongle dadian 永樂大典. He died in prison after repeatedly criticizing the government. His collected writings are called Wenyi ji 文毅集, Luoyin ji 羅隱集 and Xueshi ji 學士集. Xie also compiled the veritable records of the dynastic founder, Taizu shilu 太祖實錄, and wrote the book Gujin lienü zhuan 古今列女傳. A collection of his memorials is called Taiping zoushu 太平奏疏.

Xie urges beginning calligraphers to learn from ancient masters and to take them as their model for constructing spaces between characters, holding the brush and treating paper (ch. Xue shufa 學書法). Students had to learn both regular or steady modes as well as changes and variants (Caoshu ping 草書評). They had to listen to the instruction of their teachers and to embed this knowledge into their hearts (Pingshu 評書). The chapter Shuxue pingshuo 書學評説 discusses methods of holding and controlling the brush and of composing texts and arranging characters on the paper. The text ends (Shuxue chuanshou 書學傳授) with a brief history of the development of calligraphy, and names important masters of the past.

The text is found in the series Guang baichuan xuehai 廣百川學海, Baoyantang miji 寶顔堂秘笈, Shuofu xu 説郛續, Gujin shuobu congshu 古今説部叢書, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 and Lidai shufa lunwen xuan 歷代書法論文選.