Shoubi yaoshuo 授筆要説

Shoubi yaoshuo 授筆要説 "Explanation of important [facts] for teaching calligraphy" is an essay on calligraphy written during the Tang period 唐 (618-907) by Han Fangming 韓方明, who lived around 800 CE and was a calligraphy teacher. The text mentions two students of his, namely Xu Shu 徐璹 and Cuo Miao 崔邈. Han was a master of the bafen 八分 style, which was a special variant of the chancery script (lishu 隸書). His biography is found in Wu Wuling's 吳武陵 (d. 835) book Xinkai yinshan ji 新開隱山記.

The essay begins with the discussion of the eight different types of brush strokes as seen in the character 永 (yongzi bafa 永字八法). The central part explains five different modes of holding the shaft of a brush, namely grasping (zhi guan 執管), stabbing (zhuo guan {扌族}管), gathering (cuo guan 撮管), digging out (jue guan 掘管), and restraining (nuo guan 搦管), and gives detail about the correct handling and avoiding typical mistakes.

The text can be found in the book Shuyuan jinghua 書苑菁華 and the collection Lidai shufa lunwen xuan 歷代書法論文選. A modern explanation of the technical terms is provided by Shen Yinmo 沈尹默 (1883-1971) in his Lidai mingjia xueshu jingyan tan jiyao shiyi 歷代名家學書經驗談輯要釋義.