1. Su Shih (1036 - 1101), Song dynasty
2. Hand scroll, ink on paper, 34.2 x 199.5 cm

Su Shih, a native of Szechwan, is probably best known by his sobriquet, Tung-p'o. A bold and direct personality, he was wrongly accused of seditious libel while in office and was banished from the capital. Although his career suffered vicissitudes at the hands of his political opponents, he has always been considered immortal in the art of poetry and prose. This piece was written during his exile to Huang-chou in 1082 then later transcribed into a work of calligraphy. Despite Su's upbeat character, the language has an air of dejection to it. The characters and the distances between them, for example, seem to vary rhythmically according to his emotions.

In terms of semi-cursive script, the size of the characters ranges considerably. Su Shih once said that his calligraphy is "everything from short to long, plump to bony." Here, the style is sometimes reserved, other times bold. Characters that particularly stand out include nien (line 2), chung (line 5), wei (line 11), chih (line 13), in which their last vertical stroke trails down for some distance to stand out against the blank paper. The variation in thickness, distance, and size gives this work an individual quality. In fact, Su Shih's calligraphy represents one of the more personal styles of the period. Furthermore, another great Sung calligrapher, Huang T'ing-chien (1045-1105), wrote a colophon for this work sometime before the ninth lunar month of 1100. The sizes of the characters in Huang's colophon are even larger than Su's, creating an ideal complement.