By Yu Shinan
Tang Dynasty
Handscroll, Running script, Ink on paper
Height: 26cm, Width: 38.6cm

Yu Shinan, styling himself Boshi, was a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang Province and served in the Tang court for a long period. He devoted himself to learning and had an extensive knowledge of both past and present. He learned calligraphy from a monk named Zhi Yong in the Sui Dynasty and inherited Two Wangs'(Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi) tradition with refined form and gentle but natural strokes. In calligraphic history, Yu Shinan is one of the Four Masters of the Early Tang Dynasty. This work was a draft of an epitaph for Princess Runan, the third daughter of Emperor Tang Taizong who died in 636 A.D.. The influence of Zhi Yong and Wang Xizhi can clearly be seen in the epitaph's 222 characters in 18 columns. Though already at the age of 79, Yu wrote this work in compact composition and vigorous strokes. This work bears no signature or seal by the artist, but has many colophons and seals by later generations.