DPNimages: Tang Dynasty / handscroll / ink on paper, 618

Huai-su, ranked together with Chang Hsu, the "genius of the cursive script," as "Chang the Mad and Huai the Crazy," was talented in the wild and unrestricted k'uang-ts'ao ("wild cursive script") style. It is said that he was fond of alcoholic drinks, and in the state of intoxication he would dash off calligraphy as he pleased, for which the citizens of the capital at the time scrambled to own. This handscroll is a masterpiece thoroughly representing his true character. The effect of the wild untrammeled manner, the truth of which he is said to have obtained through drink, is exhaustively expressed in this work.