Copy of the "Classic of the Yellow Court"

Zhu Yunming (style name Xizhe, sobriquet Zhishan), a native of Suzhou in Jiangsu, is reported to have been able to write large-character calligraphy by the age of five. He later excelled at all types of calligraphy, his "wild cursive" most famous.
This handscroll in small regular script is a transcription of "Classic of the Yellow Court," an important Daoist meditation text for cultivating health that mainly focuses on breathing exercises to build energy. Using rhyme to describe the form and function of various parts of the body, both internally and externally, the point is to preserve the spirit and obtain insight as well as strengthen the spirit and train one's "qi" and thereby fill the Yellow Court, or core, with it and prolong life. It is said that Wang Xizhi, who was fond of geese, transcribed a version of this classic to exchange with a Daoist of Shanyin for a white goose. Surviving copies of this work, however, are all rubbings from a Song dynasty engraving in stone. Nonetheless, the precise script and untrammeled spirit have often earned it praise as a model for the study of regular script.