Eight-Character Couplet in Seal Script

Zhao Shuru (original name Shigang but using his style name instead) was a native of Ningbo in Zhejiang. At the end of the Qing dynasty, he served as a prefect in Fujian, but after the Republic was established, he lived in reclusion in Shanghai, devoting himself to painting, calligraphy, and seal carving. His style of round, red-character seal carving has a lofty elegance highly recommended and praised by contemporaries. Attracting many students, he came to have a major influence on seal carving circles in the Republican period. This couplet is written in lesser seal script. The brushwork is strong and rounded with curving turns, the spacing suitably arranged. The characters are even and graceful, exhibiting a vertically elongated dynamic to make this a fine example of Zhao Shuru’s lesser seal script.