Eight Character Couplet

In the history of Chinese calligraphy, the evolution from seal script to clerical script was a major transformation. In the beginning, the change was marked by a move from curved to straight lines, as seal script developed into a style known as "old clerical." Later, owing to the wavelike flaring characteristic of certain brushstrokes, old-clerical style became known as?bafen, because diagonal downward strokes to the left and right resembled the Chinese character "eight" (八). What is known as "Han clerical," the clerical script of the Han dynasty, is actually?bafen. The couplet is written in clerical script; here, however, clerical's wavelike flaring strokes are de-emphasized, their forms closer to regular script's?na?stroke (a diagonal down and rightward movement of the brush). Thus, the style is a hybrid of?bafen?and regular script. In the couplet's first line, the finishing flourishes of the long horizontal strokes in the characters 貴 (gui), 兼 (jian), 壽?(shou), and 考 (kao) were executed with the fine, flattened tip of the brush, as were the flaring strokes in the couplet's second line. Were these new forms the calligrapher's innovations, or were they unintentional? Whatever the case, the work is worthy of admiration. Inscription: "Fenyang (Guo Ziyi, a Tang-dynasty general and politician) had great wealth and lived to a ripe old age. Luling (Ouyang Xiu, a Northern Song-dynasty poet and essayist) possessed both virtue and literary talent. For Dehe Renxiong Daren, yazheng (yazheng: a polite phrase asking the recipient to point out the work's deficiencies), Jeng Yi-lin." Seals: "Jeng Sheng Yi-lin." "Jeng Ru Shaotang."