Letter to the Commandery Administrator Huizhi (In the Depths of Autumn)

Zhu Xi was a famous thinker of the Southern Song period who spent his life pursuing the ambition of establishing a new order for the country. Zhu wrote this letter in the eighth lunar month of the Shaoxi fifth year (1194) after leaving his post as Administrator of Tanzhou (modern Changsha, Hunan) and on his way back to the capital. In it, he mentions the government affairs to be addressed in Tanzhou. Near the beginning of the letter, he relates the sad news of national mourning, referring to the death of Retired Emperor Xiaozong in the sixth month of that year. However, in the following month, after Emperor Guangzong abdicated in favor of Ningzong, Zhu Xi had the opportunity to go to court and serve as an Instructor, bringing him joy as well. The brushwork throughout the letter is brisk, the dots and strokes rounded and smooth with sedate lines that are also fluid. Moreover, the line spacing has a sense of continuity that expresses freedom and easy naturalness. Zhu Xi, known for creating a grand synthesis of Song Neo-Confucian thought, had a great impact on Chinese culture. This work, one of the few surviving traces of the brush from his hand, is thus all the more important.