【Calligraphers of the Three Kingdoms】Sima Yi – The only thing that has survived is a leave request
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The “Ashi Tie” is a calligraphy work by Sima Yi, Emperor Xuan of the Western Jin Dynasty; it is also known as the “Zhi Bai Ashi Tie” and the “Ashi’s Illness Worsens Tie”. It was created in the eighth year of the Zhengshi era of the Wei Dynasty (247). The post contains seventeen characters, written in cursive script (Zhangcao). Its engraved version is included in the Song Dynasty’s \"Chunhua Ge Tie\".Translation (2): Zhi Bai A Shi’s condition has improved slightly, but not completely; the secretaries in the various departments have received a message written in his handwriting. (From the “Chunhua Ge Tie” version kept in the Su family collection.)
Translation (3): Zhi Bai A Shi’s condition has improved slightly, but not completely; the secretaries in the various departments say that they have received his handwriting. (From “Quan Jin Wen”).
The “A Shi Tie” is written in the Zhangcao style of calligraphy; it consists of two lines with seventeen characters in total. According to research, it was a note written by Sima Yi during his pretended illness in the eighth year of the Zhengshi era of the Wei dynasty (247 AD), addressed to Emperor Cao Fang. It is the only piece of calligraphy by Sima Yi that has survived to the present day, and it was included in Emperor Taizong of Song’s collection “Chunhua Ge Tie”. This piece is also an excellent example of semi-cursive script; its strokes are clean and crisp, without any trace of sloppiness. The sharpness of the strokes is well-controlled, giving it a strong and powerful presence – making it a fine work of Wei-style calligraphy. In particular, characters such as “zhi,” “bai,” and “shu” appear repeatedly in the calligraphy pieces, with none of them having the same shape, showing great variability. Each character in the inscription stands alone; the script is clearly in a transitional stage between Zhangcao and modern cursive script. Every stroke is restrained, without any overt display of style. Sima Yi was also a person who was reserved inwardly but outwardly generous, prone to suspicion and flexible in his tactics; he was good at waiting patiently for the right opportunity, and his handwriting reflected his personality. Li Ruiqing of the Qing dynasty, while commenting on this calligraphy piece, also said: “Every stroke is as if forged from iron.” ”The small text on the right side of the work was added by later people. Existing versions include the paper manuscript (with the eight characters \"Written by General Sima Yi of the Wei Dynasty\" written on the right), the engraved version from the Chunhua Ge Tie collection, and the engraved version of the Chunhua Ge Tie collection known as the \"Su Fu version\" (with the five characters \"Written by Emperor Xuan of the Western Jin Dynasty\" written on the right side).