In 1942, Master Hong Yi died peacefully at the age of 63 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. It was the calligraphy that Hong Yi kept practicing as a monk until he passed away. All through his 62 years in life, the calligraphy kept him company for at least 50 years.
Hong Yi began learning how to write seal characters as a teenager. Back then, he would practice official script, regular script, running style and cursive writing. In a broad sense, Hong Yi’s calligraphy style could be categorized into two types: the pre-conversion style, which is flowery and muscular, and the post-conversion style, which is simple and unadorned.
The practice of calligraphy eventually changed from producing artistic work to spreading religious notions. As a monk, Hong Yi does not regard himself as an artist but as a person who writes from his heart with a brush..
Prominent author, educator and publisher in China, Ye Shengtao, once commented on Hong Yi’s calligraphy: “I cannot tell which group’s calligraphy Hong Yi has been imitating in recent years. And I don’t know too much about calligraphy. But I like his scripts very much. As to the reason, I could only tell based on my intuition, because his writings are full of charm. The whole piece of calligraphy is like a peaceful gentleman discussing scriptures with a smile, who is neither humble nor pushy…He gained his skills out of the writings. That’s why the more I look at his work, the more charming I feel they are.”
Editor: Wen Yi
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