Liu Gongquan's "Eight Jars of Water"

Adolescent Awakening: From Arrogance to Enlightenment

1. The "humiliation" of the old tofu seller
   When Liu Gongquan was a child, he was proud of his superior calligraphy skills. He once wrote "I can write like Feifeng, and I dare to boast in front of others" to show off. An old man selling tofu mocked his calligraphy as "soft and fluffy like tofu" and bluntly said his calligraphy was "boneless".

2. The shock of the armless master <br>After the setback, Liu Gongquan went to Huajing City and witnessed an armless old man holding a brush with his right foot and writing with his handwriting "as vigorous as flying dragons and dancing phoenixes". The old man gave advice: "If you use up eight jars of water, your inkstone will be stained black by the flood pond; if you learn from hundreds of masters, you will be able to make dragons and phoenixes fly." This scene gave Liu Gongquan an epiphany. He mocked himself as a "frog in the well" and knelt down on the spot to ask for advice.

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The core motto of "Eight Tanks of Water"

The twenty words the old man said became Liu Gongquan's lifelong creed:

• Technical level : "Writing all the water in eight jars" refers to the accumulation of repeated practice. It is said that when he practiced calligraphy, he washed his brush and stained it with black soil at the bottom of the western ditch of the village. The natural stone inkstone still exists today.
• Realm level : "Learning from all masters" emphasizes inclusiveness. In his later years, he integrated the squareness and strength of Ouyang Xun and the thickness of Yan Zhenqing, and finally formed the unique style of "Liu style".

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The transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change

Liu Gongquan worked hard from then on:

• Even with his elbows worn out and his palms covered with calluses, he still insisted on copying famous calligraphy works;
• He used up eight jars of water to grind ink, and refined the regular script strokes to the level of "iron strokes and silver hooks";
• With the philosophy of "a righteous heart leads to a righteous pen", he injected character cultivation into calligraphy, achieving the reputation of "the muscles of Yan and the bones of Liu".

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Historical Echoes

Liu Gongquan's masterpiece "Xuanmiao Pagoda Stele" is praised as the "ultimate example of regular script", and its story has become a classic example of calligraphy education. Later generations commented: "A word is worth a thousand gold and it is not in vain; eight jars of water can reveal the truth."

The artistic truth revealed by this story is still inspiring today: techniques must be forged with sweat, and realms must be expanded with vision.