Shen Du (1357~1434), courtesy name Minze and nickname Zile, was born in Huating (now Songjiang, Shanghai) in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang was demoted to Yunnan for his crimes. When he became the emperor, he selected 28 Zhongshushe people to specialize in the calligraphy of the two kings. He was the most rewarded for his good calligraphy, and all the gold and jade albums were written by him.


He is capable of all styles of seal script and official script, and was hailed by Emperor Chengzu as "Xizhi, the king of our dynasty". His small regular script is originated from Yu Shinan, Zhao Mengfu and others. His writing is elegant, clean and light, and the structure is tight inside. He takes advantage of the outside and is dignified without losing elegance. Although there is nothing outstanding in style or artistic conception, it still has the freshness and elegance of a literati. His small regular script became the object of imitation among officials and scholars, so it became the "Taige style".



"Jing Zhai Zhi", a calligraphy work in "Tai Ge style" by Shen Du aged 52, 23.8×49.4cm, collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing.


This work has 19 lines of text and 10 characters in each line. It is a work of Shen Du in small regular script. The writing is powerful, the style is super bold, the wording is correct and rigorous, the pen is steady and steady, and the body is round and round, showing superb skills. It is " A classic work of "Taige style".