Su Shishu enjoys doing calligraphy in his studio in Beijing. Photo: Courtesy of Su Shishu

Su Shishu, a famous calligrapher in his 60s, still remembers how he used to play as a child. While other kids were climbing trees and playing in the mud, his greatest joy was calligraphy, stamp engraving, reading old books and admiring inkstones.

That doesn't mean he was a loner. Su had plenty of friends as a child, who would make art with him and have remained his friends throughout life. Now in their 60s, they still enjoy doing calligraphy together, but Su has had the most success, becoming a master of calligraphy due to his enthusiasm for and obsession with art.

For Su, who was born in Beijing in 1949, his artistic achievements are closely related to his childhood. As a teenager, Su would head out every Saturday to study calligraphy, whether it was sunny, raining or snowing. His teacher was Liu Boqin, a famous stamp engraving master who taught Su engraving skills that would serve as the foundation for his later calligraphy work.

He Feng Sheng Shi, couplet, kai script Photo: Courtesy of Su Shishu

In 1965, Su won first prize at the Beijing Teenager Calligraphy Competition. It was around this time that Su got to know Qi Gong, another calligraphy master who would have a major influence on him in the decades to come. "As early as 1980, Qi Gong called for intensified calligraphy education for children and he trained calligraphy teachers for more than three years," Su recalled. This instilled in Su the importance of childhood training in the arts as well as an early love for calligraphy. Today, he carries on Qi Gong's life's work in his efforts to encourage more children to study calligraphy.

On March 20, Su visited the Sichuan Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province and gave a lecture entitled "Improve Yourself by Mastering Calligraphy." In it, he called on teenagers to learn about traditional Chinese culture through the study of calligraphy. After the lecture, he commented on a few children's calligraphy work, and gave away 100 calligraphy-themed books to the children.

Su said he has done a great deal of research at primary and middle schools in Beijing about teaching calligraphy, and in the process found that calligraphy is among the most effective ways to cultivate children's ability to focus.

Zhuan script Photo: Courtesy of Su Shishu

As a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) National Committee, Su has been working on promoting calligraphy among the younger generations for years. His advice to parents? "Set up a studio for your children to practice calligraphy, and don't turn on the TV while they're working."

In 1980, Su's career saw a turning point, as he became an editor at the Cultural Relics Press in Beijing. Though it was a challenging transition from artist to editor, Su knew that it would improve his critical eye for art, and he learned more by editing art books and appreciating other artists' work.

In this job, he edited many classic art and calligraphy books, including The Ancient Stone Inscriptions and Chinese Calligraphy Art, which won him the Taofen Award, which is the most prestigious national award for editors.

After working as an editor, he returned to his calligraphy, and switched from the xiaozhuan style to the dazhuan style, a more complicated kind of calligraphy that originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771BC). He also replaced jianhao brushes (which are made of two or more kinds of animal hair, such as rabbit and sheep, and are easy to control) with jihao brushes (which are made with the down from a rooster's neck and are very soft but hard to manage). He also continued with his engraving work, developing his own unique style.

In a word, there is no one factor that has led to his continued improvement - rather, it has more to do with his persistence, coupled with the guidance of other artists and the nurturing nature of China's arts community.

After all, Su's obsession with and enthusiasm for calligraphy is unparalleled. While other calligraphers simply copy the poems of ancient scholars, Su's work is different. He connects Chinese characters with other things in the world, expressing his emotions through a single brush, inkstone and a sheet of paper.

Xin Jing, zhuan script Photo: Courtesy of Su Shishu

His passion for the art is represented by his deep fascination with the "scholar's four jewels": writing brush, ink stick, paper and inkstone. In 2010, he held an exhibition entitled "The Scholar's Four Jewels Carry on Chinese Civilization," which displayed his calligraphy work as well as his tools of the trade. The exhibition exemplified his love of art and traditional Chinese culture, as well as his exacting demands of himself creatively.

Most calligraphers are picky about their writing brush, and Su is no exception, having developed unique standards for choosing brushes as well as customizing his own. Many famous brush makers in China, including Jiangxi Qingluanhu, Shandong Yubitang and Beijing's Wu Jingsheng, have tailormade brushes for him, engraving his name on the brushes as a sign of honor.

Lun Yu, xing script Photo: Courtesy of Su Shishu

Su is equally enthusiastic about his ink, which he prepares patiently each time before he begins painting. Preparing ink, he said, should be a basic skill of every calligrapher. He also has a collection of many precious and rare ink sticks featuring delicate craftmanship.

Su is also an expert on paper, having visited paper production factories all over China and learning about every step of its production. He even gives advice to paper makers to make their paper better for calligraphy. His studio houses different kinds of paper of every size, all the better to render any and every spark of inspiration.

As both a scholar and an artist, Su shares a hobby with his ancient counterparts, which is collecting inkstones. He has many precious inkstones and even gives them names as well as writes poetry for them.

His enthusiasm for art goes beyond calligraphy and the tools he uses to create it. He also paints jade sculptures, brush shelfs and pots.

Su's hobby of collecting calligraphy tools is one he's cultivated since childhood. His success, meanwhile, has been a natural outgrowth of the dedication to art that he's exhibited since he was young. For Su, these achievements are simply the product of decades of hard work and obsession with art.

Every day, Su welcomes many visitors, not only artists, but leaders from all industries and walks of life. Su enjoys communicating with them and learning from them while they, in turn, admire Su's work and his passion for calligraphy.

Throughout his career, Su has written the following lines of poetry by celebrated Southern Dynasties (420-589) scholar Liu Xie (465-520) many times: "Study the world to enrich your knowledge, and store more knowledge to earn treasures." It's a line that describes not only his art, but his entire life.

Su is not only good at calligraphy, but is a renaissance man who is also talented in and well-informed about many other fields. He believes that to be successful, an artist should spend as much time among others as possible. That way, he can learn from his friends, and better express his emotions through his work.

Su Shishu (right) is learning from Qi Gong. Photo: Courtesy of Su Shishu

Su Shishu

Manchu, born in 1949, Beijing

A master of calligraphy and engraving, Su studied with many famous masters such as Liu Boqin and Qi Gong. 

His calligraphy work, which is known for its distinct style, incorporate the complex dazhuan style, along with elements from the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC) and Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220).

For 30 years, Su has worked as an editor at the Cultural Relics Press, specializing in ancient calligraphy copybooks and calligraphy textbooks. 

For this work, he won a Taofen Award, China's highest national award for editors.

He is now a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, the deputy president of the China Calligraphers Association, the head of China Collector of Penmanship and Painting Association and a professor at the China Calligraphy Training Center.

Su has held many exhibitions of his calligraphy, engraving and painting work in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Japan. 

He is also a philanthropist, having donated works worth millions or yuan to people in Yushu county in Qinghai Province after the earthquake in 2010.