石渠寶笈三編(延春閣),第五冊,頁2067&*故宮書畫錄(卷二),第一冊,頁18&*董其昌(西元一五五五-一六三六年),華亭(今上海)人。字玄宰,號思白。萬曆十六年進士,官至禮部尚書,諡文敏。天才俊逸,善談名理,少好書畫,臨摹名蹟,至忘寢食。行楷之妙,稱絕一代。時以善書名者尚有邢侗、米萬鍾、張瑞圖,時人謂邢張米董,又曰南董北米。 本幅楷書詩經小雅第九「斯干」之篇,倣徐浩(七O三-七八二年)書風,結字端凝,布字行間略呈傾側,筆墨醇厚,勁力內蘊,皆自徐出,然清逸秀整之氣韻,則有過之。&*Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (style name was Hsüan-tsai; sobriquet Ssu-po) was a native of Hua-t'ing (modern Shanghai). Having received his chin-shih civil service degree in 1588, he eventually served as Chief Minister of the Board of Rites and later received the posthumous title of Wen-min. He was an outstanding and untrammeled genius and a well-known theorist. As a youth, Tung Ch'i-ch'ang was so fond of practicing calligraphy and painting and copying works of art that he often neglected to sleep or eat. His running and standard scripts were marvelous and praised as being unparalleled in his times. Hsing T'ung, Mi Wan-chung, and Chang Jui-t'u were among Tung's contemporaries who also excelled at calligraphy, and they were known collectively as "Hsing, Chang, Mi, and Tung." Tung and Mi Wan-chung were also called "Tung of the South and Mi of the North." This piece of calligraphy is a private transcription of the ninth chapter ("Ssu-yu") from the "Hsiao-ya" section of the Book of Odes. Tung Ch'i-ch'ang imitated Hsü Hao's (703-782) style of calligraphy, so the forms of the characters in this work appear like a frozen cascade with the vertical lines of characters leaning slightly to one side. Furthermore, the calligraphic style is gentle and graceful yet possessing a force of inner strength. Even though all these qualities derive from Hsü Hao's calligraphy, Tung's style also has a harmonious spirit of untrammeledness and elegance, which leads it to surpass that of Hsü Hao.