Clerical Script Scroll · Flowers Bloom Again

An old couplet in clerical script — “flowers bloom again; a person is never young twice.” Written under lamplight in early spring, the cold still in the room.

Year: 2025
Medium: Ink on silk-pattern xuan paper
Dimensions: approx. 138 × 34 cm (four-foot scroll)
Collection: Private collection
Ref.: SYZ-2025-003

Clerical Script Scroll · Flowers Bloom Again　Ink on silk-pattern xuan paper　2025

NOTES

Studio notes

Clerical script lives in the wave of the horizontal and the flatness of the character. Here I worked on the “silkworm head, swallow tail”: hidden entry, lifted exit, kept as clean as I could.

“Again” and “young” are hard to balance. Seen as a whole, the second column sits slightly looser than the first — something to fix next time.

The gold-flecked silk borders on either side came with the old mounting; their weight suits clerical script.

One swallow tail lifts the spirit of a whole character.

— Gao Xinuo · studio note

PREVIOUS WORK Seal Script Scroll · The Long March Calligraphy · Seal script　Ink on xuan paper　2025 ← NEXT WORK Clerical Script Scroll · Su Shi Calligraphy · Clerical script　Ink on xuan paper　2025 →