Calligraphy by Yang Sa-eon

This is a piece of cursive-script calligraphy by Yang Sa-eon (pen name Bongnae, 1517–1584), a 16th-century civil official, sijo poet, and renowned master of cursive script, transcribing the first of five pentasyllabic poems titled Nakyangdo ("The Road to Luoyang") by the Tang-dynasty poet Chu Guangxi. Originally in album form, it was remounted as a hanging scroll in the modern era. Together with Hwang Gi-ro (pen name Gosan, 1521–1576?), Yang Sa-eon was one of the leading masters of cursive script in Joseon, and he greatly influenced later generations. Just as he loved otherworldly landscapes such as Geumgangsan Mountain and disliked being bound by worldly convention, in calligraphy too he greatly admired the free and unrestrained cursive script of the Tang masters Zhang Xu and Huai Su. Among Yang Sa-eon's calligraphic works known to date, the Treasure-designated Bongnae yumuk is a manuscript of his own poems and writings in mixed Korean and Chinese script, valuable as material for literary research. A few smaller pieces also survive, including a draft poem included in Geunmuk, held by the Sungkyunkwan University Museum. By contrast, this transcription of a pentasyllabic poem is written in large-character cursive script (daeja choseo), swift and unrestrained, with rounded brushstrokes, and it vividly conveys both Yang Sa-eon's free-spirited, Daoist-inflected temperament and the level of mastery in cursive script that he aspired to. It is regarded as a masterpiece that fully reveals the true character of the man known as the Sage of Cursive Script, and its value is further enhanced by three colophons written in 1749 by the late-Joseon calligraphy master Yi Gwang-sa (1705–1777) and a colophon by Jo Myeong-gyo (1687–1753) attached at the end.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Mapo-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물