A greatly admired calligrapher, Weng Tonghe was the collector who acquired the majority of the works in the family collection. He was a well-educated and highly respected Confucian intellectual. After achieving the highest rank in the national civil examination, he became tutor to two emperors at the imperial court in Beijing. A greatly admired calligrapher, he was most famous for writing in standard script and in the more cursive running script style. A major influence on his calligraphy was the revered calligrapher and statesman of the 8th century, Yan Zhenqing.


Here Weng Tonghe copied a running-script calligraphy by Yan Zhenqing, preserved on a carved stone. Generations of intellectuals relied on rubbings of such stones to study the traces of earlier masters’ brush strokes.

In his personal inscription on the scrolls, Weng mentioned “The infirmity in my arm has not fully recovered as I copy this.” Despite his weak arm, these four powerful panoramic hanging scrolls still reveal his accomplishment in calligraphy and in conveying Yan’s style.

Exhibiting his devotion to the tenets of Confucian social order and his dedication to the integrity of Tang dynasty calligraphy, Weng Tonghe copied—at an enlarged scale—this letter written by the esteemed calligrapher Yan Zhengqing in the year 764. Yan Zhenqing was a high official serving the government at the time. Yan wrote the letter accusing a senior minister, Guo Yingyi, of disrupting the social order by arranging for a palace eunuch, who had considerable status at court, to sit at the head of a banquet table. Yan criticized the blatant disregard for proper Confucian order and behavior. Weng Tonghe reproduced Yan’s letter in the format of four hanging scrolls. For many years, Wan-go Weng displayed these scrolls next to the family dinner table.

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