The Taoist Expression in theAesthetic Spirit of Emperor Liangwu’s Calligraphy

Emperor Liangwu adored calligraphy.In his relevant theories, he highly praised Zhong Yao’s and Zhang Zhi’s calligraphic works due to their“elegance and exquisiteness”, preferred to the“ingenious and peculiar”rapid cursive writing, and advocated the mean aesthetic“symmetric”calligraphy.He made comments on many masters’ works with aesthetic taste of“ease”and“ingeniousness”.In his early years, he believed in Taoism and was deeply influenced.So, there is no wonder why his aesthetic thought about calligraphy was immersed with the Taoist fashion.