Xu Beihong was a main character in promoting the reform of Chinese painting. In developing the traditions of combining poetry, calligraphy and painting, Xu had inherited the style of literary painters. He was a poet and a calligrapher.

Xu Beihong had a comperhensive study of Chinese and western art. He developed a new school of painting and penetrated deep into society. This is also reflected in his art of calligraphy.

Xu Beihong was a patriotic artist who devoted his entire life to the country's culture and promoted art education. He was well learned in both Chinese and western cultures. In the process of reforming painting, Xu had been attacked by some conventionalists. Born in a painter family, Xu received traditional painting training since his youth and stablished a solid foundation of literature, In the techniques of painting, he absorbed the essence of western methods but maintained a rich national feel deep inside. One of his representative works of oil painting "The Five Hundred Men Of Tian Heng" and his Chinese painting "The Foolish Man Moving Mountain" were both on ancient stories, His most famous paintings of horses conveyed the spirit of the animal by using generous brushstrokes and splashing of ink, which was strictly traditional techniques.

Xu Beihong's poems and paintings had an innovative and refreshing style, so was his calligraphy. Xu calligraphy which is collected in the volume can be divided into three different stages . The early stage was from the 1920s to the early 1930s, as shown in his "Inscription on painting in 1918" dedicated to Shu Xincheng. The writings showed a special style but had not yet settled and conformed.

The second stage was after 1935, as shown in his couplet "Children saying a wonderful method¡­"and"Four points of thoughts"dedicated to Shu Xincheng. These works had fully reflected the characteristics of Xu's calligraphy.

In the third stage, Xu's calligraphy became fully mature. It was from. 1939 when he was in Singapore to the years after his return to Chongqing in the 1940's. From his works in this period, one can see his overwhelming and unrestrained emotions and generous attitude which was also reflected in his ink and wash paintings.

There were two interesting characteristics in Xu Beihong's calligraphy. The first was that his signatures were written in a special way. The strokes were reserved and showed a special kind of charm. The second one was that in his later years, he often pushed down his right-falling strokes. In the early 1950s, I once visited Xu in Beijing and saw a "Jiyuqiao Calligraphy Model" on his desk. I turned the pages casually and found that the words were not too impressive except that its special feature was the right-falling strokes were pushed down. Then I realized that Xu had observed and absorbed this little feature in his own work.