Ｔｈｅ Ｊｕｄｉｃｉｏｕｓ Ｃａｌｌｉｇｒａｐｈｅｒ

It was 10 years ago that I first met Mr.Zhu Jianhua at the Xinhua Bookstore.Through our conversation， I discov-ered that although he was devoted tohis work in the field of law， he maintained apassionate practice in the art of calligraphy.We became friends and today we continueto mutually benefit from our discussions onart and culture.

Zhu Jianhua was a student at the EastChina University of Political Science andLaw when he took up the study of calligra-phy under the guidance of Mr. Hong Pimo.Of vast and versatile erudition， Mr. Hong isnot constrained by the rigid rules of his be-loved calligraphic art， and his comprehen-sive expertise in the subject was a valuableartistic gift offered to Zhu Jianhua.

Zhu does not routinely practice withlarge or medium-sized Chinese charactersin regular script， but remains absorbed in thecreation of small regular script. Much of hiswork in small regular script reflects classicliterature， such as The Art of War， and morethan 10 Buddhist scriptures. These workscomprise hundreds of thousands of Chi-nese characters. In turning out his volumi-nous work he has perfected his calligraphicskills， while tempering his character. Theprecise nature of his judicial work also pro-vides him with methodological directionin his calligraphic study. Zhu also exhib-its a thorough understanding of traditionalChinese culture， such as in the elements ofBuddhism and neo-Confucianism of theSong (960-1279) and Ming (1368-1644)Dynasties. Now Zhu is productive in smallregular script. However， the mainstream ofcalligraphy remains running-cursive hand (ascript between running and cursive scripts).Accordingly， in recent years Zhu has gradu-ally refocused his main field of study andpractice to running-cursive hand.