Wei Shuo, also known as Lady Wei, was a Chinese calligrapher of Eastern Jin.
Background
Wei Shuo was born in 272, in Shanxi province. Wei Shuo was born into a family of distinguished officials and scholars native to Anyi County in Hedong. Her ancestors had been known for their Confucian scholarship since the Han dynasty. She was the granddaughter of Wei Yi, imperial secretary of the Wei dynasty and the first member of the Wei family to be known for calligraphy.
Career
There is no biography of Wei Shuo in the official history of Jin and the little that is known about her life has been pieced together from various sources, including the biographies of her male relatives and works on calligraphy. Wei Shuo is frequently mentioned in early works on calligraphy dating from the Tang dynasty (618-907). There are no extant examples of Wei Shuo’s calligraphy. One piece attributed to her was forged by Li Huailin in the Tang dynasty.
Two things stand out in Wei Shuo’s career as a calligrapher. One is that she authored the treatise Illustrated Formation of the Writing Brush. This treatise is only about 1,000 words long, and while the title suggests it originally included illustrations only the text survives. The second thing for which Wei Shuo is well known is that she was the teacher of Wang Xizhi, arguably the greatest calligrapher of China and East Asia. Wei Shuo taught at least two more students besides Wang Xizhi. One was her son Li Chong and the other was her husband’s nephew Li Shi.
Achievements
Connections
Wei Shuo was married to Li Ju. She bore him a son Li Chong.