Xu Dianting insists on writing for several hours every day. Photo by Men Jiadan. The original manuscript of "Du Fu's Complete Works". Photo by Men Jiadan. Xu Dianting published "Du Fu's Complete Works" at his own expense. Photo by Men Jiadan.
Zhengzhou, February 8 (reported by Men Jiadan) - Out of admiration for the Poet Saint Du Fu, a 66-year-old retired teacher from Du Fu’s hometown, Xu Dianting spent 10 months copying all 1451 poems and 28 essays written by Du Fu in his lifetime, as well as comments by Wang Anshi and other scholars, nearly 200,000 words in total, into "Du Fu's Complete Works," which he then published at his own expense to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the birth of Poet Saint Du Fu.
On February 8, when I met Mr. Xu Dianting, he was sitting at his desk at home, carefully copying Tang poetry in regular script, stroke by stroke, with great focus and tranquility. On one of the walls in the living room, there hung a draft of hand-copied long scrolls. The reporter's visit interrupted the elderly man's writing. He got up, took out the handwritten and printed versions of "Du Fu's Complete Works," and began to talk.
Xu Dianting, who is now 66 years old, once served as a Chinese language teacher in Gongyi, Henan Province, the hometown of Poet Saint Du Fu. He worked in education for 34 years. Since childhood, he has been passionate about calligraphy and has practiced small regular script for nearly 50 years. As an educator from Du Fu's hometown, Xu Dianting has always admired and respected Du Fu since he was young, and he has a special affection for Du Fu's poetry. For many years, he had a wish: to copy "Du Fu's Complete Works" in small regular script to express his respect for Du Fu and inspire more future generations to feel and remember him.
In 2011, he stayed indoors and began to copy "Du Fu's Complete Works" stroke by stroke and with great care. It took him 10 months to complete it, and it was recently published. The book is bound in ancient style, rich in text and images, majestic in scale, consistent from beginning to end, precise in strokes, and without any sign of slackness.
"Generally, I write in the middle of the night. At that time, the mind is calm, and there are no disturbances around. One can say that it is a time of deep concentration." Xu Dianting became quite excited when talking about his beloved calligraphy. He said that besides promoting Du Fu's poetry, during the process of copying, he could also understand some of the essence of Du Fu's poems more deeply. Long-term writing gave him profound feelings, and one early morning, he even spontaneously wrote an eight-line poem to express his thoughts.
During the interview, the reporter saw that "Du Fu's Complete Works" was just one of the many works copied by Xu Dianting. In his study at home, there were many other works, such as "The Diamond Sutra," "Tao Te Ching," "The Art of War," "Analects," "Li Sao," "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," etc., presented in different forms such as books, scrolls, and long scrolls, totaling at least 1.5 million words. The elderly man told the reporter that he also planned to spend a few years copying the remaining three of the four great classical novels.
"Once you get addicted to writing, it's not a problem of whether you can sit down or not; rather, if you don't write every day, you feel like something is missing." Xu Dianting smiled and said that due to intensive writing in recent years, his neck and wrists have become uncomfortable, and his family has advised him to stop or write less, but he said he couldn't stop, as if he couldn't help himself. Although some of his works have been given to relatives and friends, and others are only kept at home after being written, he said that regardless of their final destination, he enjoys the process of copying, which makes him feel happy.
Xu Dianting frankly told the reporter: "Life is too short. When leaving this world, one looks back and sees what can be left behind. I want to leave something behind. As for how far this path of copying can go, I think as long as I am still breathing, I will continue to persist." Perhaps, this is just as he said in his writing insights: "Devoting oneself to literature is never regretful, purity and no desire make the world wide." (End)