Wu Changshuo Museum and Wu Changshuo Garden
2 min readWu Changshuo(1844-1927), the great master of painting, calligraphy, and epigraphy in modern times, was named “Jun”,”Junqing”, and styledXiangbu first, then Changshuo, Cangshi in his middle age. He was also known as Fou Lu, and Ku Tie.
Wu Changshuo spent his childhood with his family members in Zhangwu,a village of Anji County. Tourists can still find the former residence of Wu Changshuo and the cenotaph in the village where he once lived and studied.
He was selected as a scholar after taking part in the examination in the 4th year of Tongzhi(1865). In 1872, he travelled the neighbouring cities, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou to make a lot of new friends with calligraphers. He began to practise drawing in seal style at the age over 30.
In 1896, he was appointed to be the head of Andong County(now Lianshui) in Jiangsu Province, but he gave up the post in a month. From then on, he devoted himself to the creation of art work with great concentration. He wasrecommended the director of Xiling Seal Society when it was set up in 1913.
Wu Changshuo was a scholar of the highest attainments in seal cutting, calligraphy and drawing. His seal carving has powerful and marvelous strokes in cutting, and forms a unique style. His calligraphy is simple and vigorous, and brings forth a new distinctive style in writing. His drawing absorbs strong points from different schools of arts. His handwriting takes in the essences of seal character, official style and cursive script. Wu Changshuo was interested and skilled in drawing flowers, plants, vegetables and fruits，such as bamboo，plum，lotus，and peony，occasionally he created some landscapes and portrait-paintings.Qi Baishi（1864-1957），a noted painter，had a great esteem for him.
To keep the memory of this great master，Wu Changshuo Museum has been set up in county town Dipu.Wu Changshuo Museum is a three-storey building in Chinese traditional style.The construction area reaches to 827 square metres.The ground floor is used for the introduction of his life，and shows his masterpieces.On the second floor，many treasured scrolls of calligraphy and paintings are displayed.The works of art were created by some famous contemporary artists to commemorate the great master.
Additionally，there is a special hall on the second floor for displaying the historical relics and documents of Anji County.A garden in honour of Wu Changshuo has been set up，too.It is also named after Wu Changshuo.The garden takes up an area of 45，000 square meters.There are pavilions，small bridges, steams, rockeries, winding corridors and recreational facilities in the garden.A Children’s Amusement Park and a Bamboo Art Hall are also built in the garden, and open to the public. It has become a good place for the local residents to take a walk at all times. The north of garden connects with Wu Changshuo Museum. Tourists can pay a visit to the garden on the way to Wu Changshuo Museum.
