劉太希   Liu, Tai-Xi   1899~1989

Born in Xinfeng county, Jiangxi province, China, in 1899, Tai-Xi Liu styled himself as Cuo-Wong, Hermit Wu-Xiang, and The Host of Thousand Dreams Studio. Liu was mentored by several masters of traditional Chinese literature such as Kan Huang, Qi-Chao Liang and Shu Lin when he was a student at the College of Liberal Arts, Peking University, thus laying a solid foundation for his career development. Liu returned to Ganzhou after he graduated from Peking University, and served as the county magistrate of Xingzi, Jiangxi province in 1926. The second Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937, after which Liu devoted himself to the anti-Japanese movement. He was designated as a secretary to the Ministry of Defense and appointed as a senior executive officer holding the rank of major general. Liu had friendly dealings with Da-Qian Zhang after he moved to Hong Kong via Taiwan in 1950. He taught The Classics of Poetry and The Records of the Grand Historian at Nanyang University, Singapore, for six years from 1952. He then taught archaic rhyming writing at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, where he also offered courses in The Classic of Poetry, Zuo Zhuan, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, The Hundred Schools of Thought, and The Verses of Chu. Yo-Ren Yu eulogized Liu’s calligraphy, stating that “the simpler it appears, the more marvelous it is; the more marvelous it appears, the greater crystalline quality and refreshing spirit it shows.” In addition, Liu’s calligraphy stood out from the masses and was ranked first by Yo-Ren Yu and other renowned calligraphers on the occasion of the Taiwan Calligraphy Review Conference held in 1972. Moreover, calligrapher Zhong Wang (1925-2010) offered lavish praise for Liu, asserting that “his calligraphy resembles floating clouds and flowing water without any trace of secularity. The organic harmony among his artistic conception, brushstrokes and the paper lends an elegant aura of ethereality to his works. None of his contemporaries could hold a candle to him.” Liu was also a prolific writer whose literary works have been compiled into books, including Random Thoughts Taken in the Wu-Xiang Studio, Anthology of Thousand Dreams Studio, Literary Works by Tai-Xi, and Poetry of Bamboo Grove Monastery.