Xu shupu 續書譜

Xu shupu 續書譜 "Continued notes on calligraphy" is a book on calligraphy written during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Jiang Kui 姜夔 (1161-1203?), courtesy name Yaozhang 堯章, style Baishi Daoren 白石道人. Jiang hailed from Raozhou 饒州 (modern Boyang 波陽, Jiangxi) and was a famous poet and musician of his time.

His short book Xu shupu was written as a supplement to Sun Guoting's 孫過庭 (646-691) Shupu 書譜 from the Tang period 唐 (618-907). It includes a preface and 20 chapters, but the chapters Zaorun 燥潤 and Jinmei 勁媚 have no content. The planned text of the first is probably integrated in the chapter Yongmo 用墨. The arrangement of the chapters in the second half of the received book is different from the listing in the catalogue Peiwenzhai shuhua pu 佩文齋書畫譜.

The text of the Xu shupu is very clear and much easier to understand than the surviving part of Sun Guoting's book. It is also not much theoretical but describes very practical matters, like the concentration of the ink for different styles of script. It was therefore also regarded as an important early contribution on the practice of calligraphy. The Song-period scholar Zhao Bize 趙必睪 had written a commentary on Jiang's book, the Xu shupu bianwang 續書譜辨妄, which is unfortunately lost.

The Xu shupu is included in the series Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Gezhi congshu 格致叢書, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編, Wangshi shuhua yuan 王氏書畫苑, Baijia mingshu 百家名書 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.