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Published on2026-04-16Views:142

11.《天下之至柔,馳騁天下之至堅》 The softest thing in the world overcomes the hardest.

Transcript
This is the largest work in the exhibition. The text, taken from Chapter 43 of the Dao De Jing (Classic of the Way and Its Virtue), means the softest thing in the world overcomes the hardest. The line made Yi Chun think of “water” and “air,” which have no fixed shape but can slowly permeate everything over time. There is an idiomatic expression, “Dripping water wears through a stone,” for example, meaning that the power to wear away the stone does not lie in resistance, but in the accumulation of time.
When the calligrapher faces such a large piece of paper, calligraphy is no longer just an arm and hand movement, but involves the coordination of the entire body and the regulation of breath. Therefore, before each stroke, Yi Chun plans the quantity of ink she will use and the speed of the stroke. But once she actually writes, she lets the ink flow naturally, following the natural flow of the brush. For her, the plan only exists at the starting point; the rest is left to time.
11.《天下之至柔,馳騁天下之至堅》  The softest thing in the world overcomes the hardest.
11.《天下之至柔,馳騁天下之至堅》 The softest thing in the world overcomes the hardest.
Last updated on2026-05-28