Luo Shuzhong(1898 – 1969)
named Baotai and later Ying, was known for his courtesy name Shuzhong. The artist went by pseudonyms as Yuanlu, Saoxia, Buxiao Laoren and Hanbi. Born in Guangzhou, his ancestral home was in Xiqiao in Nanhai District, Guangdong Province. After graduating from the Guangdong Higher Normal School, he named his residences Sanbuyi Hall, Hall of Spring and Wine, Fanghui Hall and Yanhu.
In his teenage years, Luo learned how to paint from Cheng Zhuyun and was deeply influenced by Liu Qingsong. In 1914 he learned seal carving techniques from Ye Tui’an and practised carving with different script styles from the Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties and the Six dynasties. In 1920, he travelled to Beijing and Shanghai and sought the tutelage of Wu Changshuo, who highly praised Luo’s skill. Despite an evident mastery of many seal carving techniques, Luo was particularly influenced by Huang Shiling. He created and subsequently named a new seal carving technique, ‘Pushing cut of the Zhe School’. This referenced the ‘chopping cut’ technique of the famous Zhe School and featured both cutting and pushing carving styles.
Luo Shuzhong’s poems are elegant and delicate, and he was proficient in the xiaoling style, a form of qu. His personality was plain-spoken and unrestrained, and the artist was famously known for expressing his emotions in poetry as he drank wine.
He also excelled at calligraphy, studying regular script from Chu Suiliang and clerical script from Huang Tingjian. His calligraphy merged the styles of Chen Mansheng and Zhang Wentao. Later, he studied the calligraphic styles of Caoquan Bei stele and other works, including that of Huashan Miao Bei stele, which informed Luo’s style.
In 1926, Luo established the Wenyan School in Hong Kong and, later, the Ming Lun College. He published Luo Shuzhong’s Calligraphy and Painting Collections in 1947 and held an exhibition of his works at the Hotel Central in Macao the following year. In 1962, Luo’s calligraphy was exhibited at the East Asia Hotel in Macao.