This hanging scroll of a single, monumental character “Goose” 鵝, written in cursive script, demonstrates Wang Fangyu’s 王方宇 (1913–1997) masterful control of the brush and is characteristic of his distinctive style.

In order to make the character fit, and fill the entire space of the large vertical sheet of paper, Wang alters the structure of the character, putting the wo 我 or "I" on top of the radical niao 鳥 or bird, instead of the usual placement of the two parts side by side as a standard Chinese dictionary would do. To be sure, Wang Fangyu was by no means the first one to make such an alteration in the character 鵝, or goose. The celebrated Wang Xianzhi 王獻之 (344–386) had allegedly done so almost two thousand years before.See his E qun tie 鵝群帖 (collection of Palace Museum, Beijing), reproduced in Yin Yimei尹一梅, ed. Maoqin dianben Chunhuage tie xia懋勤殿本淳化閣帖下. Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2005: 304-305. But Wang Fangyu’s restructure certainly animates the character's composition, endowing it with movement and liveliness.

The traces of the brush, including the light linkages between strokes, clearly indicate that the calligrapher moved his brush rapidly. But at the same time, he was always in control of brush and ink and the rhythm of his work, pacing and anticipating what came next in writing this character.

Tilting his character slightly towards the left, his large brush saturated with rich dark ink, the calligrapher confidently begins by strongly pushing the brush to define the left half of wo 我. Then, raising his brush to the center of the uppermost edge of the paper, he executes the distinctively long curving stroke, dragging the brush down until it approaches the bottom right corner before he turns the brush upwards to finish the stroke with a powerful hook. To balance the wo 我, Wang then makes the dot in the upper right, its shape a forceful triangle or suspended crescent moon, completing the upper part of the character and starting the bird radical below.

Applying his brush with force to the paper, Wang Fangyu gives the bird鳥a strong head and limpid eye, both of which, in turn, form a stable base for the upper half of the character. The calligrapher then lifts up his brush and completes the character with a deft, final movement that, in place of the standard dots of the radical, lays down a curved short line as if to suggest a goose floating on water.

To conclude and place Wang Fangyu’s Goose in the context of the tradition of Chinese calligraphy, it is appropriate to return to Wang Xianzhi. According to history books, Wang’s father Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (321–379) was passionate about geese, and enjoyed watching them swim and just being close to them.For stories of Wang’s love of geese, see Zhang Yanyuan 張彥遠, Fashu yaolu 法書要錄 (Beijing: Renmin Meishu chubanshe, 2004), juan: 2, 42. Obviously, this story about Wang Xizhi is what Wang Fangyu is alluding to in his work in the Seattle Art Museum collection and he models this calligraphy on the character for goose attributed to Wang Xianzhi, which is still in circulation.Ever since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), art critics in China have insisted that Wang Xizhi loved goose because he learned to hold and move his brush correctly and artistically from watching how the goose moves its neck. See, for example, the argument advanced by Bao Shichen 包世臣 (1775–1856) in his Yizhou shuangji 藝舟雙檝, in Shanghai shuhua she 上海書畫社, ed., Lidai shufa lunwen xuan 歷代書法論文選, 2 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua she, 1983), 2:641. This interpretation of Wang’s passion for goose to be part of his pursuit for calligraphic perfection has been both popular and influential among calligraphers and students of calligraphy. But Chen Yinke 陳寅恪, a modern historian and scholar, has offered a contesting view. He argues that Wang Xizhi’s love of goose has nothing to do with calligraphy but with Chinese medicine and Wang’s own belief in religious Taoism. See Chen, “Tianshidao yu binhai diyu zhi guanxi” 天師道與濱海地域之關係, in his Jinming guan conggao chubian 金明館叢稿初編 (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2001): 43-44. But unlike Wang Fangyu's work, the calligraphy Goose, attributed to Wang Xianzhi, is a “one-stroke calligraphy," or yibishu 一筆書, meaning the calligrapher wrote the entire character in a single stroke without ever lifting his brush from the paper. Therefore, Wang Fangyu’s Goose demonstrates the calligrapher's familiarity with tradition and free interpretation of it, attesting to his thorough knowledge of calligraphic tradition and individual creativity.