Yang Shoujing was a major late Qing and early Republican scholar of historical geography, epigraphy, bibliography, calligraphy, and book collecting. Together with leading scholars in philology and mathematics, he was counted among the ?three great excellences? of the Qing. His calligraphy had a deep influence extending even to Japan. In structure, brush use, and formal invention, his writing is full of fresh ideas: center-tip strokes, clearly articulated lifting and pressing, flexible variety, grace without slipperiness, and beauty without superficiality. The slanting upper-right horizontals and sweeping lower-left lines give his work a distinctive tension and an unforced strength.