Transmigration of the Famous Cyberstar (1)

Chapter 107: Becoming an Apprentice

Professor Su's first question made Liu Man speechless.

Liu Man pondered for a moment and said,

"My teacher is an ordinary woman. I only know her last name, Xu, and not her full name. I call her Madam Xu."

Her teacher was a woman!

Su Yi was surprised inside and asked hastily: "Where is Madam Xu right now? In the capital?"

Liu Man shook her head, "She is from Chang An and passed away years ago."

The old man sighed, showing regret but also helplessness, "Even heaven is jealous of geniuses... She was such a gifted calligraphist, unknown both before and after passing. Luckily, we still have you, her student, to pass on her teachings and skills."

Certainly, in Liu Man's heart, Mrs. Xu's skills were the finest. Once, when she was talking to Beauty Yu, Beauty Yu told her that when Mrs. Xu was young, she was known as the world's most talented lady. That was until she entered the palace.

"Is there any of her work still present?" Su Yi asked with a glimpse of hope.

Liu Man shook her head, "Everything was burnt."

"Ah," the old man sighed heavily again, "It's all right. I'll ask you another question. You've learned print seal before, right?"

Su Yi was a pundit, seeing what Yu Zhan couldn't understand at first.

"Yes, I started my practices with the skill of print seal."

"That's why some of the fonts look much different from modern letters. But nowadays, the print seal characters aren't written like that, either."

Su Yi stood up, took a folder from the bookshelf, and opened it.

He told his doctoral student to enlarge the letters Liu Man wrote one by one using a magnifying glass to A4 size and print so they could examine them.

The Han dynasty has lasted for more than 2000 years, and at that time, paper making wasn't fully developed. People wrote and carved mostly on rocks and pamphlets. Even though some writings remained, many fonts got changed by scholars.

Su Yi and his student studied for a long time and even went to the sections for archaeological studies to find similar information. They noticed that the way the printed letters were written was similar to some bronze letters in early Western Han Dynasty utensils.

"Did you start first from studying letters on bronze Western Han utensils?" Su Yi asked his third question.

Liu Man could only admit it, "yes." Of course, this was not the truth, but she had no other way to explain how she learned to write these ancient letters.

"Your teacher lived in the ancient capital, which means you did have the opportunities to encounter these utensils... I've lived for almost a century, and I've never encountered a situation like this." Su Yi was still perplexed.

What Liu Man studied was far too unexplored. To learn to read and write it was already hard, but to utilize it and make it calligraphy would need an enormous amount of cognition.

That was why Su Yi respected Mrs. Xu so much. He thought Mrs. Xu started a new section of calligraphy. Since he had no way of identifying this genre, he gave Liu Man's font a complicated name - Western Han dynasty bronze utensils print seal font.

"Can you write a few letters right now for me?" Su Yi asked Liu Man.

"Of course."

There was a wooden desk used only for calligraphy in front of Su Yi's work desk. There was everything needed from ink to pen. Before Liu Man came, Su Yi was practicing here, and his letters were still faintly wet.