How should one exist amid crisis and turmoil? For centuries, Chinese literati have wrestled with this question—caught between the integrity of the self and the demands of the collective—leaving behind poetic meditations for later generations facing similar dilemmas. Encountering Sorrow recounts the struggles of the Warring States poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE), who, finding even the gods and shamans unable to resolve this conundrum, chose to defy his fate. His resistance proved powerless before the fall of his state, and his life ended in suicide—an act of both protest and patriotism. Moved by Qu Yuan’s integrity, Qian Chenqun (1686–1774) transcribed the entire text in regular-running script as both homage and self-reflection. His strokes tilt gently upward, stretching into natural ease; modeled after Wang Xizhi (303–361) for expressive spirit yet tempered by the formal austerity of epigraphic study, his writing allows reverence for the ancient master’s words to quietly suffuse the page.

Born into the eminent Qian family of southern China, Qian was raised by his mother Chen Shu (1660–1736), one of the foremost women painters of the mid-Qing. Immersed in a literati world, he cultivated a unified aesthetic that linked literature, painting, and Shufa. In this album, momentary states of mind and lifelong cultivation meet, rendering the work a lyrical dialogue between an ancient sage and a humble scholar. For Qian, as for so many before and after him, Shufa becomes a vessel for moral inquiry, carrying the weight of history while offering a personal reckoning with the human condition.

千年来，中国文人总在个人精神与集体利益相冲突时陷入内心的挣扎，追问个体在乱局中的修身行事之道。这种境遇渴求文人的诗意表达，于是历代名家皆在沦落之时著文吟诗，聊以畅叙幽情。面对战国末年强秦征服下的国破家亡，楚国诗人屈原作《楚辞》长文，由《离骚》入困至《怀沙》解脱，洋洋洒洒叙尽君子之沉思，叩问天地不仁、命运不公，并在发现人神众生无法解答难题后洞见个体意识之局限渺小，选择掌握自身宿命，投汨罗江殉国。受屈子精神所感，钱陈群（1686-1774）以行楷临写《离骚》全篇以祭先圣壮怀并自省抒情。钱陈群笔法生动舒展，学王羲之行书之灵气，又于碑帖中寻得古意，以抒对屈子之敬意。

钱陈群出自名门吴越钱氏，由其母陈书（1660-1736）独立抚养成人。陈书是清代首屈一指的女性画家，也让钱陈群浸于文人士大夫的风尚之中。他遂于对经史子集的学习和为官的经历中养成了心手一体的美学系统，将瞬时所思和半生所学注于笔端，使本册页成为一位古时圣贤与一位谦逊书家的抒情对话。