Kim Saeng金生

The father and mother of Kim Saeng were lowly, and his line is not known. He was born in the second year of Jingyun. From his childhood he wrote well, and in all his life he trained in no other art, and past the age of eighty he still took up the brush and did not rest. His clerical script and his running script and his cursive script all entered the realm of the divine, and even now true traces of his hand are found here and there, and those who study writing hand them down and hold them precious.

In the Chongning years the academician Hong Gwan followed the tribute envoy into Song and lodged at Bianjing. At that time Yang Qiu and Li Ge, attendants of the Hanlin, came to the guest house at the command of the emperor and wrote on a hanging scroll.

Hong Gwan showed them one volume of the running and cursive script of Kim Saeng, and the two men were greatly startled and said, "We did not reckon that today we should see writing from the hand of Wang Youjun (Wang Xizhi)."

Hong Gwan said, "It is not so. This was written by Kim Saeng, a man of Silla."

The two men laughed and said, "Under heaven, apart from Youjun, how should there be so fine a brush as this?" Hong Gwan said it again and again, but in the end they did not believe him.

There was also one called Yo Geugil, whose office reached sijung and siseo haksa together. The strength of his brush was firm and powerful, and he had the method of Ouyang Shuaigeng (Ouyang Xun). Though he did not come up to Kim Saeng, he too was of rare quality.