Quick Answer: What Is Mi Fu Inviting for a Meal?
Mi Fu Inviting for a Meal（元章召饭帖，Yuánzhāng zhàofàn tiè）is a letter written by Xue Shaopeng（薛绍彭，Xuē Shàopéng）about an invitation associated with Mi Fu（米芾，Mǐ Fú）. The ink-on-paper album leaf is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.[1]
- Writer: Xue, whose name closes the note.
- Occasion: A proposed meal accompanied by tea and the sharing of art.
- Viewing focus: The interaction between informal correspondence, flowing handwriting and the paper surface.
The title names the person inviting people to eat, not the author of this particular letter.
Dark written columns cross a pale rose sheet, ending in a short signature at the left. Behind them, faint lines and flecks remain visible in the paper. This Chinese calligraphy guide reads the invitation before examining how its words occupy the page and how the letter differs from a later modelbook version.
Writer, Names and the Album Leaf
The museum catalogs the work as Letter, in an album of Song correspondence. Its principal sheet measures 28.1 × 38.4 cm; the collection number is 故書000241N000000002. The record gives no exact year of writing.[1]
The opening names Yuanzhang（元章，Yuánzhāng）, Mi’s courtesy name. The relationship between the two names explains the English title: Xue reports Mi’s invitation, then asks whether they can go together. The museum’s discussion of the letter places its tea and art references within this proposed gathering.[2]
The closing name supplies a useful check on authorship. Before treating a familiar name in a title as the calligrapher, follow the whole message to its signature. Here, the person writing, the person arranging the meal and another person urged to attend have different roles.
A Meal, Tea and Works of Art
After the opening question about going together, Xue offers a reason to look forward to the gathering: he has obtained Miyun Small Dragon tea（密云小龙团，Mìyún xiǎolóngtuán）and proposes bringing it to try. The letter then adds calligraphy associated with the Jin dynasty and a painting by Huang Quan（黄筌，Huáng Quán）, described as Sparrows and Bamboo（雀竹，Què zhú）.[1][2]
These references broaden the occasion beyond eating. Tea can be tasted together; older writing and a picture can be brought out for shared attention. The sequence accumulates attractions, moving from the proposed meal to things Xue is prepared to make available. It records plans to bring collectible objects into a social setting.
The wording remains prospective. A promise to bring a work is not evidence that the gathering took place, that everyone attended or that ownership permanently changed. Nor does the short mention of Jin calligraphy identify a particular surviving autograph or its individual writer.
The note finally insists that Juji（巨济，Jùjì）must not decline, before Xue signs off.[1] That insistence gives the invitation a more emphatic ending than the opening question. The note names no dishes and sets out no formal banquet sequence. Its specific attractions are tea and works of art, not a reconstructed menu.
For comparison, Lin Bu’s Two Letters also preserve everyday exchanges within collected handwriting. Their different requests help show why reading a letter’s practical purpose matters alongside looking at its brushwork.
Following the Cursive Writing
The museum classifies this letter as cursive script（草书，cǎoshū）.[1] Its abbreviated forms benefit from a transcription, particularly where a curved movement or narrow descending stroke makes one character harder to separate from the next. The cursive-script guide provides context for this kind of compression.
Start at the right and move left across the principal sheet. Six taller columns carry the message; a shorter column nearby holds the closing name and formula. Compare their changing widths: some characters open into rounded shapes, while others contract around a narrow vertical movement.
The differences continue inside each column. A fuller dark form can sit beside a thinner, more extended stroke, and the spaces between characters expand and contract. Follow that variation without assuming that every apparent visual break is a stop in the sentence. Use the transcription for wording and the whole sheet for the proportions between columns.
The pale rose paper also deserves attention. Its faint background lines and scattered flecks remain visible around the writing, but the photograph does not make every underlying detail equally clear. The cream album surround creates a further boundary. Keep that surround separate from the smaller sheet carrying the message.
Original Letter and Later Modelbook
The museum holds a separate version of the same text in the Qing Sanxitang modelbook（三希堂法帖，Sānxītáng fǎtiè）, volume sixteen. That record has work number 贈帖00009300008 and is categorized as modelbook calligraphy.[3]
The distinction matters when comparing illustrations. A reproduction preserving the words and written forms is a different physical object from the ink leaf with its particular paper, mounting and collecting history. Matching a title or transcription alone does not establish that two images show the same artifact.
The calligraphy-copybooks guide explains the wider role of transmitted models. For this letter, begin with the object number and material description, then return to the proposed gathering. That preserves both the note’s social purpose and the identity of the object being viewed.
FAQs About Mi Fu Inviting for a Meal
Did Mi Fu write this letter?
No. Xue Shaopeng wrote it; Mi is the person whose invitation is mentioned.[1][2]
Does the letter preserve the dinner menu?
No. It discusses attending and bringing tea and art, without listing dishes.[1]
Is the later modelbook the original ink letter?
No. The museum catalogs them as separate objects with different identifiers.[1][3]
Sources
[1] National Palace Museum, Taipei. Xue Shaopeng: Letter, Object Record and Transcription
[2] Huang Zhenghe, National Palace Museum Monthly. Decoding Calligraphy and Interaction: The Song Decorated-Paper Exhibition (no. 420)
[3] National Palace Museum, Taipei. Sanxitang Modelbook, Volume Sixteen: Xue Shaopeng’s Letter