Biographies is one of Huang's two surviving masterpieces of cursive writing. The scroll measures nearly sixty feet in length and contains some 1,700 characters. The round brush lines and curvilinear forms recall the "wild cursive" writing of the "mad monk" Huaisu (ca. 735–800), whose Autobiography Huang saw in 1094. Huang's choice of text supports a date of shortly after 1094 for the scroll. That year, Huang was exiled to Sichuan, owing to factional politics at court. Biographies, which transcribes the first-century-B.C. Shiji account of the rivalry of two court officials, may well reflect Huang's feeling that his banishment was the result of someone's personal malice. Huang's transcription ends abruptly with the line "Put the needs of the country first and private grievances last." It is likely that the final section of the biography and Huang's signature were removed not long after he wrote the scroll by an owner who wished to avoid political reprisal for possessing a work by such a prominent dissident.