Yan Zhenqing and the Northern Song Dynasty's book world's "book by man" fashion

　 Yan Zhenqing had an extremely profound influence on the northern Song dynasty book scene, and the song four families of Su, Huang, Mi, and Cai were all not affected by it. During this period, the calligraphers pushed the concept of "discussing books with people" to the peak of history by shaping the classic model of Yan Lugong's "books as they are". And why was Yan Lugong's model of "books as his people" unprecedentedly established in the Northern Song Dynasty? How does this paradigm derive into the fashion of the times of "discussing books with people", and how does the connotation of "people" in "books on people" develop and evolve? This series of questions is the study of this article.

　　The background and reason for the emergence of the concept of "writing books with people" in the Northern Song Dynasty

　　As early as the Han Dynasty, Yang Xiong had the phrase "books for the heart painting", and further inferred that the internal factors such as the character, education, and feelings of the calligraphers would directly affect the level of their calligraphy, and this thesis opened the precedent of "on books and people". Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty Liu Gongquan's phrase "heart is correct and correct" further strengthened the internal relationship between the two. But as soon as Liu's words came out, the topic was temporarily shelved, what was the reason for this? Liu Gongquan was in the war and chaos period of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, people were not worried about the sunset, upside down, and the Confucian Taoist thought had long been forgotten by the literati doctors of the period.

　　By the Northern Song Dynasty, Liu Gongquan's concept of personification of books with "heart and right heart" began to continue, and the literati of this period set off a trend of judging books based on people in the book world, and its emergence had a strong political and cultural background. First, in the five generations of chaos, all culture and art, including calligraphy, were trampled on as never before. In the early northern song dynasty, although Song Taizong advocated calligraphy, it was ultimately unable to free the book garden from the atmosphere of the end of the Tang Dynasty and the decline of the five dynasties; at the same time, the book world in this period was dominated by the power to control the literary authority, which in turn gave rise to a sluggish atmosphere of "tending to the times and noble books". In the face of the decline of calligraphy, many scholars and doctors did not think of saving and reviving calligraphy, but to use calligraphy as a tool for making profits to meet their political needs. Based on this, the personality and responsibility of the writer were put on the agenda, and the independent artistic personality became an important reference standard for measuring the quality of calligraphy works in this period. Second, during the Northern Song Dynasty, Confucianism became the mainstream trend of thought in the whole society. The Northern Song Dynasty literati used the Confucian worldview to determine their words and deeds. As a result, they not only advocated the Confucian philosophy of life, but also infiltrated it into the field of art, and the aesthetic character and spiritual connotation derived from it eventually shaped the unique aesthetic concept of the Song people. Therefore, the Confucian personality orientation of "polite and polite, and then gentleman" has become an important criterion for judging the superiority of calligraphy and calligraphy.

　　Driven by the revival of Confucianism, coupled with the decline of the literary circle in the early Song Dynasty, as well as the deterioration of the character and art of the calligraphers, people with lofty ideals in this period came out one after another and unanimously advocated the concept of the unity of art and the supremacy of character. This is just as Li Sizhen of the Tang Dynasty said in his "Book After the Book": "Virtue is up, it is called benevolence, righteousness, reason, wisdom, and faith; and art is down, it is called li, music, shooting, imperial, book, and number." Ouyang Xiu was an advocate of neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, and the Confucian concept of Taoism naturally penetrated into his calligraphic thought. He once lamented the lack of personality cultivation of the calligrapher: "It is really ridiculous that people today are not, or abandon Pepsi, are exhausted, take the study of books as a career, and use this to end up old and poor." Youyun: "All the ancients can write, and the sages who are alone have spread far and wide." Then the world does not push this, but the book, do not know the previous day work book, with the paper and ink abandoned, innumerable also. Ouyang Xiu believed that if a scholar "abandons Pepsi" or "but does it in the book", it is a less wise approach.

　　From "Books as They Are" to "Books as People"

　　Based on the revival of Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty, scholars cherished both the character and the character of the calligrapher, and especially the character. Therefore, Yan Zhenqing's solemn personality image and unique calligraphy style can be described as a combination of pearls, which immediately became popular in the Song Dynasty book world, becoming the best model of "books as people" in the minds of scholars, and then germinated the concept of "discussing books with people" in Northern Song Dynasty calligraphy.

　　Yan Lugong's example of "books as his people" was originally shaped by Ouyang Xiu. While promoting the yan model, it actually has the intention of promoting virtue and correcting the character of the people, and expounds his own calligraphy concept of carrying the Tao and discussing the book with people, and deduces it by virtue of his political status as the prime minister. He once said: "The festival of Yan Gongzhongyi is as bright as the sun and the moon, and its dignity and strength are like its strokes." "Si ren zhongyi is out of nature, so his calligraphy and paintings are strong and independent, do not follow the previous traces, and are quite amazing, as if they were human." As the saying goes, "Love the house and Wu", since the Yanlu Gongshu is like its person, people are naturally full of good feelings for its calligraphy while worshipping its character. Ouyang Xiu further elevated the status of calligrapher's character in the evaluation of calligraphy. Some scholars believe that Ou Gong put forward a "personalitist" view of books here, putting the character of the book writer above the book. Based on their special admiration for the charisma of Yan Zhenqing and others, the scholars cherished their calligraphy works even more, or even if their calligraphy was not very high, they could enjoy a lofty position in the book world. As soon as Ouyang Xiu said this, there were endless receivers.

　　The Yanlu Gongshu was as exemplary as its people in the Northern Song Dynasty. The "History of Song" also says: "(Yao Yan) The old man does not abolish the book, and he is particularly happy to yan Zhenqing Hanmo." It is said that 'I admire its human ears'. Yao Shi admired Yan Lugong's character and became fascinated by his calligraphy, and during this period had a strong concept of "because of people's noble books". At this point, the Northern Song Dynasty scholars further extended the Yan Zhenqing book as its human paradigm, from a single discussion of Yan Lugong to a discussion of the famous scholars of the past dynasties, or directly expounded the view of "discussing books with people". In the end, the style of judging books with people swept through the entire Northern Song Dynasty book scene.

　　Su Shi pushed the discussion of the relationship between books and personality to a broader and more nuanced theoretical level. He believes that through the appearance, words and deeds of people on the outside, it can be intuitively seen that people's qualities are high or low, and then analogously to the specific book composition can be observed by the mind of the book. He also said: "Every book is like its man... The ancient commentators also discussed their ordinary lives, but they were not his people, although the work was not expensive. Here, Su Shi once again directly affirmed the view that the book is like a person, in his view, the value of calligraphy does not depend only on the beauty and ugliness of the glyphs of the work, or the level of the calligrapher's skill, but also depends on the inherent interest and style of the calligraphy work, which is the comprehensive penetration of the calligrapher's moral learning and character quality in the book. If the writer loses this core factor, his book is "not expensive".

　　Huang Tingjian also adheres to the personalitist view of books, but he deduces "people", and on the basis of the personality and character of the book, he also looks at the chest, learning and books of the book. He praised Fan Zhongyan: "Fan Wenzheng was the first person among the princes at that time, so whenever Yu saw the ruler and inch of paper in people's homes, he did not love to appreciate Miri and wanted to see his people. The so-called 'before the world's worries and worries, after the world's happiness and happiness', this text is the first to eat and live, and then it is also contained in the speaker. Here, Huang Gu admired Fan Wenzheng's character, and then fell in love with his "ruler inch paper". Later, Huang Tingjian expounded the calligraphic idea of "discussing books with people" through his own calligraphy concept of "rhyme", and the concept of "people" here has exceeded the simple standard of character. We know that calligraphy is the most taboo "vulgar" word, in Huang Tingjian's view, "rhyme disease" and "rhyme sheng" are calligraphy "vulgar" or "not vulgar" more polite synonyms, Zeng Yun: "Yu taste for the juvenile language, scholars and doctors can be a hundred in the world, only can not be vulgar, the customs can not be healed." Whether a calligraphy work can win with "rhyme" is naturally preceded by "escaping the vulgarity", and how to get rid of the vulgar emphasizes the cultivation of personality and learning, and the unity of art and personality.

　　In addition, northern Song dynasty calligraphers often borrowed words to describe people's appearance and character in their evaluations of calligraphy to compare calligraphy, thus opening up the trend of "using people as metaphors for books". Su Dongpoyun "Books must have gods, qi, bones, flesh, and blood, and the five are one, not for the sake of writing", he regards the composition of calligraphy as a person, which is the externalization of people's various qualities, and fully affirms man's dominant position in calligraphy. Then, in the article "Shu Tang's Six Books", he pointed out that "Kai Ru Li, Walk Like Walk, And Grass Like Walking", which "humanized" the calligraphy body image. Zhu Changwen described Huai Su's cursive writing as "like a strong man drawing a sword, full of energy and moving". This way of "using people as metaphors for books" should be said to be a natural extension of the concept of "talking about books with people". They successfully completed the perfect construction of the personality implication in the calligraphy style to the intrinsic relationship between the character and the book, and then to the guiding effect of the spiritual character on the calligraphy style, which is the perfect construction of the personification theory book system.

　　The Northern Song Dynasty Yan Zhenqing's view of "books as people" paradigm had a profound impact on future generations, making the aesthetic connotation of calligraphy richer. After the Northern Song Dynasty, there were many other resounders, such as Jiang Kui and Dong Kui of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hao Jing at the turn of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Zhang Ugly, Wen Zhengming, and Xiang Mu of the Ming Dynasty, and Yang Shoujing, Zhu Hetang and others in the Qing Dynasty, all inheriting and developing the dual view of the character and books of the book under the influence of traditional Chinese Confucianism. So that Cai Jing, Zhao Mengxuan, Wang Duo and others, because of the stain on their personality, even if they have achieved extremely high achievements in calligraphy, there is still no shortage of criticism from later generations. Historian Fan Wenlan said: "The teacher of the Song people, Yan Zhenqing, is like the teacher of the Tang people, Wang Xizhi. It is precisely because of the double height of Yan Lugong's calligraphy and personality that he finally exchanged it for his lofty status in the book world. At present, although some scholars have accused the one-sidedness of the book with people, this concept has not only been deeply rooted in Traditional Chinese Confucian culture, but has also become the core element of Chinese art.

　　(Author Affilications:School of Calligraphy, Qufu Normal University)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Chen Peizhan