As a well-known social activist, Yang Du is well known for his political activities throughout his life.
His achievements in politics, history, Buddhism, and literature have been described in detail in many books such as Yang Du Ji, Yang Du Biography, and Selected Yang Du Research Papers, but his achievements in calligraphy are difficult to express in written books, and people know less about Yang Du's calligraphy achievements.
Selected Calligraphy Works of Yang Du, published by Yuelu Book Club
Yang Du was born in the countryside of Hunan, his father was good at writing articles, he was a beginner in music, he knew a little about painting, and he once did copywriting in the tent of Zeng Guofan. There are more poetry books and famous posters of Tang Dynasty scholars in the family, which makes Yang Du have a better environment for reading and writing at an early age.
When he was ten years old, Yang Du's father died, and his mother took charge of the household affairs, and the family rules were extremely strict, and he was urged to read and write from the side, which laid a solid foundation for the improvement of his calligraphy level. When Yang Du was a teenager, he was limited to Tang Kai, and when he was sixteen years old, he went to his uncle's house to study, and only then did he begin to come into contact with the stele. Three years later, he returned to Hunan and brought back the "Zheng Wen Gong Monument" and "Zhang Ronglong Monument", and since then he has become associated with Wei and Jin calligraphy, which has gradually become the main orientation of Yang Du's calligraphy.
In the process of learning calligraphy and writing calligraphy, Yang Du gradually formed his own calligraphy style on the basis of absorbing the essence of his predecessors.
His font is smooth and full, ancient and simple, writing gods in shape, very attractive. His works are loose and open, majestic, showing a broad mind, which can be described as a person. His calligraphy art, even in the Taidou book circle of the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, where epigraphy was flourishing, also showed a deep foundation and unique style.
Mr. Hong Pimo, former vice chairman of the Shanghai Calligraphy Association, once collected a painting by Yang Du entitled "House Xiao Kan Rong Knee Building Idle Writing Book" Kai Shu Lian, and he commented on Yang Du's calligraphy and this link as follows: "His calligraphy, the Fusion Han "Zhang Qianbei" and the Northern Wei monuments in one furnace, calm and simple, very skilled... The author has a calligraphy couplet, the characters are large and near, which is very grand. His book style is clumsy and authentic, without any trace of embellishment, revealing the real and idyllic side of his nature. "This comment is very pertinent and realistic.
In recent years, the progress of Internet technology has provided great convenience for the dissemination of pictures. Various artistic creations, news photos and calligraphy pictures are easily circulated on the Internet.
Yang Du's calligraphy works have also been largely online, and dozens of Yang Du works will be immediately found when searching on the Internet, and there are also many yang Du works displayed and sold on the web pages of major auction houses. The limitations of the online dissemination of calligraphy works are obvious, most of them show a disorderly state, which cannot systematically show the whole picture of Yang Du's calligraphy, and it is difficult to analyze his calligraphy achievements. In addition, some pixels of network pictures are too low to make the handwriting clear enough, and some of the text is incomplete and of poor quality.
In view of the above, in order to preserve the whole picture of Yang Du's calligraphy works as much as possible and show his profound calligraphy achievements, yang du and modern China Research Center of Hunan University set up a special project of "Selected Works of Yang Du Calligraphy", which was jointly collected by the author, Lei Shude and Xia Jinlong, and sorted out and edited.
There are many selected sources of the artwork in this work: some pictures are directly taken from Yang Du's handwriting and edited, such as the original works stored in the Hunan Provincial Museum, Hunan Library, Xiangtan City Museum, Hunan University Library, Beijing Municipal Archives and Yang Du's relatives; some pictures are downloaded from the Internet and further processed.
In Yang Du's life, especially in his later years, he once made a living selling words, leaving a large number of ink marks and widely circulated.
There are more than 100 Yang Du calligraphy works selected and collected in this work, and the biggest problem encountered in the process of collation is to distinguish the authenticity of the works. In order to try to remove the false and the true, we use the comparative analysis method while consulting the calligraphy experts, and carefully compare and analyze the strokes, font structure and writing style of the suspicious pictures with other similar characters. If it is suspected to be a forgery, even if the handwriting is clear and the format is clean, it will not be selected for this work. Encountering several different Yangdu inkblots in the same verse, I took one of the complete and clear works in an attempt to maintain the high quality of the calligraphic work.
As a descendant of Yang Du, he has the responsibility and obligation to sort out his calligraphy works and show his artistic achievements in order to contribute to the cultural treasure house of the Chinese nation. This book is a selection of Yang Du's calligraphy works, published in color high-definition printing, each picture has been carefully processed, and it is also accompanied by text descriptions, so that readers can have a better understanding of the content of the work and the deeds of the characters.
On the eve of the "918" incident in 1931, Yang Du died in Shanghai, and this collection of works is also a commemoration of the 90th anniversary of Yang Du's death.
I hope that the publication of this book will be loved and appreciated by calligraphy enthusiasts and research scholars.
Yang Dusun, Yang Du of Hunan University and Yang Youlong, Honorary Director of the Center for Modern China Studies
April 2021 Age 90
This article is the first preface to Yuelu Book Club's "Selected Works of Yang Du Calligraphy", written by Yang Youlong.
Selected Calligraphy Works of Yang Du
Author: Yang Youlong, Lei Shude, Xia Jinlong, co-editor
Price:¥98.00
This book is a collection of calligraphy by yang du, a modern politician and calligrapher, and is compiled and selected by Mr. Yang Youlong, Yang Du's grandson, Mr. Lei Shude of Hunan Library, and Mr. Xia Jinlong, secretary general of the Center for Modern China Studies of Hunan University, with the support of Yang Du and Modern China Research Center of Hunan University.
The content of this book mainly includes many parts such as the nave, banners, fans, couplets, inscriptions, letters, and diaries. Many of the works collected in this book have never been published, such as the handwriting of "Yang Du's Diary" provided by the Beijing Archives, some of the collections provided by Hunan Library and Hunan University Library, and some family heirloom ink treasures provided by Yang Du's grandson Yang Youlong.
The publication of this book will have irreplaceable social and cultural value for the study of the development and evolution of stele art in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and can also glimpse the characteristics of Yang Du's calligraphy art and present the historical value of his calligraphy works.