Li Bai was the most famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, and the more than a thousand poems circulated had a profound impact on later generations, and has been widely studied by many scholars since the Tang Dynasty. However, the study of Li Bai's calligraphy was lifeless. The reason for this is that there are very few traces of faxes. According to the Zhengshi, the second thesis of the Xingshu is "Chengxing Tie" and "Taihua Feng"; the third post of cursive writing is "Yongjiu Poem", "ShiWen", and "Drunken Post", but none of them are visible. At present, it can be seen that the ink is the "Upper Balcony Post" of the Palace Museum. There are two inscriptions: one is Li Bai's handwritten inscription "Sending Congratulations to Eight Returns to Yue", which is now in the Confucius Temple in Qufu. Another Song Tuo Li Bai calligraphy, "Xingfeng Lou Ti", is now in the Li Bai Research Institute of Ma'anshan City.
[Tang] Li Bai (paragraph "Mocking The King Liyang Refuses to Drink" post on paper
26.4cm×67cm Collection of Hong Kong Li Bai Poetry and Calligraphy Research Association
Li Bai's proficiency in calligraphy is evidenced by history, and there is a cloud in Tang MengDi's "Poems of Meng Tang's Ability": "Emperor Xuanzong ordered Bai to be a poem in the palace, and the two zhang ZhuSi were in front, and Bai took the pen to lyrically, and the ten pieces stood up, and the handwriting was sharp, and the phoenix was long." The eight characters of "Sharp Handwriting, Fengzhi Longna" fully express the scene of Li Bai's good book.
Guan Li Bai's "Mocking The King Liyang Refuses to Drink" book post, 26.4 cm in length and 67 cm in width, on paper. The whole post is a total of 50 words, the letter is written, and the payment is Li Bai. The poem says: "The ground is white and the wind is cold, and the snowflakes are as big as hands." Laugh and kill Tao Yuanming, do not drink the wine in the cup. Wave stroke a piano, plant five willows. Empty negative headscarf, I have no. ”
According to Fu Shenwen, Li Bai's book "Mocking The King Liyang Refuses to Drink" was purchased by the Japanese ancient pen collector Asuka Ning fan in the middle of the last century and stored in his library of books in Kyoto. It was later owned by the Japanese Sato family. In 2017, the post was acquired by the Hong Kong Li Bai Poetry calligraphy research society.
According to Fu Shenwen's appendix, "Mocking The King Liyang Refuses to Drink" was argued by experts and scholars as early as the 20th century. For example, in April 1986, the expert Mr. Xie Zhiliu saw this post and believed in his family letter that this post was in line with the style of Tang Dynasty law books, and was inked by Tang people, Xu Libai's true handwriting, and especially Zuzhenye.
In November 1987, Asuka Xiangning Fan came to China with this post and asked Mr. Shi Shuqing for advice. Shi Shuqing organized Many experts and scholars such as Professors Yan Shaoxuan and Sun Jing of Peking University, and Li Zhizhong of the National Library of China to study and discuss the "Mocking Wang Liyang's Refusal to Drink" and argued from the aspects of ink, penmanship, and paper that the post should be a Tang handwriting.
In the spring of 1989, Mr. Qi Gong went to Japan to identify the post "Mocking The King Liyang Refuses to Drink", pointing out that the calligraphy style of the work is unique, the form and the gods are complete, reflecting the characteristics of the Tang Dynasty, must be the Tang Dynasty's mysterious ink, whether it is written by Li Bai himself, it still needs further study and examination.
The Japanese scholar Mr. Fujieda Akira once wrote a special article pointing out that the paper of the "Mocking King Liyang Refuses to Drink" should be hemp paper produced in Sichuan, and the deer brush of the Tang Dynasty was used. It is also analyzed from the glyphs of the words "calendar, wind, flower, cup, five, plant, he, and have" in the poem, which was no longer used in the Song Dynasty. It is considered to be an important document in Li Bai's related research.
In 2017, the Hong Kong Li Bai Poetry Calligraphy Research Association invited the calligrapher and painter Mr. Chen Peiqiu to identify the post again. From this post, Mr. Chen Peiqiu revealed the pen posture of Tang Chu'ou, Chu and Sui and Tang Dynasties, believing that this post conformed to the characteristics of the writing of the Tang Dynasty, and there was no doubt that the inkblots for the Tang people were not doubtful, and it was not impossible to be Li Bai's true handwriting.
On January 22, 2022, Mr. Fu Shen, a Taiwanese scholar, posted in the "Fine Arts Newspaper" that the "Mocking King Liyang Refuses to Drink" post, the paper color is mellow, the paper is the same as the Tang material, through the ink color comparison, it is determined to be the writing traces of the hard core pen, as well as the pen habits of the book style, etc. This post is undoubtedly a Tang inkblot, and it is determined to be Li Bai's authentic handwriting.
Judging from the above relevant expert appraisals, the more unified view of most experts is that there is no doubt about the works of the Tang Dynasty, but there is no consistent opinion on whether it is written by Li Bai.
The author agrees with the opinion of the above experts as a work of the Tang Dynasty, but believes that Mr. Fu Shen's conclusion that it was written by Li Bai on his penmanship, ink marks, and paper analysis is arbitrary, and he raises the following questions.
【Tang】Li Bai On the balcony, paper, 28.5cm×38.1cm, collection of the Palace Museum
According to Fu Wenyun, according to Japanese sources, Li Bai's "Mocking The King Liyang Refuses to Drink" post is speculated to have been written in the twelfth year of Tang Tianbao (753), and was given by Li Bai to the Japanese Tang dynasty student Abe Zhongmalu and brought to Japan for collection. This record is unreliable. We know that Li Bai and Wang Liyang met in 760, but Mr. Fu examined li Baishi's writing date as 753. However, no matter what year it was, it is an indisputable fact that Li Bai gave three poems to Wang Liyang after drinking. Wang Liyang is well aware of the importance of Li Bai's poetry books and will treasure them, rather than allowing Li Bai to take them away and give them to others. According to Li Bai's talent, it is absolutely impossible to send the poems sent to others to others, and if they are given to others, they will also rewrite the poems and give them to each other. If you give a book post to someone else, it doesn't make sense logically or emotionally.
According to historical records, Li Bai did have a very good personal relationship with Abe Nakamaru. In the twelfth year of Tianbao (753), Li Bai was forced to leave Chang'an, and Abe Zhongmaru was already on his way back to China. If Li Bai had drunk wine with Wang Liyang in the winter of 753, he would not have been able to meet Abe Zhongmaru. Because at this time Abe Nakamaru was still on the way. Li Bai was very sad to hear that Abe Zhongmaru had been killed at sea, and he wrote the poem "Crying Chao Qingheng" with tears. It shows that Li Bai did not know that Abe Nakamaru was safe in 753. In the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), after Returning to Chang'an, Zhongmalu saw the poems written for him by Li Bai, and he had mixed feelings, and immediately wrote the famous poem "Wangxiang". This historical fact shows that the so-called Japanese data record that the poem given by Li Bai should be the poem of "Weeping Chao Qingheng", and it is definitely not a poem of "Mocking the King Liyang Refuses to Drink", which may be caused by the wrong record.
Second, from a cultural point of view, the correspondence between literati has a fixed format habit. According to Fu Wen, the person who examined Liyang the King of Liyang should be Wang Lizhen (王利贞) who served as Liyang County's Cheng in 712, and As Gucheng of Liangzhou in 729. Assuming that Wang Lizhen was born at the age of 20 and Liyang County was his first official position, it can be inferred that Wang Lizhen was born around 692, about nine years older than Li Bai. Li Bai is a person who is full of poetry and books, and at the beginning of the book post, although he laughs at the poem of kissing, he will not fail to understand the common sense of writing and communicating. Out of respect, the word "mocking" should be one line, and the three words "Wang Liyang" should start on a new line, and should be higher than the word "mocking".
3. This book is in letters and does not correspond to the situation at that time. Just think, how could Li Bai write poetry in italics after he was drunk? According to Li Bai's personality, cursive writing should be the norm. Li Baiben was a madman, and the poems he wrote were romantic, and he was particularly respected for the Tang Dynasty Huaisu cursive, and the inscriptions "Sending Congratulations to Eight Returns to Yue" and "Xingfeng Lou Ti" and the inkblot "Shangtai Post" were all in cursive. Therefore, in this situation, it is impossible to use calligraphy to help entertain. Generally speaking, improvised poetry books, will not first think of the poem title, the fall is also more casual, such as "on the balcony", is to commemorate Sima Chengzhen and made, improvised, the fall of the paragraph also did not seriously write the full name, let alone drunken game works?
The title of the poem states that "Mocking The King Liyang refuses to drink" should be the reason for the poem written, so it should be at the end of the paragraph, and should not be written before the opening poem.
Fourth, the third sentence of the poem "Mocking King Liyang Refuses to Drink", "Laughing and Killing Tao Yuanming", the word "Yuan" does not shy away from it. Tang Gaozu was secretive about Li Yuan, and the Tang people knew that they should avoid it, so they changed it to "spring" or "deep". This "淵" character is used as "Quan" in the Song Shu engraving of the Li Taibai Anthology, which is the inheritance of the Tang Dynasty text, and there are also remnants of the Ming and Qing versions, and Qu Yuanyuan and Zhu Jincheng have a proofread in the poem "Li Baiji Proofreading": "This is like the Tang people who wrote the book to avoid the unaltered." The inspection of Li Baiji still has "Sending Han Shi Yu No Guangde", the last sentence of "Singing a Song one night to send Quan Ming"; the last sentence of "Nine Days dengba Tomb Placed Wine and Looking at the Dongting Water Army" "Quan Ming is insufficient", all of which are "Yuanming" corrections. Qing Wang Qi's poem in the Complete Works of Li Taibai also taught the clouds: "Cover the ears of Tang Gaozu", and quote the qi dongye language volume 4 "avoidance" article proves that the word "yuan" was changed to "quan". If it is Li Bai's personal letter, it is absolutely impossible to ignore the order to avoid secrecy.
V. From a calligraphic point of view, Fu Wen believes that the "Mocking King Liyang Refuses to Drink" has the skeletons of Ouyang Que and Chu Suiliang, which is very Jin and Tang style in terms of chapters, which is the same as the style of Li Shimin's "JinCi Ming" inscription. Details of the style of the brush tool used by the author of the certificate post, as well as the age of the paper. But none of these bases are sufficient to explain Li Bai's relationship with this post. Because the chicken distance pen, Tang Dynasty paper, and Jin and Tang style are not exclusive to Li Bai.
As a poet and scholar with a very high aesthetic education, Li Bai's more recognized Tang Dynasty scholars such as Zhang Xu, Huai Su, He Zhizhang, Li Yong, and Li Yangbing all had a close relationship with him, while the former Tang scholars were only the objects of his approval for the poems left by Li Bai. Therefore, li Bai could not learn the calligraphy structure of Ouyang Qing and Chu Suiliang, which were relatively close to the times, and if there was any learning experience, it should also be recorded. At present, regarding the relationship between Li Bai's calligraphy, it is said that he was influenced by Zhang Xu, so the "Upper Balcony Post" has Zhang Xu's dignified and thick and dashing appearance. The Li Bai shu posts passed down in historical sources are all written in cursive and cursive, and there is no record of them in italics.
Li Bai gave Wang Liyang a total of three poems, in addition to "Mocking Wang Liyang Refuses to Drink" and "Giving Wang Liyang after Getting Drunk", there are also poems "Giving Wang Liyang After Drunkenness", which includes "The book is bald and a thousand rabbits, and the poem is cut two ox waists." The words "The pen traces the dragon and the tiger, and the dancing sleeves blow the clouds" have already shown the wild state of writing.
Judging from the above points, the author believes that this is written by the Tang Dynasty. However, the writing of this post lacks the proper understanding of Middle-earth culture, which leads to loopholes in the imitation of Li Bai's book posts. Based on the above situation, the author believes that it must be a Japanese scholar in the Middle And Tang Dynasties who copied Li Bai's poems.
(The author is secretary general of Ma'anshan Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature and director of China Li Bai Research Association)
Source/ China Art News
Editor-in-Charge/Xuan Xuan