Why did the discipline of calligraphy come about?

【Bright Art Point】

The new edition of the Catalogue of Disciplines for the Conferment of Doctoral and Master's Degrees and Talent Training (Draft for Solicitation of Comments) issued by the Office of the Academic Degrees Commission of the State Council divides the art category into seven first-level disciplines, and calligraphy has been upgraded from a second-level discipline originally affiliated with fine arts to a first-level discipline alongside fine arts. Such adjustment and change has triggered extensive discussions in the academic community, focusing on whether calligraphy can become a first-class discipline, what is the support and academic basis of its discipline, what is the significance of promotion, and what is the expected impact? This is indeed a topic worth thinking about and exploring. In the traditional concept, calligraphy is the familiar writing brush, how to write and write has become an academic, a profound enough to cultivate high-level professionals such as doctors, not only that, but now it is also upgraded to an independent portal, entering the room, and keeping pace with the great art? What are the deep internal factors that promote the upgrading of the discipline of calligraphy?

Where is the unique value of calligraphy

First of all, let's review the history, as early as ancient times, calligraphy is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. The Zhou Li Di Guan Situ BaoShi (周礼· Diguan Situ Baoshi) says: "Raising the sons of the country with the Tao is the six arts of teaching: one is five rites, two are six music, three are five shots, four are five emperors, five are six books, and six are nine numbers." Among them, the "six books" include literacy and writing. The "History of Tai Shi Gong Self-Introduction" also said: "The Confucians take the six arts as the law. The Six Arts Sutra has been passed down in the tens of millions, and it has not been possible to learn from them for generations, and it is impossible to investigate their rituals in those years. Sima Qian further elaborated on the cultural attributes and importance of the "Six Arts". In the long historical evolution, calligraphy has undergone aesthetic changes in fonts, calligraphy and style, which run through the political history and humanities of different eras, condensing the profound essence of traditional Chinese culture, which can be described as unique and unique in Chinese civilization.

Although there are a wide variety of writing systems in the history of human civilization, only Chinese character writing not only plays a practical function of communication records, but also evolves into an art with profound cultural heritage and unique charm - Chinese calligraphy. This is an important difference between Chinese characters and other writing systems, and it is also where Chinese culture transcends excellence, in other words, only Chinese writing in the world is both practical and artistic, incomparable. Looking back at history and focusing on reality, the artistry and culture of calligraphy are deeply implanted in the blood of Chinese, shaping the Chinese context and casting the Chinese spirit in one stroke and one painting. Improving the disciplinary status of calligraphy, in-depth study of the cultural connotation of calligraphy, enhancing cultural self-confidence, using Chinese character writing and calligraphy art as the medium to disseminate Chinese excellent culture and go to the world undoubtedly have important cultural strategic significance.

Among the existing types of art, calligraphy is most closely related to traditional Chinese culture such as literature, history and humanities, and "one thousand and one million, simple and complex", which has a strong symbolism and representativeness of Chinese national culture, and can also best reflect and highlight the profound connotation of Chinese culture. The extraction of calligraphy from the "fine art" and the juxtaposition of fine art is a re-recognition and reset of the identity of calligraphy in traditional culture, as well as the manifestation and self-confirmation of traditional Chinese culture, and an important expression of cultural self-confidence.

From the perspective of Chinese and Western comparisons and disciplinary characteristics, calligraphy has unique and superior to other types of fine arts. Chinese art has Chinese painting, sculpture, craftsmanship, etc., and the West has oil painting, sculpture, and craftsmanship, corresponding to comparison, each with its own victory. In Western art alone, we can't find any art that can correspond to calligraphy. Calligraphy has thousands of years of development, thousands of years of artistic and humanistic accumulation, profound heritage, its culture and interest in the Cultural Exchange between China and the West, irreplaceable. The importance and urgency of improving the status of calligraphy disciplines have greatly exceeded the general cognition and limitations of academic science, and the significance of its improvement and breakthrough is self-evident.

How the discipline of calligraphy was established

From the perspective of the characteristics of the humanities, the Chinese characteristics and Chinese style of the discipline of calligraphy are the most obvious. How to combine discipline construction with international education and cultural exchanges, so that the characteristics are distinctive, the effect is remarkable, and the operability is strong, from the perspective of the popularity, interest, operability, ornamentation and culture of the calligraphy expression form, it can be said that it is the most suitable, and the calligraphy as the medium is enough to vividly tell the ancient and mysterious Chinese civilization. Based on this, in the collision of global cultural integration, calligraphy should be unyielding, take the initiative, seize the opportunity, strengthen the linkage of disciplines, give full play to the advantages of discipline characteristics, with the most simple "one pen, one piece of paper", attract young students and international friends from all over the world, feel the profundity and infinite charm of Chinese culture in one stroke and one painting, spread Chinese character culture and Chinese civilization genes in the pen and ink, and imperceptibly spread Chinese character culture and Chinese civilization genes, enhance exchanges and interaction between China and the world, and strengthen cultural understanding and identity.

From the perspective of the history of discipline development, the improvement of the status of calligraphy discipline reflects the great importance attached to the promotion of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture at the national level, which is the practice and promotion of cultural self-confidence in the academic and educational circles, and is also the result of the development of disciplines and the efforts of the academic community. The development of calligraphy has experienced a relatively long accumulation of disciplines, and the academic, industry and educational circles have also experienced a process of continuous improvement and deepening of the discipline cognition of calligraphy. In 1906, Li Ruiqing set up the "Drawing handicraft department" in the "Liangjiang Normal School" and personally taught calligraphy classes, which was the first time that calligraphy and painting courses were opened in China's new-style schools, that is, "colleges and universities". In 1917, Cai Yuanpei was the president of Peking University, published the article "Using Aesthetic Education instead of Religion", advocated the establishment of a calligraphy research society, and in 1918, for the first time, proposed the disciplinary concept of opening a "calligraphy specialty". In 1944, Zhu Jia published "Higher Education Issues in Calligraphy", proposing to set up a department of calligraphy in art schools and universities, or set up a specialized school of calligraphy to cultivate higher calligraphy talents. In 1963, Pan Tianshou called for and presided over the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Fine Arts), recruited the first batch of calligraphy undergraduate students for the whole country, practiced Cai Yuanpei's "calligraphy specialist" discipline idea with practical actions, and established the first four-year undergraduate calligraphy professional course system in the mainland. In 1979, Professors Lu Weizhao, Zhu Lesan, Sha Menghai and other professors of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts recruited the first batch of master's degree students in calligraphy and seal engraving in China. In 1993, Capital Normal University was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and took the lead in setting up a doctoral degree authorization point for fine arts calligraphy and art education with Ouyang Zhongshi as the tutor. In 1998, the former Ministry of Personnel approved the establishment of a postdoctoral research station for calligraphy projects in Capital Normal University. At this point, a complete series of systems of calligraphy discipline education in the history of Chinese education have been established. From Li Ruiqing, Cai Yuanpei, Zhu Jia, Pan Tianshou, and then to Lu Weizhao and Ouyang Zhongshi, the predecessors of the sage Yanlu Lanyi pioneered the road to the development of calligraphy disciplines, looking back on the course of calligraphy disciplines for more than a hundred years, although there have been several twists and turns, but the overall steady progress. Nowadays, the establishment of a first-level discipline of calligraphy is not only a sign of the elevation of the status of the discipline, but also a positive response to history.

What challenges lie ahead

From the perspective of the influence of the discipline, after the status of the discipline of calligraphy is improved, how does calligraphy go from the literati's "learning" to the "book's specialty" to the scholar's "book is expensive because of learning, learning is manifested because of books, and books are shared with learning"? What role will calligraphy play in the humanities? How to build a calligraphy discipline? This is an important proposition related to the lifeblood of the development of the discipline. Before his death, Qi Gong opposed the establishment of a master's and doctoral degree in calligraphy, and did not think that calligraphy could become a profession, he said: "What is written is called a doctor of calligraphy, and what is written is called a master of calligraphy, there is no standard, it is impossible to judge." "This concept was universal at the time, and now there is a certain market. The author believes that Mr. Qi's gaze and thinking at that time stayed more on the book, that is, on writing and writing, and had not yet entered the Tao by technique, and the tao of technology and the Tao of technology, and could not examine calligraphy from a broader perspective. If you look at the development process of calligraphy discipline in the past thirty years and the results achieved, the inauguration of calligraphy scholars and the enrollment and training of calligraphy doctorates mostly rely on many disciplines such as art, literature (philology), history, literature, philosophy, communication, design, etc. The discipline background has accumulated diversity and richness, and the calligraphy community has gone beyond the characterization and cognition of calligraphy writing on the basis of drawing on social science research such as literature, history, and philosophy, and has profoundly explored, understood and explained the profound humanistic connotations contained in calligraphy, through the unremitting efforts of colleagues in the academic community. The research forms of calligraphy history, calligraphy theory criticism, calligraphy education, calligraphy creation, calligraphy and literature, history, sociology and other disciplines have begun to take shape. In other words, the calligraphy we recognize is no longer a simple writing, but a refraction of personality and culture, a microcosm of the times and society, calligraphy is an important component of the humanities, and there is a broad space in the field of discipline research.

Calligraphy has gained a new academic identity, the academic community on the calligraphy discipline threshold, discipline structure, research team, talent training, academic standards and other requirements naturally rise, calligraphy research results will also receive more attention and consideration from the academic community, calligraphy must do something, in order to live up to expectations. How to present the academic, professional and core values of calligraphy, can the calligraphy community make a learning that is impressive to the cultural and social science community, the academic achievements and talent training are not enough to support and reflect the connotation requirements of the first-level discipline, and can calligraphy give full play to its own advantages and characteristics to provide reference, reference and inspiration for related arts (art, design), literature, history, philosophy and even science, and promote the development and improvement of related humanities and applied disciplines? Can we use calligraphy forms and media expressions to display the essence of humanities and social science research results more vividly and intuitively, and convey cultural information and humanistic spirit in a more in-depth and interesting way? These will be the options that calligraphy scholars must face and answer.

As mentioned above, the improvement of the discipline of calligraphy is not a simple discipline adjustment, nor is it only the carnival and excitement of the calligraphy community, this is the promotion and manifestation of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, the re-departure of cultural self-confidence and national self-confidence, the prelude to the cultural and educational circles to sound the national cultural rejuvenation, and an important measure to promote the improvement of national quality with aesthetic education and culture, which is worth looking forward to.

(Author: Cai Qingde, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, School of Fine Arts, Fujian Normal University)

(Guangming Daily)