Third, why song and Yuan became a watershed in the aesthetic transformation of scholars
During the Southern Song Dynasty, social turmoil and culture were also severely damaged, and the rare calligraphers in the early Southern Song Dynasty were also active in the book world at the time of the alternation of the north and the south, their lives and spirits were tragically damaged, calligraphy was no longer in harmony with natural objects, and the aesthetic concept of viewing objects and books was criticized, replaced by retro psychology and conformist style.
The Southern Song Dynasty Jiang Kui's "Genealogy of Continuations" says:
The true book is based on the goodness of peace and righteousness, and this secular theory is also the loss of the Tang people. The wonder of ancient and modern true books, there is no Zhong Yuanchang, followed by Wang Yishao. The books of the two families are all dashing and horizontal, why should they be justified? Liangyu Tang people judge scholars by books, and scholars and doctors have the habit of judging scholars.
In this article, Jiang Fu praised the "Two Kings" and criticized the Tang Dynasty's true books. In addition, he also questioned the Tang people's use of pens such as "folding strands", "cone painting sand", and "wall mounds" based on natural feelings:
The use of pens such as folding stocks, so are the theories of posterity. Those who fold the strands want its twists and turns round and powerful; those who leak in the house want it to be straight and even and hide the edge; those who draw sand cones and paint sand want it to have no trace of endlessness; those who are walled want it to have no skillful arrangement. None of them have to be. The pen is straight and hidden, the pen is sharp, falling together, obscure and clear, and magical.
In this text, Jiang Kui believes that "house leak marks", "cone painting sand" and "wall" are all additional nouns added by people after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and they are not the fundamental pursuit of calligraphers, only the center and flank are the right way in calligraphy, which negates the artistic conception of the calligrapher's creation, that is, the negation of "looking at things and living in books". Therefore, blindly pursuing the wind of Wei and Jin, but ignoring the mysteries under the natural perception is also irrational.
Su Shi's "Ministry Posts" on paper 27.8×38 .8cm
Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Another cause of the retro style of calligraphy is closely related to the development of epigraphy in the Song Dynasty. Epigraphy has been studied throughout the ages, but it was not until the Song Dynasty that it ushered in its first peak, creating a complete and systematic theory of epigraphy, and a number of epigraphic works came out. In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu began to pay attention to the golden stone inscription, and wrote the book "Ji Gulu", which is the earliest of the existing golden stone stele books, and has pioneered the entire Chinese academic history. In Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records from the Preface", a large number of classic inscriptions of the past dynasties are recorded: "Tang Pan, Kong Ding, Qiyang Drum, Daishan, Zou Yi, Hui Ji's carved stones, and the Sacred Emperors and Sages Since the Han and Wei Dynasties, the Huan Stele, Yi Instrument, Inscription Poem, and Preface, down to the ancient Wen Zhen Seal Division, the ZiShu of the Various Families, are all the most precious treasures since three generations." Ouyang Xiu went around looking for monuments to study, collecting inscription materials and historical facts, and in addition to his own old collections, there were also friends, students' collections, and entrusted friends to search. After obtaining various golden stone materials, Ouyang Xiu examined them one by one, and conducted a profound examination of the ancient texts and strange characters in the stele, adhered to the academic attitude that should be used to govern history, and then wrote a preface, which opened a precedent of using stele to prove history and history to correct history with stele.
Su Shi's "Jiuliu Ti" paper book 30.4 × 25 .8cm
After Ouyang Xiu, Zhao Mingcheng of the Southern Song Dynasty also devoted himself to the study of epigraphy, and the inscription of the "Han Reconstruction of gaozu temple stele" in the "Golden Stone Record" mentioned that "at the seventeenth and eighteenth hours of the year, he was already happy to collect the stone carvings of the previous generation", which shows that Zhao Shi had already shown a superhuman enthusiasm for collecting when he was young. He said: "Yu has collected and recorded the three generations of public and private collections, Qin, and Han instruments, but removes repetition, and takes those who are well-carved, and obtains more than three hundred inscriptions, all of which are inscribed in stone; he also takes the ink book as four major axes and attaches them to the record." The book "Jinshilu" records the stone inscriptions and epitaphs of Zhong Ding Yi ware from the three ancient dynasties to the five sui and Tang dynasties, and also records some important historical materials that are not found in the history books, inherits the ideological system of Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records", and emphasizes the function of jinshi in supplementing the history of the scriptures, such as the error of historical evidence, the gap in making up history, and the delusion of correcting history, which greatly enriches the source of historical materials. The rise of epigraphy in the Song Dynasty enriched people's cognition of ancient calligraphy inscriptions, and retro calligraphers who advocated retro and deeply practiced themselves abounded, bringing about the retro style in calligraphy. However, the rise of retro aesthetic propositions has gradually broken the creative concept since the Tang and Song dynasties, and gradually moved towards the creative concepts of "retro as the upper" and "with the ancient as the disciple".
Northern Song Dynasty Mi Fu "Spring Mountain Ruisong Map"
The Northern Song Dynasty was a calligrapher of "collecting ancient characters" and a propagator of the banner of "retro". But he is selectively retro, dares to choose between the "two kings", collects ancient innovations, and prides himself on being a calligrapher who is good at all five bodies. There are many works circulating in Mi Fu, and most of them show their innocent and natural taste, and even contain more or less randomness and mixing. Mi Fu believes that the calligraphy of the ancients is mostly "a book", while he himself is "eight-sided" out. Regarding the use of mi fu, it is recorded in the Haiyue Famous Sayings that "'How about the Qing Shu?'" "The book of ministers brushes the words." The "brush character" in Mi Fu's mouth is a kind of reform and a creation of the traditional pen. It can be seen that although the style of calligraphy at this time has the meaning of "Shanggu", it is not completely "respecting the ancient", and calligraphy is still an important way for calligraphers to express their intentions. But at this time, the banner of "retro" has developed irrepressibly.
The Song Dynasty scholar Zhao Mengfu promoted the retro style and launched a retro movement with the idea of "respecting the ancient" as the banner. He admired the Wei and Jin calligraphy and applied it to his own calligraphy practice. At the same time, Zhao Mengfu also flaunted retro in painting and seal carving, emphasizing "ancient meaning" and "Yinzong Qinhan", which opened the retro atmosphere of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhao Mengfu's idea of "respecting the ancients" is scattered in his book treatises, poems, and calligraphy and painting inscriptions. He has explained his "ancient meaning" view of calligraphy many times:
No one has inherited the sacrifice throughout the ages, and the pen in the world is high.
Calligraphy is based on the use of the pen, and the knot must also be worked hard, and the cover knot is passed down from time to time, and it is not easy to use the pen for eternity. The ancient law of the Right Army's characters has changed, and its majestic spirit comes from nature, so ancient and modern people think that they are teachers.
While admiring the "Second King", Zhao Mengfu also highlighted the importance of calligraphy with pen and layout. He believes that the writing style is not easy for thousands of years, so it can be obtained by observing the ancients, the knot body, the character momentum originates from the fashion of the times and the talent and qualifications of the author, so it will be different from time to time, with Zhao Mengfu's political status in the imperial court at that time, his writing style and discourse undoubtedly became the vane of the entire era, making the entire Yuan Dynasty book world shrouded in the "two kings" style. Yu Ji, Ke Jiusi, Jie Daisi, Zhu Derun, Kang Liwei, Zhang Yu, etc. of the Yuan Dynasty were all influenced by Zhao Mengfu's concept of "respecting the ancient", and returned the method of the Yuan Dynasty book world to the classicist style of writing with the "Second King" as the mainstream, and gradually established an aesthetic norm of "taking the ancient as beauty", and like the Western Renaissance, Zhao Mengfu took a classicist road, which also has epoch-making significance.
Zhao Mengfu to Zhongfeng and Shangzha (partial)
At this time, the aesthetic concept of "looking at things and living in books" is slowly moving away from the writing state of the writer. Zhao Mengfu's "retro style" has been affecting the style of writing in the middle and early Ming Dynasty, in the late Ming Dynasty, with the development of Wang Yangming's psychology, many calligraphers were dissatisfied with the ancients, advocating individuality, and the romantic style of romantic calligraphy that was still curious and change gradually bloomed with strange brilliance, but the calligraphers still regarded the ancient as the beauty in aesthetics, like Wang Duo, Fu Shan and other people's calligraphy creations, although unrestrained and wanton, far from the tradition of theology, their calligraphic claims still followed the ancient law, and their perception of the natural world was rarely discussed. This reflects that after the Yuan, whether it is the inheritance of the law, the worship of the law or the opposition to the ancient law, it has always revolved around an "ancient" character as the aesthetic core, completely ignoring the Tang and Song aesthetic concepts of "viewing things and living in books", and the Song and Yuan dynasties have become the turning point of the aesthetic concept of scholars. Since then, the Qing Dynasty epigraphy has been greatly promoted, whether it is seal or grass, calligraphers mainly in the penmanship, chapters, calligraphy and other technical aspects of new exploration, although in addition to the thesis to find another way, but still belong to the ancient law of calligraphy, seeking change, but in the form of different from the Yuan Ming.
Qing Wang Duo Linwang Xizhi "Jingyu Thesis" on paper, 201.5×52cm, 1636
Calligraphy has developed so far, after experiencing the stage of exploration and retro, Western aesthetic concepts and other various artistic trends have continued to pour into the country, believing that calligraphy is an independent abstract plastic art, he relies on Chinese characters, rooted in Chinese traditional culture, and has the unrepeatable rhythm of time and space art, which is "the central art that expresses the spirit of each era". This rhythm, like music and dance, is a reproduction of vitality and a sublimation of beauty. A dancer once said, "I am a bystander of life, and I came into the world to see how a tree grows, how the river flows, how the white clouds float, and how the nectar condenses." This passage carries the dancer's perception of life, but also her understanding of artistic creation, dancers and calligraphers meet unexpectedly, not by accident, but this kind of creative inspiration and aesthetic feelings, but also the indispensable feelings of calligraphy creation.