Zhao Mengfu is a landmark figure in the history of Chinese culture. In particular, his calligraphy is much discussed.
In fact, all the discussions about Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy are, in the final analysis, only because his surname is Zhao!
I am a thousand and thousand horses, and Zhao Mengfu is a character I like to study. His reputation can be said to have been known since I was born. Why? Because I was born in Lixian County, Gansu Province, there is a "Zhao Shiyan" stele, which was written by Zhao Mengfu, and almost everyone in the local area thinks that it is a talking point.
Later, when I grew up in Tianshui, Gansu Province, and studied art as a teenager, the first teacher to talk about would be Zhao Mengfu.
In the Yuquan Temple, the building of our Tianshui Yuan Dynasty, there are also Zhao Mengfu's cursive Wang Anshi poetry stele, which is also a precious cultural relics of the people of Tianshui.
Tianshui is the county of zhao, the study of Zhao characters, Zhao Mengfu is of course the focus of the people of Tianshui.
Therefore, when it comes to Zhao Mengfu, I always have a sense of intimacy. Then I will start with Zhao Mengfu's surname Zhao.
Inseparable from Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy is Zhao Mengfu's surname Zhao.
Why? Because the successive generations of criticism of Zhao Mengfu, mainly said that he was a traitor who surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty.
This is a very heavy word. We all know it. Zhao Mengfu was born in the late Song and early Yuan dynasties. He caught up with the historical turning point of the change of dynasty. How to turn? To become an official in the imperial court or to live in seclusion?
Zhao Mengfu chose the invitation of the Yuan Dynasty to him, and went from the south to the north to the Yuan Capital to become an official.
At that time, then, China was ruled by a "foreign race," a political humiliation that Chinese psychologically unable to bear.
Because China is an advanced culture, it is a shame that advanced culture is ruled by barbaric culture. It is also a kind of helplessness.
Because China has always had a traditional national concept that Huaxia Yidi is not a family. Therefore, even if there is a change of imperial power, it is only within Huaxia. Can't be outside of China.
Zhao Mengfu was the first official in Chinese history to gain a national dominant position in the Yuan Dynasty, which was to risk a lot of political responsibility.
However, don't say that the era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties is the Yuan Dynasty, is Zhao Mengfu a subject of the Yuan Dynasty? Didn't the painters Wang Meng and Huang Gongwang also serve as officials of the Yuan Dynasty? Weren't the poets Yu Ji and Zhu Derun also officials of the Yuan Dynasty? Absolutely. However, because they are not surnamed Zhao! This escaped more imperial humiliation.
But. Zhao Mengfu could not escape the humiliation of imperial power. Zhao Mengfu's Zhao was a national surname with the status of a national surname in the Yuan Dynasty. Moreover, he is a descendant of the Zhao and Song Dynasties, which makes him more calculated for the widows of later generations.
The Ming Dynasty's evaluation of Zhao Mengfu was positive. For example, the Ming Dynasty calligrapher Dong Qichang had a high evaluation of Zhao Mengfu. However, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there were some voices criticizing Zhao Mengfu, especially Fu Shan.
Later, he simply equated Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy style with his Shiyuan, saying that Zhao Mengfu originally had no backbone, and calligraphy lacked bones. As a result, Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy became a representative of kitsch.
However, due to the qing dynasty emperor's admiration for Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy, Zhao Mengfu basically maintained a high calligraphy status in the Qing Dynasty. There is no shortage of people who study Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy.
Late Qing Dynasty and Early Ming Dynasty. Because of the advocacy of calligraphy and epigraphy, and because of the need to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, a trend of thought that belittled Zhao Mengfu rose again.
The evaluation of Zhao Mengfu returns to the origin of Fu Shan's evaluation in the late Ming and Qing dynasties. Until after the reform and opening up.
Under the new historical conditions, when we look back at Zhao Mengfu's evaluation, there is actually no real artistic evaluation, and most of the negative evaluations are of a politicized ethnic conflict nature. For his historical contributions, little is mentioned.
As far as politics is concerned, Zhao Mengfu Shiyuan is also an example of thousands of Han intellectuals.
Zhao Mengfu's contribution to the Yuan Dynasty was multifaceted, among which zhao Mengfu's contribution to the issuance of currency in the Yuan Dynasty was not known to everyone. The biography of Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty evaluates Zhao Mengfu's contribution to the economy of the early Yuan Dynasty, which is very large. In our words today, he was an expert in monetary regulation.
As for culture, we won't say more. Zhao Mengfu is an absolute leader in the fields of poetry, painting and calligraphy.
Finally, let's talk about his calligraphy.
Zhao Mengfu became a great calligrapher because his calligraphy talent was very outstanding. Zhao Mengfu was in the true grass and was all refined.
In particular, his cursive calligraphy, chasing the second king on the top and su huang on the bottom, is a calligraphy genius that is unique in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
Some people say that his "Roselle Endowment" is comparable to the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", and Qian qianlima believes that this is not an over-praise.
After the Tang Dynasty, Chinese calligraphy art was increasingly unified with the calligraphy paradigm of the Erwang. In the paradigm of Erwang calligraphy, calligraphy theorists like Zhao Mengfu who are loyal to the Erwang Fadu and like Zhao Mengfu who advocate learning the Wei and Jin dynasties are a kind of self-consciousness that has not been seen in history.
The core of the calligraphy of the two kings, in addition to the freedom of Jian Yanmei. More importantly, it creates a rationality for writing speed.
Zhao Mengfu carried forward this historic spirit of calligraphy. Not only is it further standardized in cursive writing. Moreover, the strokes of the xingshu were introduced into the script, and the xingyi calligraphy was created.
He made a great contribution to the writing of the script.