On December 22nd, the Sanlian Academic Forum "From 'Erwang' to 'Beyond Erwang': The Formation and Transformation of Chinese Calligraphy Models" was held at the main store of Sanlian Taofen Bookstore Art Museum in Beijing. Professor Bai Qianshen and Professor Xue Longchun from the School of Art and Archaeology of Zhejiang University, Professor Shi Rui from the Center for Medieval History of Peking University, and Professor Liu Tao from the School of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy of the Central Academy of Fine Arts focus on calligraphy and the history of calligraphy. What is the significance of the practitioner's observations to the current narrative of art history? The forum was chaired by Professor Bai Qianshen.
Forum site
In the second half of 2023, two original research monographs on the history of calligraphy, "In the Name of Wang Xizhi: The Road to Classicization" and "Beyond the Two Kings: Historical Reflections on Qing Dynasty Epigraphy", have been included in the "Open Art History" series by Life, Reading, and New Knowledge. The two books discuss different historical periods and specific issues, and both interpret calligraphy works through the correspondence between specific documentary materials and pictorial materials, and then outline the key turning points and core issues in the history of calligraphy.
Liu tao
In his speech, Liu Tao believed that Wang Xizhi was the most important of the first figures of Chinese calligraphy. "Wang Xizhi is not only famous, but also has deeds and handwritings. When it comes to his calligraphy, the most familiar and well-known is of course the "Orchid Pavilion Collection Preface", which is the most famous calligraphy classic in the mainland, and it happens to be a line of calligraphy. Xingshu absorbs the cursive ligature, and the gestures are connected, and the strokes are omitted like cursive. Basically, in the middle of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the transformation from 'ancient quality' to 'Jinyan' was completed, and the technique, form and order of calligraphy were formed. It can be said that the disseminator of the Wei and Jin Xingshu is Zhong Xuan, and the person who collects the masterpieces is Wang Xizhi. ”
Part of Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface".
Shi Rui
On the basis of reading Luo Feng's book "In the Name of Wang Xizhi: The Road to Classicization", Shi Rui said that none of Wang Xizhi's works we see today are actually his authentic works, but why did Wang Xizhi become a "calligraphy saint" and why did Wang Shu's various fonts become the most important models in the history of calligraphy? This is the formation process of a calligrapher who "has no works".
Chen Shaoming, a professor at the Department of Philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University, has a view that the truly great classics do not depend entirely on specific expressions or material forms, but may be an imagination or a legend. For example, Mr. Shang Wei's "Inscription of Famous Places" also talks about the landscape in the famous historical buildings such as the Yellow Crane Tower and the Yueyang Tower, and the landscape in the literary works that used to exist? I am afraid that it has been separated from the classicity of the landscape, and it is dependent on other paths to maintain and transmit its classicality. Shi Rui said.
Xue Longchun
Xue Longchun's book "Beyond the Two Kings: Historical Reflections on Stele Studies in the Qing Dynasty", the title of the book is taken from the late Qing Dynasty epigrapher Ye Changchi's "There are books outside the two kings, and Si Ke and the book are discussed", which is regarded by later generations as a landmark declaration of the confrontation between "stele studies" and "theology studies". In the book, the author believes that since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, with the rise of Jinshi Studies, the stone inscription script (inscription stone book) from Han Li to regular script has been regarded as a new resource for the Xi of ancient calligraphy, and has entered the field of vision of scholars, calligraphers and other cultural elites, and even become classics. Under the clamor of Bao Shichen and Kang Youwei, they used "stele learning" to refer to the Xi of stone carving calligraphy in general, and the trend gradually flourished, and it was opposed to "post learning". The meaning of "stele science" involves the evolution of calligraphy, the concept of calligraphy, the similarities and differences of taste, etc., which have been disputed for a long time.
At the forum, Xue Longchun talked about his understanding of the relationship between stele and theology, and believed that the two are completely different concepts. "The crux of the confusion that comes to people's minds when they talk about calligraphy today is that we always confuse stele studies with theology of posts. As a simple example, there is a description of the use of a pen in ancient calligraphy: 'startling the snake into the grass'. If you have lived in the countryside and see a snake on the road, it is not that you are afraid of the snake, but that the snake is afraid of you, and as soon as it sees you, it runs into the grass, and that action is force, and it is a winding action, which is the description of the ancients. To use this term to describe all the inscriptions and the works of calligraphers admired by Kang Youwei is completely incompatible with their words. ”
"To put it simply, the post study is more dynamic, that is, dynamic, and the requirements for the sense of hand are very high. The terms we see are straight down, middle and middle, and uneventful, all of which are talking about a very small gap, and the word is not true. Therefore, there is a saying about Wang Xizhi's words called 'a painting is immovable', and the overall dynamics are hooks and locks, startling snakes into the grass, eight sides of the front, and dot painting is messy, which is a very high evaluation and a very rhythmic writing. The overall goal is, according to the Tang people, to have a 'transcendent qi'. So why Wang Xianzhi's words, in the evaluation of the Tang people, cursive writing far surpasses Wang Xizhi, has something to do with this. In this sense, calligraphy can be called rhythmic plate art. ”
"And what is stele science?" Quoting from "Beyond the Two Kings: Historical Reflections on Qing Dynasty Epigraphy", what is shown is not momentum, but form and force. Therefore, on the one hand, the study of steles emphasizes the presence of hundreds of books, and on the other hand, it hopes to help calligraphers obtain "new and strange states"; The emphasis on force is thick and majestic, that is, an absolute power, not the ingenuity created by the stirrup method. When the force is associated with the technical propositions such as the center and the hidden front, the horizontal and vertical, the lifting and pressing and the frustration, and the whole body strength, the dot painting becomes single and ambiguous, and this method of using the pen can well transform the special interest of the pre-Tang Jinshi script, but it is difficult to deal with the far more complex cursive writing skills. Therefore, Kang Youwei, who respected the stele, also sighed that the stele was blazing, but the cursive writing of the famous people of the Beijing Dynasty was becoming more and more clumsy.
On the one hand, the reason is that many of our characters are used for display today, and the characters are only one centimeter wide, and the characters are very small, so it is not practical to write couplets in this way, so it is obvious that they need to be transformed. The second very important reason is that epigraphy has formed its own independent system, which is outside the model of famous masters. Finally, let me reiterate my conclusion, Kang Youwei recognizes Wang Xizhi, but Wang Xizhi cannot recognize Kang Youwei. What they call calligraphy, except for writing, is not the same thing at all, and that's my conclusion. Xue Longchun said.
Bai Zhao Shin
In the interactive Q&A session, some viewers suggested that in the foreseeable future, there will be fewer and fewer people holding a pen to write, and what will be the future of calligraphy. "The challenges posed by AI are so great that we don't know what will happen to humans in the future. Even when we talk about art history now, we always use pictures in the courseware, and we will gradually lose the interest and purpose of reading the original works. It's like us unfolding a letter to read, and it's a completely different feeling from taking out our mobile phones to send WeChat and voice. Appreciating a work of art is about the senses, with the sense of touch and smell involved, and you will only feel different when you encounter the original. ”
"Before AI really arrives, I have to add four words to be happy in time. Calligraphy itself is a pleasure, there must always be a way for us to read and think, calligraphy can provide people with happiness, spiritual happiness. Liu Tao said.