Writing experience and calligraphy
- "Yuan Ye's Epitaph"
Zhang Biao
The general Yuan Shu (元曄), a descendant of the Yuan clan of northern Wei, whose great-grandfather was Yuan Huang, who was posthumously awarded the title of Emperor Jingmu, whose grandfather was Yuan Zitui, the prince of Jingzhaokang, whose father was Zuo Guanglu's grand master Yuan Yao, and who was posthumously honored as a general of Zhenyuan and a general of the Hui Dynasty before his death, and was posthumously awarded the title of General of the False Festival, general of the Southern Qingzhou Assassination, which can be described as a descendant of the imperial family, a prominent family lineage, and a proud and glorious posthumous figure, which is also uniquely reflected in the calligraphy of his epitaph.
According to the Northern Wei Dynasty, "the imperial family epitaph is a solemn work, the stone quality is excellent, the carving technique is exquisite, the soft rhyme of the pen, and the steepness of the folding pen are all exquisitely carved out." The bookkeeper must have been the holy hand of the time. The characteristics of this type of calligraphy are: the dot painting is plump, pitching to the back; the horizontal drawing of the pen out of the oblique press, the pen is closed, the left low right high oblique state is very obvious; the skimming pen and the pencil are written openly, the pen is flat; the vertical hook is no longer flat but up; the frame between the knots is already a diagonal painting tight knot instead of a flat painting wide knot. [1] Looking at the calligraphy of the "Epitaph of Yuan Shu", its stippling form, the stroke of the pen, is indeed "exquisitely carved out", and its "horizontal drawing of the pen out of the oblique press, closing the pen" and "the opening of the skimming pen and the stroke of the pen" are indeed as mentioned above, but in terms of the overall structure of its knots, it is rare to see the characteristics of "the oblique state of left, low, right and high" and "oblique painting tight knot", or, in the structure, there is a flattening posture, the reason for which it is not difficult to understand, that is, the book was engraved in Xiaochang's third year (527) "The "oblique state" of Xiaochang III (527) The calligraphy of the Yuan Shuo Epitaph is no longer a relatively pure "Luoyang style" calligraphy. [2] Correspondingly, its structural characteristics are closer to those of the Twelfth Year of Taihe (488), the Huifu Temple Stele of the Northern Wei Pingcheng Period, and most of the calligraphy of the Eastern Wei and even Sui and Early Tang Dynasties, that is, the angle of upward right in the horizontal paintings, which began to fall back and began to flatten.
Because the writing method of the "Huifu Temple Stele" is similar to the mature "Luoyang Style" calligraphy in the Luoyang period in terms of dot painting and pen use, Mr. Liu Tao believes that "the style of the "Huifu Temple Stele" in the Pingcheng Period is the precursor of the Luoyang period Orthographic Wei Stele Script", then we can also say that the style of the "Yuan Shuo Epitaph" is the precursor of the Eastern Wei and even the Sui and early Tang Dynasties, of course, this aspect lies in its style (mainly point painting, structure) itself, and on the more important side, I think it is necessary to distinguish between the comprehensive and in-depth writing experience of the researcher, or the writer himself, which is why some calligraphers (I am talking about calligraphers who have undergone formal traditional calligraphy training) have a judgment on the basic style and even its level when they look at a certain calligraphy work.
For the study of calligraphic styles, as mentioned above, the personal experience of the researcher is extremely important. For the knowledge and understanding of the calligraphy of the "Yuan Shuo Epitaph", different researchers will certainly have different judgments, but in terms of the age and basic style trend of this epitaph, the author is still more willing to position it as a transitional book body that is free from the mature "Luoyang body" calligraphy, and its valuable point is also the little unique "transitionality" in many brightly labeled "Luoyang body" calligraphy, which is not said out of thin air, but through careful analysis and copying. Slowly experienced, and with the deepening of research or writing, we will also find that it has a strong plasticity, which is a common feature of inscription calligraphy, and it is also a feature of the calligraphy of the "Yuan Shuo Epitaph".
One of Yuan Ye's epitaphs
Yuan Ye Epitaph No. 2
Yuan Ye Epitaph No. 3
Yuan Ye Epitaph No. 4
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