On March 17, the construction site of Zaoyuan North Road in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, unearthed the book "Monument of Yang Gong (Chenghe) Shinto, the Governor of Yangzhou by the Tang Dynasty", was unearthed from the construction site of Zaoyuan North Road in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.
Cover news reporter He Xiyu
In late March, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, accidentally unearthed a stone stele by the Tang Dynasty calligrapher Liu Gongquan Shudan. Liu Gongquan was the most influential calligrapher in the late Tang Dynasty, and the "Liu Body" he founded is known as the last peak of the Tang Dynasty's Kaishu style.
Also known as zhenshu and zhengshu, italic script was originally founded in the Han Dynasty, grew up in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and finally entered a mature period in the Tang Dynasty, and was strongly popularized from the court from top to bottom to the world. It was not only the standard word used by the bureaucracy at that time, a model for the intellectual class to learn to write, but also the first "printed font" used in the early rise of engraving printing.
Moreover, the Tang Dynasty Kaishu established the norms of modern Chinese characters. Some scholars believe that italic script is the "ultimate form" of the development of Chinese characters, marking the end of the evolution of Chinese characters for more than 2,000 years. Since then, the writing, cursive writing, and later various fonts have all been born out of the knot rules of the script.
At that time, the works of the scholars favored by the imperial court were also regarded as the guidelines of later generations. From the early Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty, Ouyang Qian, Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan and other calligraphers, the aesthetic style of Kaifa pioneered by them, almost no one could match it for the next 1,300 years, so that today we are still dominated by the red books of these Tang Dynasty calligraphers.
And this story should start from the little official named "scribe".
The book "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion of Wang Xi's Journey" (facsimile of Tang Chu Suiliang), collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing
Wordless poetry in the torrent of history
Calligraphy, that is, the method of writing words. Excellent calligraphy works can balance the two effects of "use" and "aesthetics", and are regarded as a unique art. Therefore, countries and regions in the world that have writing have their own unique calligraphy art. But the only one who has elevated calligraphy to the mainstream art is the East Asian art circle, led by China.
Chinese calligraphy is a line art based on Chinese characters. Chinese characters are ideographic characters, have a strong modeling, even if only the use of soft pen and ink, can bring about a variety of changes, known as "wordless poetry", "silent music". Therefore, the development of Chinese calligraphy and the formation of an aesthetic system are closely related to the Chinese character font and its evolutionary process.
However, the practicality of Chinese characters determines that their evolution is highly related to socio-political, economic and technological development. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters were originally displayed in elegant and solemn Large Seal fonts, but the Great Seal was very demanding on the writer and was time-consuming and laborious to write. With the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, the old font could not adapt to the needs of society. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the development of productive forces and the birth of the scholar class brought more writing needs, and promoted the development of Chinese characters in the direction of simplicity and ease of writing, so that they almost broke away from the shackles of the "six books" (that is, pictograms, elephant events, elephant meanings, elephant sounds, transfer notes, and false loans), and produced the prototype of modern Chinese characters, "Lishu", which is known in history as the "Lishu" of Chinese characters.
Sanshitang Dharma
After the Han Dynasty, the advent of papermaking brought about a new writing revolution: further reducing the decorativeness of Lishu, allowing the Chinese character font to transition from the exaggerated brushwork of "silkworm head swallowtail" to being straight and concise; and allowing the horizontal structure of Lishu to turn to the square structure, releasing the space for using the pen, improving the recognition of the text and reducing the difficulty of writing. The Kanji characters are called "square characters" and also start from here, which is "Jinli", also known as "italic characters". The establishment of italic characters marks the official transformation of Chinese characters from ancient characters to modern Chinese characters.
Since the emergence of the italic script at the end of the Han Dynasty, it has undergone nearly 400 years of development, and it was not until the Tang Dynasty that it really matured. The calligraphy that followed developed in this open and great dynasty to a peak that was almost unattainable for later generations. At this point, the evolution of Chinese characters has basically ended.
Imperial Attendant Book
Calligraphy in China has been valued by authorities and intellectuals since ancient times. In the pre-Qin Dynasty, it was one of the ancient "Six Arts" and an indispensable cultivation for ancient "gentlemen". But before the imperial examination system matured, this skill was only an elite culture monopolized by the family clan. Later, the popularity of the italic script was also related to the most prominent family of the Tang Dynasty, which was the Li royal family headed by Li Shimin, emperor Taizong of Tang.
At the time of the Xuanwumen Revolution, Li Shimin was only 28 years old. According to the literature, Li Shimin accompanied Emperor Gaozong and Li Yuan in the four directions before he ascended the throne, and although he was good at military strategy, he "did not concentrate on his studies" and "did not have time for poetry and books". After the change of XuanwuMen, Li Shimin got what he wanted, but governing the country and the state and attacking the city and pulling down the village were two different things. In order to learn the "royal way", Li Shimin began to "spare the history of literature" and opened up the way of speech.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin, "Moving camp thesis"
At that time, the young emperor's preference for literary style and style was deeply influenced by his literary attendant Yu Shinan. In 621, Li Shimin led an army to ping the Eastern Xia Dynasty and was subjected to submission. Among the two great Confucians were 65-year-old Ouyang Qing and 64-year-old Yu Shinan. Ouyang Was immediately reused by Li Yuan and entered the center of the imperial court; Yu Shinan was taken under the command of the 23-year-old Li Shimin.
Born in the Wang clan of Jiangnan, Yu Shinan had a talented name at a young age, and his calligraphy was directly inherited from Wang Xianzhi's Kaifa. At that time, the Chinese elite group Mostly Shang Southern Dynasty calligraphy, highly respected the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi's father and son in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Wang father and son took a change in the ancient quality of the book, greatly strengthened the linear dot painting style of the font, and reserved a great space for the development of the font change in later generations.
As an imperial master, Yu Shinan's calligraphic concepts had a profound influence on the young Li Shimin. Many scholars believe that although Li Shimin was good at Wang Xizhi, he actually studied Yu Shinan, and under the influence of Yu Shinan, he accepted the Wei and Jin calligraphy ideas. But on the other hand, Li Shimin spared no effort to elevate Wang Xizhi's status, which was also one of his strategies to attract famous people like Yu Shinan.
However, according to the study of the calligrapher Zhu Guantian, although Yu Shinan was favored by the emperor, the title of his colleague Ouyang Qian was much higher than his. On the basis of inheriting Wang Xianzhi, Ouyang Qian's calligraphy also gathered the strengths of all the families to form the "Kai Shu Ji Ze", and people "thought it was a model". As an aide to Li Jiancheng, he was demoted from the political center after the Xuanwumen Rebellion, but because of his book title, he was still respected by Li Shimin.
In the first year of Zhenguan (627 AD), the first year of Li Shimin's accession to the throne, Yu Shinan and Ouyang inquired into the Hongwenguan to "teach the Kaifa" to the sons of the eunuchs of Chang'an, so that "the Kaishu was advocated by the central government with the emphasis on applying the system" and became the main book of the country.
Yangfujun Shinto Pillar, Eastern Jin Dynasty, Lishu style. Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
He was the richest official in data
The main force of the real spread of calligraphy is the book writer.
The Tang Dynasty was the most prosperous unified dynasty in China after the Qin and Han Dynasties. Culturally, it is different from the Qin and Han Dynasties. Due to the invention of papermaking, the Tang Dynasty inherited more than 10,000 books left by the Sui Dynasty when it was founded. The Li royal family's tolerance and emphasis on multiculturalism made the imperial court spare no effort to collect classics everywhere.
And as the imperial examination system gradually got on track, the demand for Confucian classics for trial students also increased greatly. In addition, in the folk, the prosperity of religion has made the scriptures popular in large numbers. The reproduction and dissemination of these books, in the era before the spread of printing, could only rely on primitive handwriting.
"Mid-Autumn Festival", the book of Wang Xian, collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing
"Bu Shang Reading Post" page, Tang, Ouyang Inquiry Book, Beijing Palace Museum collection
At the same time, the imperial court also produced a large number of administrative materials every day, and these practical needs led to the emergence of a large number of scribes, and the imperial court directly prepared a position for these scribes as a "exile official" (a kind of official without grade), that is, a scribe, also known as a calligrapher. In Chang'an alone, there were nearly 200 calligraphers in the various institutions of the imperial court.
However, the imperial court was very strict in selecting these scribes. In the first year of Zhenguan, the Hongwenguan recruited the children of eunuchs of Chang'an to study the Kaifa in order to train bookworms. Zhu Guantian believed that in the second year of Zhenguan, the Guozijian resumed the study of calligraphy and cultivated specialized calligraphy talents, which may also be to provide calligraphers for the imperial court.
Unlike the Hongwenguan, which specializes in recruiting the children of high-ranking officials, the Guozi Supervisor Shuxue can recruit civil and military officials or even the sons of shuren under the eight pins to enter the school. After completing their studies, they can also participate in the selection of officials. Although he was only a small official below nine pins, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the children of the cold door.
To this day, vendors in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan still use calligraphy as signboards. The picture shows the Hong Kong "Lee Han Gang Kai" signboard.
Moreover, although the scriveners were the lowest officials, their income was considerable. Not only copied materials such as pens, ink and paper, etc., but also supplied by the government. In addition to salaries, there is an additional allowance for scribals assigned on a temporary basis. As far as Zhu Guantian's observation was concerned, although the calligrapher belonged to the technical officer and held a lowly position, his economic income was only in the fields of materials, monthly grain, charcoal, and meritorious grain money, which was higher than that of Xu officials and even prefectures and counties. If you add "extra money" such as running pen, it is more impressive, "Si Yiming Tang Dynasty society attaches importance to calligraphy".
At this point, as the main book advocated by the state, the official actual use of the "pavilion style" became the mainstream of calligraphy at that time. However, unlike the trend of later generations obsessing with the pavilion style, the Tang court and society's tolerance of the personality of the calligraphers and celebrities made the calligraphy ideas continue to evolve, and a hundred schools of thought contended, so that the writing style of the calligraphy reached the extreme that this font could show, so that later generations all learned from the Tang Dynasty and called it "Tang Kai".
Key References:
History of Chinese Calligraphy, by Zhu Kaiming
"The Era of Calligraphy from the Perspective of Subordination and Kai-Changing", by Tao Xiaojun and Wang Hanwei
"A Preliminary Study on the Historical Reasons for the End of the History of the Evolution of the Book Style After the Formation of the Book", by Chen Zhenlian
"Tang Dynasty Calligraphy and Shijin Research", written by Yuan Zhili
<b>[If you have a news thread, please report to us, once adopted, there is a fee reward.] WeChat feed follows: ihxdsb, report qq: 3386405712].</b>