Chapter 10 Section 9 Calligraphy Art of Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties

It has been more than 300 years since the Chenqiao Mutiny, Zhao and Song established the country, and was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty. Liao, Xixia and Jin coexisted with the Song Dynasty. In view of the lessons learned from the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the rulers of the Zhao and Song Dynasties suppressed the power of the warriors, reused the literati, and further improved the imperial examination system. It became inevitable for the scholars to attach importance to calligraphy.With the progress of society, great breakthroughs have been made in ink making, paper making, and pen making, and the art of calligraphy has better development conditions.What is especially important is that the enthusiasm of the emperors of the Song Dynasty to play with calligraphy and calligraphy was even greater than that of the emperors of the Tang Dynasty. Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, was the most prominent.What is particularly worth mentioning is that although the emperor of Song searched for all the ancient scriptures, he did not put them on the shelf and did not show them to others. Carry forward.First, in the third year of Chunhua (992 A.D.), Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty handed over the Dharma books of the past dynasties collected in the secret pavilion to Wang, a scholar of scribes, for inspection and compilation. "Chunhua Secret Pavilion Fatie".Later, there were "Da Guan Tie" and so on.As a result, clusters of posts have sprung up.Some people accused Wang of not being good at identifying the authenticity of "Chunhua Ge Tie", which caused the confusion and disorder of scholars, and caused troubles to scholars;It's all true.However, under the technical conditions at that time, this was already the most effective measure to promote, popularize, and improve calligraphy. It was of great benefit to the calligraphy of the Song Dynasty. for this move.

Since most of the engraved posts were written by former sages (especially those from the Jin Dynasty), cursive became the fashion in the Song Dynasty.At the beginning of the founding of the country, Li Jianzhong (945-1013 A.D.) was the number one master.Afterwards, Cai Xiang, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, and Mi Fu (fu Fu) ruled the roost for a while and were extremely famous. Later generations collectively called the "Four Schools of Song Dynasty" and regarded them as models of the two Song Dynasties.In addition, officials in the court and ordinary literati were also able to play Han, such as Cai Jing, Lin Bu [bu Bu Yinping], Zhang Shunmin, Lu You and so on.No matter their reputation is high or low, each of them has its own style and charm, and all of them aim to pursue interest, forming the overall style of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty, which has been affirmed by history.

In the late Tang Dynasty, woodblock printing was invented. By the Song Dynasty, the technology was more advanced, and its use gradually became popular. Hand-copied scriptures were replaced by printing, and the number of people who were good at regular script dropped sharply.However, regular script (especially lower regular script) is still indispensable for scholars, so lower regular script is still more popular, and often has a slightly miscellaneous style of running script, which is unique and interesting, such as Mi Fu's "Legacy to the Empress Dowager".There are also some calligraphers who want to pass on the regular rules of their predecessors, and they work hard in art, and they will eventually achieve considerable results.Such as Su Shi and Huang Tingjian's big script, Zhao Ji's thin gold book, and Zhang Jizhi's small script.The Thin Gold Book still has many followers.Because of the advancement of philology, some calligraphers have also appeared in the field of seal script, and the representatives are Xu Xuan and Xu Kai Kunzhong.

The calligraphy theories of the Song Dynasty not only developed on the basis of the previous dynasties, such as "Xu Shu Duan" and "Xu Shu Pu", but also had strong emphasis on contemporary intentions, such as Su, Huang, and Mi's calligraphy theory.Because of his rich writing practice and rich learning, he can put aside the summary and elucidation of specific techniques, and raise it to theoretical discussion. Many grand theories have penetrated into the high-level artistic conception and charm, which can be used as a guideline for latercomers. Liao and Jin, which were at the same time as the Song Dynasty, were also deeply influenced by Han culture, and they also made some achievements in the art of calligraphy.

The Khitan script written by Yeluyi, Taizu of the Liao Dynasty, was formed by adding and subtracting half of the Han Li.There are many Liao people who are good at writing Chinese characters. Although they do not have the merits of representing the times, they are not weak.During the 128 years of the Liao Dynasty, several generations of emperors did a lot of work on writing. Jin Zhangzong's Wan Yanjing [Jing Jing] is even more of the old rules of Shu Zongxuanhe, learning from thin gold books, and can quite inherit the method of Song Huizong. Liao and Jin calligraphy are the continuation of Song Dynasty calligraphy, which shows the profound influence of Han culture and the great charm of calligraphy art.