Chapter 13 Section 12 Calligraphy Art in Qing Dynasty

In 1644 A.D., Qing soldiers entered the pass in a large scale, unified the whole country, and ruled for 267 years. The Qing Dynasty is generally regarded as the period of conclusion of Chinese scholarship.This is naturally the inevitable result of the development of academics itself, but it is also related to the support of the Manchu rulers to a certain extent.The same goes for calligraphy. "Sanxitang Fatie" and "Pei Wenzhai Calligraphy and Painting Manual" can all be regarded as summative masterpieces in calligraphy.The emperors Kang and Qian even directly influenced the style of calligraphy in this dynasty.In addition, traditional Chinese studies and other arts such as painting and printing are also extremely prosperous, providing a good environment for the development of calligraphy.Therefore, the calligraphy of the Qing Dynasty can also be said to be a "show" of ancient calligraphy.

Generally speaking, the calligraphy world of the Qing Dynasty paid considerable attention to the calligraphy arts of various ancient eras, so it is called a "parallel performance".Of course, each has its own preferences, forming different styles of calligraphy in different periods and genres.Roughly speaking, the calligraphy of the Qing Dynasty can be divided into several lines and evolved downwards: one is to continue the "taige style" since the Ming Dynasty, and then it becomes more and more stale, until it reaches the lifeless "style of a thousand people". "Guange style" was despised by later generations; one was to turn to the pursuit of seal script and official script, so as to study "Oracle Bone Inscriptions"; There are many ways to put pictures into books.The first type is no longer the same as it was before the Ming Dynasty, and it is hard to get back up after a fall; the second type, Zhuanli has indeed become an outstanding achievement in the art of calligraphy in the Qing Dynasty. The discovery of oracle bone characters has advanced the research on Chinese characters and calligraphy by a long time. A time span; the third type, under the influence of the faction that the Ming people broke through the shackles of "pavilions and pavilions", set up a new style, forming different styles with their own ideas.Naturally, there are many people who stick to traditional calligraphy.

In order to meet the requirements of "Guange", there is a calligraphy teaching process called "Yan, Liu, Ou, Zhao": based on Yan, first learn Zhangebubai; learning Yan is easy to have no bones, so Liu is used to strengthen the brushwork ; Learning from Liu is easy to lose rigidity, and then using Ou to regulate it; learning from Ou is easy to stay rigid, and then using Zhao to make it flexible.As a result, those who are good at learning get their own income, while those who are not good at learning lose their charm.Even lower case letters are no longer as graceful and mellow as Ming people.

Zhang Yuzhao and Zhao Zhiqian are more individual in regular script, they both came out of Tang and entered Wei and achieved success. Achievements in cursive writing are Wang Duo, Zhang Zhao, Zheng Banqiao, He Shaoji and Zhao Zhiqian.Or stick to calligraphy, or turn Wei steles into cursive, or indulge in extreme intentions, or indulge in eccentricity, but Zheng Banqiao is ingenious, combining Li Kaixing styles and bamboo orchid paintings, creating the so-called "six and a half". "Symbolism, but not only without losing one body, scholars of later generations fell into vulgarity.

Since the study of seal script and official script had been in decline for a long time, those who learned seal script and official script in the early Qing Dynasty mostly started with some more decorative stele inscriptions. Thanks to the identification of steles, gold stones, and primary schools, the dramas of the Qin and Han Dynasties have been rediscovered, and the ancient methods are obvious and can be traced.Therefore, in Guifu, the official script began to prosper, painstakingly seeking the ancients, and the momentum is magnificent.Deng Shiru studied ancient steles and was good at extruding them. He devoted all his energy and energy to taking the advantages of Qin and Han Dynasties, and then melted them into castings.The seal script of the philologist Sun Xingyan is completely out of the habit of a calligrapher.Yi Bingshou's official script is unique.As time went on, more and more people were able to write seal script, such as Wu Xizai, Mo Youzhi, Yang Yisun, Chen Jieqi, Xu Sangeng, Zhao Zhiqian, Wu Dacheng, Wu Changshuo, etc. Among them, Wu Changshuo's seal script is more prominent, concise and vigorous, and magnificent.

Looking at calligraphy in the Qing Dynasty, regular script, running script, and cursive are all common. Most calligraphers can only follow their predecessors at most, but cannot break new ground. On the other hand, seal script and official script have become the best in a generation, especially in the middle and late stages, which is indeed the most prosperous page in the history of calligraphy after the Qin and Han Dynasties. Calligraphy theory also developed greatly in the Qing Dynasty, involving various aspects of calligraphy art, there are not only special theories, but also many integrated works, which are more powerful to reject old opinions and specialize in new ones.Ruan Yuan's "North and Southern Calligraphy", Bao Shichen's "Shuangyi Boat" and Kang Youwei's "Guangyi Boat Shuangji" were extremely influential in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.They put forward the idea of ​​respecting Wei, reassessing history, and negating the long-standing habit of taking Tang as the norm; admiring Wei steles is a major shift in the aesthetic consciousness of calligraphy.This is not only a summary of the development of the calligraphy world since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, but also arouses new thinking for future trends.It doesn’t have to be all right, but this kind of thinking spirit has great vigilance value for later calligraphers.

From the beginning of Chinese characters, we have counted the evolution of Chinese character fonts and the continuation and evolution of calligraphers from generation to generation. We deeply feel the wisdom and outstanding artistic creativity of our ancestors. In the long history of China , They have contributed and accumulated such outstanding cultural achievements for us and the world, and have decorated the history of our nation brilliantly. It is certain that they will continue to shine even more brilliantly in the future of our nation. We also deeply understand the inevitable law of the development history of calligraphy art.We found that every evolution in the history of calligraphy has not abandoned the historical tradition, but is an adjustment, development, and innovation made to transform the tradition under new cultural conditions.Every pioneering creation is not only a "breakthrough" for purely artistic purposes, but also has its profound historical and cultural reasons.Every kind of "newness" is by no means an extraterrestrial visitor that has nothing to do with history and tradition, but a further excavation and enrichment of the essence of calligraphy art. Any so-called "innovation" that violates the essence of calligraphy art will be forgotten by history. disuse.

The purpose of studying history is to have a deeper understanding of history, but the purpose of a deeper understanding of history is to have a deeper understanding of the present, so as to find laws from it, so that we can better summarize the past and create the future.