Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

Popularly, Chung Yu (8 £%) is considered to be the patriarch of K‘ai-Shu, on account of his stone inscription Ho-K‘é-ChiehPiao (& ¥8 té #%). The most famous of all Chinese calligraphers, Wang Hsi-Chih (£ # Z) of the Chin (#) dynasty, was chiefly distinguished for his K‘ai-Shu. He was fortunate in being highly favoured by the second Emperor of Tang, the great T‘ai Tsung (# 太 3%), who was himself no mean calligrapher. This Emperor was devoted to Wang’s writing and took the utmost pains to collect examples of it, for which he paid very high prices. The court officials were commanded to imitate them, and a fashion was thus started which has prevailed to the present day. Young writers still like to model their style on that of Wang Hsi-Chih.

Other well-known calligraphers who have developed individual types of K‘ai-Shu include Ou-Yang Hsiin (& & #)), Yui Shih-Nan ( tt ) and Chu Sui-Liang (# # &).

In mid-T‘ang, during the period which we regard as the Golden Age of Chinese culture, the writer Yen Chéng-Ch‘ing (#8 8 $e) made a drastic change from the elegant slender stroke created by Wang, to a broad, muscular, rigid one (Fig. 39). Another master, Liu Kung-Chiian (fi) 2 #2), made the framework of his characters even more ‘ bony’ (Fig. 37). By the beginning of Sung times (A.D. 960-1279), the possibilities of K‘ai-Shu seemed to have been exhausted, for the style had come to a standstill ; but once again the impact of new personalities refreshed it, and we have the writings of Su Tung-P‘o (Ae 3K YE), Huang T‘ing-Chien (# = ), Mi Fei ( 米 市 ) and T‘sai Hsiang (#¢ 32). In the Yiian (jt) dynasty (A.D. 12791368) Chao Meng-Fu (i i: J&) evolved a style of his own, and his work is probably the best K‘ai-Shu written at that period.

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