The formation of Chinese characters has gone through a long historical period. The information related to primitive Chinese characters found today is mainly the symbols carved by the ancestors on pottery or bone ware in the primitive social period. For example, the "Jia Lake Inscription" found at the Jia Lake site in Henan Province has been more than 8,000 years ago; the "Banpo Pottery Charm" found at the Banpo Site in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, has a history of more than 6,000 years, although the number is not much, but this may be the earliest prototype of Chinese characters.
Banpo pottery charms
In the Yellow Emperor period more than 4,000 years ago, The Guanzhong people Cangjie created hieroglyphs, indicative characters, and huiyi characters on the basis of summarizing the symbols of their predecessors. Hieroglyphs are the ancestors of oracle bones. By the time of Xia Shang, a complete writing system had been formed. At present, the earliest chinese ancient Chinese character data recognized by the academic community is the oracle bone and jin script in the middle and late Shang Dynasty.
Strictly speaking, only when it comes to oracle bones, it can be called calligraphy. Because the oracle bone already has the three basic elements of Chinese calligraphy: the use of the pen, the knot, and the chapter. The previous pictorial symbols did not all have these three elements.
Oracle
From the late Shang Dynasty to the period when the Qin unified China, the general trend in the evolution of Chinese characters was from complex to simple. This evolution is reflected in the transmutation of fonts and glyphs. In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the Jin script tended to be linearized, and the development of folk grass seals to ancient li in the Warring States period all diluted the pictographic attributes of the text. The artistry of calligraphy has become richer with the transmutation of the body of the book.
Clementi
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the scripts of various countries varied greatly, which caused a major obstacle to economic and cultural development. After the Qin unified the whole country, Li Si presided over the unification of the national script and made it uniform, which is a great achievement in the history of Chinese culture. The unified text is called Qin Seal, also known as Xiao Seal, which is simplified on the basis of the Golden Script and The Stone Drum Script.
Qin Lisi Xiaozhuo "Taishan Carved Stone"
The Qin Dynasty was a period of change in the inheritance and innovative development of Chinese characters, and there were eight kinds of calligraphy at that time: large seals, small seals, inscriptions, insect books, imitations, signature books, letters, and lishu. The emergence of Lishu is a major progress in The writing of Chinese characters and a revolution in the history of calligraphy. The person who reformed the seal book into a subordinate book was Cheng Mi, a Guanzhong person.
Cheng Miao
Cheng Mi (程邈), courtesy name Yuancen, was a native of Qin Dynasty (present-day Weinanbei, Shaanxi). Cheng Mi was a minor official of the Qin Dynasty who offended Qin Shi Huang because of his upright personality and was imprisoned in Yunyang. Nothing to do in prison, life like a year. At that time, the official common script of the Qin Dynasty was XiaoZhuan, and the cumbersome writing of Xiaohuan seriously affected the efficiency of public affairs at that time.
Qin Li "Liye Qin Jian"
Cheng Mi, who was a former prison official, knew that Xiao Zhen was difficult to adapt to efficient official duties, so Cheng Mi, who had nothing to do in prison, praised the font structure and studied the text. He collected together the various styles of books circulating in the folk, studied them intently, improved them one by one, changed the circle of the great seal into a square fold, and at the same time deleted the complex and simplified, removed the rough and refined, and gradually processed and sorted it out. It took ten years to finally create three thousand lishu that were easy to write and easy to read.
Qin Li
He presented this achievement to the First Emperor, who was very happy to see the words compiled by Cheng Mi, and not only spared Cheng Mi of his sins, but also let him come out as an official and promote him to the rank of imperial history. Because Cheng Mi's official position was very small and belonged to "Li", people called the text he compiled and sorted out as Lishu. In order to distinguish it from the Lishu of the Han Dynasty, later generations called it Qin Li.
The emergence of Qin Li is a major change in the history of Chinese writing and even the history of calligraphy. Since then, China's writing bid farewell to the ancient characters that have lasted for more than three thousand years and began to write today, gradually changing from graphics to strokes in shape, pictograms into symbols, complex into simple, in principle, in the principle of making characters, from phenotes, ideograms to shapes, font structures no longer have the meaning of the pictograms of ancient characters, but are completely symbolized.
Chen Zun
During the Western Han Dynasty, Chen Zun, a native of Duling County (present-day Xi'an), Shaanxi, was good at calligraphy and created the "Zhi Pod Seal", also known as the "Zhiying Seal". Another of its titles is "Reishi Grass". According to legend, Chen Zun saw the Lingzhi grass growing outside the palace, and the inspiration suddenly struck, imitating the shape of the Lingzhi grass, and created this seal book with the end of the bifurcation.
Zhiying Seal
Chen Zun good wine. And can drink, love to drink. It was sensational and earth-shattering. "Every time there is a big drink, the guests are full, the door is closed, the bus is taken and thrown into the well, although there is an emergency, it is not allowed to go." The so-called "jurisdiction" is the small iron rod used to fix the wheels on the axle of the carriage, without this small iron rod, the carriage cannot run far, the wheels will fall off the axle, and the carriage will fall apart. This is the famous allusion "Chen Zun tou Jurisdiction", a metaphor for hospitality, another idiom "Meng Gong Referendum Jurisdiction" is also said to be Chen Zun, Chen Zun character Meng Gong, is a meaning.
Car jurisdiction
Chen Zun was a very talented man, he once recruited ten scriveners, while handling official affairs, he dictated letters, and in a few moments, hundreds of letters were written. Distraction for two purposes, rely on Marco. His calligraphy was so profound that his letters to others were carefully collected.
Chen Zun was unaccustomed to being looked at by people in the official arena, it was nothing more than some wandering skeletons, and Chen Zun felt that he could only get real happiness if he wanted to. Maverick true temperament, such a person is rare. After Wang Mang usurped the throne, the world was in chaos, and Chen Zun stayed in Shuofang and was killed by the rebels in drunkenness.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it was stipulated that the official seals of Prince Heshuo and Shizi should be sealed with Zhiying seals in the seal to show the rank of the seals.
Seal of Prince Qing and Shuo
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Jingzhao Duling (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi) people Du Cao, the character Bodu. Great-grandson of Du Yannian, the Imperial Physician. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, due to the avoidance of Cao Cao's name, he was later renamed DuDu.
Dudu is famous for his good chapter grass. Zhangcao is an early cursive script, a type of font developed from the cursive script. According to legend, it was created by Shi You during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, and because the imperial court used it to play chapters, it was called Zhang Cao.
Du fu
Du Cao was very interested in scorpions when he was young. Later, Du Cao became an official, and he read a large number of official documents every day, and over time, he felt that there should be a kind of sketch style. Especially in an emergency situation, when urgent documents are constantly sent from the front, it is impossible to draw one by one and be meticulous. One day, he had in mind the image of a scorpion's tail cocked as it crawled, so he created a simple, easy-to-write, silver hook scorpion tail.
Chapter grass
Du Cao was not the creator of Zhangcao, but he was the first calligrapher of Zhangcao in the Han Dynasty. Du Cao can be called the founder of the literati cursive school of the Han Dynasty. His Zhangcao was characterized by its style of "skinny and hard", which was later inherited by Zhang Zhi and had a great influence on the style of writing in the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Cao Xi
Cao Xi, who was the same era as Du Cao, was a native of Fufeng Pingling (present-day northeast of Xianyang, Shaanxi). He was good at small seals, and added the hanging needle of the Six Kingdoms Ancient Script to Li Si's brushwork. The change in technique led to the formation of the style, which had an influence on the seal books of the time and later generations. A unique genre of seal calligraphy style was formed. Later generations called it the "hanging needle method" and "hanging seal". Later generations of Handan Chun can be seen as an extension of their genre, a further development on the basis of Cao Xi, and then passed on to Wei Shi and Wei Kai, and all the way to the inscription of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Hanging on the seal
Calligraphy in this period of the Eastern Han Dynasty was well gathered, and in the Dunhuang area, due to the gathering of famous scholars, a large number of cursive masters were also produced, and Zhao Xian, a native of Jingzhao Changling (present-day Xianyang, Shaanxi), was one of them.
Zhao Raid
Zhao Xian,ZiYuan Si (元嗣), was a Dunhuang Taishou (Dunhuang Taishou) calligrapher of the time, and was good at chapter grass. Cursive masters also include Zhang Yue, Luo Hui, Zhang Zhi and so on. Zhang Zhi is known as the "Grass Sage".
From the perspective of the development of Chinese character calligraphy, Wei and Jin are an important historical stage in the evolution of the calligraphy. It is a period of gradual improvement of various calligraphy styles of Zhenxingcao. Han Li stereotyped the basic form of the block Chinese characters to date. The process of the generation, development, and maturation of lishu gave birth to the true book (楷書), and the cursive script sprouted almost at the same time as the lishu was produced. The formation of real, xingshu, and cursive writing was during the Wei and Jin dynasties. Their stereotyping and beautification is undoubtedly a huge change in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
Wei's cursive writing
During the Cao Wei dynasty, Jingzhao (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi) was well versed in calligraphy, and he studied the calligraphy of Cao Xiyi and Handan Chun, and was good at various calligraphy styles, especially proficient in inscription plaques. Wei's calligraphy is characterized by a dragon coiled tiger and a sword. Wei Shi is also an ink maker.
During the reign of Emperor Qinglong of Wei Ming, the three capitals of Luoyang, Xuchang, and Yi, the palace, and the pavilion had just been completed. Emperor Ming passed down an edict and ordered Wei to sign a plaque as a permanent dharma. The pen and ink that was given to him for royal use, he did not use. And Emperor Ming said: "Cai Yong thought that he could write, and he absorbed the exquisite calligraphy of Li Si and Cao Xi, not fine silk and did not write casually." This is to do a good job, you must first prepare the supplies and tools to do this. If I was given a pen made by Zhang Zhi, a paper made by Zuo Bo, and the ink made by my subordinates themselves, plus the hands of my subordinates holding the pen, I could arbitrarily write a word as large as a zhang, or I could write a thousand words and small characters in a square inch. However, the exquisiteness of the written text can be compared with the beauty of Suo Jing. ”
Emperor Ming of Wei once built a Lingyun Pavilion, which was very tall. The "Ling Yun Ge" three-character list (plaque) was decided to be written by the famous calligrapher Wei Shi. However, due to the negligence of the workers, the plaque was nailed before the words could be written. I had to let Wei Shi stand in a basket, pull him up with a reel, and write in the air. The plaque is twenty-five feet above the ground. Wei Shi was very scared, the basket was slowly pulled up, the higher, the more it shook, Wei Shi wrote it with trepidation and was put down. Everyone was stunned. When he went up, Wei Tian's hair and beard were all black, and when he came down, they all turned white. It is said that he later established a family rule that future generations were not allowed to practice the book.
Wei Bei
Calligraphy during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period entered the Northern Tablets and Nanti era. At this time, calligraphy was the most successful with Wei Stele. Wei Stele is a general term for the stone carving calligraphy of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties that are similar to the Northern Wei calligraphy style, and is the calligraphy of the transitional period from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty.
The culture of the Tang Dynasty was broad and profound, brilliant and brilliant, reaching the highest peak of China's feudal culture, which can be described as "the book was extremely prosperous in the early Tang Dynasty." "There are more inkblots in the Tang Dynasty than before, and a large number of inscriptions have left valuable calligraphy works.
Tang Dynasty calligraphy
The development of calligraphy, calligraphy, and cursive writing into the Tang Dynasty has entered a new realm, and the characteristics of the times are very prominent, and the influence on future generations is far greater than that of any previous era.
The entire Tang Dynasty calligraphy has both inheritance and innovation for the previous generation. In the early Tang Dynasty, calligraphers included Yu Shinan, Ouyang Qian, Chu Suiliang, Xue Ji, Lu Kamzhi, etc., and later li yong, Zhang Xu, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Shi Huaisu, Zhong Shaojing, Sun Guoting, etc. Among them, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan were Guanzhong people.
Yan Zhenqing
Yan Zhenqing was a native of Jingzhao Wannian (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi), and Yan Zhenqing was a master of calligraphy and calligraphy. Chu Suiliang was a beginner, and later studied under Zhang Xu and obtained his penmanship. Its orthodox letters are dignified and majestic, and the writing is vigorous, creating the "Yan Body" script, which has a great influence on future generations. The structure of the calligraphy is square and dense, the strokes are horizontal and vertical, the pen is strong and round, and the momentum is solemn and majestic.
The Yan Zhenqing family is a calligraphy family. Since the Southern Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing's ancestors have mostly been praised by people at the time for their grass seals. Among Yan Zhenqing's contemporaries, such as Yan Yaoqing and Yan Xuqing, they were also superb in calligraphy, and the work and grass were subordinate to the seal.
Sacrifice nephew manuscript
The Yin family also has more famous scholars. The Yan and Yin families have been married for several generations, and the two schools of calligraphy can merge. Yan Zhenqing's father and uncle, Shao Lonely, was raised in the family of his uncle Yin Zhongrong, who was "taking the book as the world's ancestor" at that time, and was taught penmanship. Yan Zhenqing was also personally trained by her mother, Lady Yin, from an early age, and absorbed the nutrition of the Yin family's calligraphy.
Yan Zhenqing's works are the most written in letters and writings. The representative works of Xingshu are mainly "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" and "Battle for Seats". The Manuscript of the Sacrifice of the Nephew is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the "Battle for the Seat" is now preserved in the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an.
Scramble for seat posts
Liu Gongquan was a native of Jingzhaohuayuan (present-day Yaozhou District, Tongchuan, Shaanxi), who was a summer and innovator of the calligraphy, and on the basis of studying and inheriting the style of calligraphy by Zhong Xuan, Wang Xizhi and others, he read through modern calligraphy, learned Yan Zhenqing, dissolved his own novelty, and created his own unique "Liu Body" calligraphy.
Liu Gongquan
His characters are evenly balanced and thin, chasing the Wei Monument to cut through the iron, the dot painting is crisp and beautiful, the bone strength is strong, and the knot is tight. "Shugui thin and hard fang theosophy" His calligraphy, compared to the yan body, is slightly evenly thin and hard, so it is called "Yan tendon willow bone".
The inscriptions are engraved with "Diamond Sutra Carved Stone", "Xuan secret pagoda stele", "Feng Su Stele", etc., and the cursive writings include "Fu Zhen Ti", "Sixteen Day Ti", "Insult Xiang Ti" and so on. There are also inkblots "Mengzhao Ti" and "Wang Xianzhi Sending Pear Thetapa" that have been handed down.
The Edict
Today, when people learn calligraphy, they still prefer calligraphers such as Yan, Liu, Ou, Chu, and Yu in the Tang Dynasty, especially the set of calligraphy norms established by Liu Gongquan, which is still an example for people to learn. Liu Gongquan made outstanding contributions to the reform and development of calligraphy art, summarizing the development of calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty and laying the foundation for the development of the entire calligraphy.
Wang Xianzhi sent Pear Theba
During the Five Dynasties period, although the art of calligraphy continued at the end of the Tang Dynasty, due to the influence of wars and wars, the general trend of decline and decline was formed. On the occasion of the five generations, it is commendable in calligraphy when pushing Yang Ningshi. His calligraphy has been the mainstay of the five generations of calligraphy.
Yang Ningshi (杨宁式), courtesy name Jingdu (景度), was a native of Huayin, Huazhou (present-day Huayin, Shaanxi). During the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty, he was the son of Yang Shi, a chancellor and calligrapher, and a servant under his disciple.
Yang condensed
According to legend, when Yang Ningshi was young, he couldn't control his mouth, and when he saw something unsatisfactory, he sprayed, thus offending Zhu Wen and almost killing him. In order to avoid harming the family, he had to pretend to be crazy and stupid, so that the whole of Luoyang regarded him as a "Yang madman".
"Yang Crazy" is just his appearance, he himself is a very intelligent, talented, and good at poetry and calligraphy. Since the "completion of the Law" of the Second King, Chinese calligraphy has been in the same vein from Yang Xin, Wang Shengqian and Zhiyong to Yu Shinan, Zhang Xu, Han Di, Yan Zhenqing, Huai Su, and Yang Ning, and the subsequent "Song Four Families" have continuously expanded and displayed their personal characteristics on the basis of Yang Ning's style.
Yang Ning style calligraphy
Yang Ningshi first learned Ouyang Zhenqing and Yan Zhenqing, and later followed the ancient method of the "two kings" of Wei and Jin, and introduced new ideas. His writing is often written with a pen, but it seems to be idle. He liked calligraphy, but he didn't like rulers, and he always wrote inscriptions on the walls. During his decades in Luoyang, more than two hundred temples had his inscriptions on the walls. In order to obtain his inscription, many temples specially expanded the temple buildings, leaving white walls for them to write. Every time Yang Ning's inscription was written, there was a large group of people watching and clapping, which became a major characteristic culture at that time.
Yang Ningshi's most famous work is a letter called "Leek Flower Thesis". In the summer afternoon, Yang Ning woke up from a nap and learned that his friend had given leeks and delicious taste, and old Yang was overwhelmed, so he wrote a thank-you letter.
"Leek Flower Thesis" is between the calligraphy and the writing, implicitly introverted, beautiful and free, the qi pulse is through, quite literary, deeply won the meaning and charm of Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Collection", and the content of the post is relaxed and lively, and it is interesting.
Leek posters
Later generations of calligraphers believe that in terms of brushwork and divine will, the "Leek Flower Thesis" is the calligraphy work closest to the "Orchid Pavilion Collection", and even surpasses Wang Xizhi in terms of font structure and layout, and people list it as the "Fifth Book of the World". The original work of "Leek Flower Thesis" has been passed down to this day in good condition and is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Yang Ning's calligraphy art was a bridge between the peaks of calligraphy art in the Tang and Song dynasties.
Xue Shao Peng Qing and Paste
Xue Shaopeng , a native of Chang'an ( present-day Xi'an , Shaanxi ) during the Northern Song Dynasty , was a Scholar of Cuiwei. Xue Shaopeng Gongkai, Xing, and Cursive Calligraphy, especially good at practicing grass, teaching the Fa Jin Tang, taking more of the Fa Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, and has always been highly evaluated by scribes.
Xue Shaopeng's calligraphy tradition is profound, subtle and elegant, the law is strict, and more ancient methods are adopted, but they are not limited to ancient laws, and they are on a par with the contemporaries of Mi Fu, who tasted the words: "Xue Shaopeng and Yu, with the same love of calligraphy and painting, taste and ask questions, and Yu Xi replied with a poem: "The world's words Mi Xue or Xue Mi are like brothers or brothers." It is known as "Micha".
Xue Shaopeng Dangerous Paint Sticker
Xue Shaopeng's surviving writings include "Yunding Mountain Poetry Scroll", "Zuo Mian Ti", "Shangqing Liannian Ti", "Tongquan Ti", "Yesterday's Post" and so on. Among them, the "Poetry Volume of Genting Mountain" is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, which is composed of four posts, including "Yunding Mountain Poems" and "Shangqing Posts".
Xue Shaopeng calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy is mainly composed of two major systems, stele and thesis, in the history of Chinese calligraphy, the two schools of stele and post have their own abilities, but the pre-Qing Dynasty Thesis school dominated, this position was established by Wang Xizhi, who is the greatest creator and founder of the art of theatric calligraphy. Since the Qing Dynasty, epigraphy has been admired as never before.
During the Republic of China period, the emergence of Yu Youren made the integration of inscriptions an inevitable choice of history. Although there are still those who insist on the idea of the separation of stele and stele in later generations, the calligraphic exploration of non-stele non-stele or stele-tipped has increasingly become the mainstream. The fundamental significance of Yu Youren's calligraphy lies in this.
Yu Youren, formerly known as Boxun, the character Right Ren, with the character line, the number of the heart, the wind, the peeling fruit, the beard, etc., the late taiping old man, Shaanxi Sanyuan people. He devoted his life to the study of epigraphic calligraphy. He is a landmark calligrapher in the history of modern calligraphy.
Yu Right Ren
Although Yu Youren has long studied the Northern Stele, unlike the previous generation of Stele Scholars, he has formed a unique aesthetic characteristic of not being a stele and not a stele, but also a stele. The thickness of the pen is simply, the flat body is loose, the strength and frankness of the dot painting, and the simplicity of the overall charm is natural and generous. Yu Youren is the most successful example of the integration of inscriptions and posts since the Qing Dynasty, and is also a pioneer of a generation of calligraphy styles.
Yu Right Ren calligraphy
Yu Youren cursive writing is the inheritance and reinforcement of Huai Su Xiaocao, who solved the problem of the inscription of Xiaocao. It has created a new realm for epigraphy and opened up a new way for future generations, so that later stele practitioners avoided many blind explorations and became masters of calligraphy of the 20th century stele school.
Yu Youren advocated that "the study of calligraphy must not fail to take the law of the ancients, nor should we stick to the ancients, and devote ourselves to the exploration of "calligraphy of stele" and "northern stele of cursive calligraphy". He devoted most of his life to the research and promotion of standard cursive, in his own words, "to make a summary of the past cursive", which was his greatest mission and wish in middle age until old age.
In the contemporary era, a large number of accomplished people in the field of calligraphy have emerged in Guanzhong, such as Oracle Yue Xing, Liu Zili of the Great Seal, Cheng Kegang of the Small Seal, Yu Zimo of Kaishu, Wei Junxiu of Xingshu, Gong Baocheng, Chen Shaomo, Lei Zhenmin, Wu Sanda, Zhong Mingshan, Ru Gui, Xue Zhu, Li Chenghai, Fang Sheng, Liu Guangjing, Liu Zilin, Liu Haoran, Qiu Xing, and so on, who continue to innovate and advance calligraphy on the basis of inheriting their predecessors.