Reasons for the development of ancient Chinese art?

Chinese calligraphy is a unique art. It is not only a treasure in the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, but also a marvelous flower in the world art hall. The art of Chinese calligraphy not only has a long history and a long stream, but also has a profound influence. As soon as the Chinese characters were created, the germ of the art of calligraphy appeared. After a long history of evolution and development, it was not until the Qin Dynasty that the script was unified and the Qin Seal Character (Small Seal Character) and Qin Clerical Character were created. This epoch-making glorious achievement has written a splendid page in the history of Chinese calligraphy art, laid a solid foundation for the existence of calligraphy as an independent art, and also opened up a broad path for the change, development and prosperity of the later generations of Han Clerical, Regular, Cursive and Running Scripts.

In line with the development and prosperity of the art of Chinese calligraphy, the theory of calligraphy in ancient China also gradually developed and flourished. Relatively speaking, the emergence of ancient calligraphy theory than the formation of the art of calligraphy later. According to the information available so far, the earliest writings on ancient calligraphy theories appeared in the Han Dynasty. Yang Xiong, a great scholar and writer of the Western Han Dynasty, put forward a famous assertion in his Fayan - Asking God: "The book is also the painting of the heart." Although "Shu" here does not exclusively refer to calligraphy, it was the first to discuss the fundamental propositions about the theory of Chinese calligraphy - the relationship between calligraphy and the calligrapher's thoughts and feelings, and the qualities of expression in the art of calligraphy, which had a far-reaching impact on the creation of calligraphy and the theory of calligraphy in the later generations, and became the basis for the theory of Chinese calligraphy. It has had a profound impact on the creation of calligraphy and the theory of calligraphy in later times, and has become the source of the history of Chinese Calligraphy.

The development, flourishing and prosperity of ancient Chinese calligraphy theory can be roughly divided into the following periods.

The Han Dynasty was the initial period of the theory of ancient Chinese calligraphy. As the art of calligraphy matured and flourished, theoretical works specializing in calligraphy came into being. One of the earliest essays on calligraphy was the Cursive Script Potential of the Eastern Han calligrapher Cui Yuan. In the article, Cui argued that the emergence of cursive script was a reflection of the social need to move from complexity to simplicity, and described and praised the beauty of form and dynamics of calligraphy. The artistic and aesthetic function and value of calligraphy were fully affirmed. After this, there appeared several important works on calligraphy, such as Zhao Yi's Non-Cursive Script, Cai Yong's Seal Characteristics, Pen Fugue, Pen Theory, Nine Characteristics, etc. Especially, the great calligrapher Cai Yong's Seal Characteristics is a reflection of the social need for simplicity. Especially the great calligrapher Cai Yong's "Pen Theory" and "Nine Potentials", which occupy an important position in the history of Chinese calligraphy.

Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties is the mature period of China's ancient calligraphy theory. During this period, the art of calligraphy was very prosperous, and a large number of famous calligraphers appeared. The development of calligraphy art also led to the study of calligraphy theory. Western Jin Dynasty, appeared a number of natural world in a thousand forms of objects, dynamic to depict, analogous to a variety of books form the beauty of theoretical writings, such as Cheng Gongsui's "Clerical Script", Wei Heng's "four book potential", Suo Jing's "Cursive Book", Liu Shao's "Flying White", Yang Quan's "Cursive Script Fugue", etc., showing a "still like" the aesthetic tendency. The Eastern Jin Dynasty, when calligraphers no longer wrote in cursive script. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, calligraphers were no longer satisfied with the description of the external form of calligraphy, but began to explore the laws of brushwork, stylization and chapter techniques, and paid attention to the study of the relationship between the subjective will of man and calligraphy. Such as the transmission of Mrs. Wei's "strokes", Wang Xizhi's "after the title" Mrs. Wei's "strokes", "book theory", "strokes", "use of the brush", "remember Mr. Baiyun book know-how", etc., are important in this area of the book theory. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the influence of the current trend began to emphasize the commentaries on various calligraphers. Influential writings in this regard include Yang Xin's The Names of Those Who Can Write in Ancient Times, Yu He's Table of Discussions on Books, and maltreated Shougou's The Characteristics of Books, and so on. In particular, Wang Shengru's book theories, such as "Book Fugue", "On the Book", and "Praise for Brushwork", which were devoted to exploring the process and characteristics of calligraphy creation, had a profound impact on the development of the art of calligraphy in later generations.

The Sui and Tang dynasties are the flourishing period of calligraphy theory in ancient China. Although the Sui Dynasty was a very short period of time, its calligraphy inherited from the North and South Dynasties inscriptions, and started the Tang Regular Script, which laid the foundation for the establishment of the Tang Regular Script. Its calligraphy theory also focuses on the exploration of the Regular Script's brushwork and style, Zhi Yong's "Eight Methods of Yong Zi" and Zhi Guo's "Ode to the Heart's Completion" are the representatives in this regard. As the art of calligraphy reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, calligraphy masters and famous artists came out in large numbers, and calligraphy theories flourished, with a large number of systematic and significant book theories coming out one after another, and the exploration of detailed techniques and the analysis of the laws of calligraphy gradually replaced the elaboration of the overall impression of the art of calligraphy, involving all aspects of the art of calligraphy, reflecting the "still method" style of the Tang Dynasty. This reflects the Tang Dynasty's trend of "promoting calligraphy". Ouyang Xun's "Thirty-six Laws", Sun Gaoting's "book spectrum", Zhang Huaiwei's "book discussion", "book letter", "book breaks", "Wen Yu theory", "six book theory", "on the use of the pen ten methods", Dou Quan's "described the book fugue", Xu Hao's "on the book" Yan Zhenqing's "described the twelve ideas of the brushwork of the Zhang Changshi, Zhang Yanyuan edited the "book of the book of the law" and so on, are all the representative of the book theory of this period. Especially Ouyang Xun's Thirty-six Methods, Sun Tou Ting's Spectrum of the Book, Yan Zhenqing's Twelve Ideas of Zhang Changshi's Brushwork, which occupies an important position in the history of Chinese calligraphy theory.

The Song Dynasty was a period of change in ancient calligraphy theory. Due to various reasons, the calligraphy of the Song Dynasty can not be compared with the Tang Dynasty, but can take a different approach, a moment of Thessalonian prevalence. And the theory of calligraphy has also been innovated and developed. Song people advocate calligraphy should not be bound by the law, do not have to weigh in the point of painting, layout and other specific methods, but should pay attention to the works of the wind and spirit of the rhyme and the inner spirit of the writer and temperament, free to express their feelings, and strive for innovation. It is a reflection of the Song Dynasty's style of calligraphy, which is "still intentional". Zhu Changwen's "Continued Book Break", Su Shi's "On Books", "Dongpo's Inscription", Huang Tingjian's "On Books", Mi Pu's "History of the Book", "Haiyue's Famous Quotations", and Jiang Kui's "Renewed Spectrum of the Book" are all representative of the writings of the book theories in this period. Renewal of the book spectrum" is particularly systematic and refined, for successive generations of books pushed by the book, the influence is enormous.

The calligraphic art of the Yuan and Ming dynasties did not have much development, the Thessalonian still prevails, has not yet come out of the valley of calligraphic creation. In terms of book theory, by inheriting the law of the Jin and Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, "Shangyi" book style to negate, and then pay attention to the beauty of the form of calligraphy, marking the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasty. Yuan dynasty book theory is mainly concerned about the law, representative of the treatise has Zheng Jiu compiled, Liu You Ding note "diffraction pole" and Chen Dai Zeng's "Hanlin know-how". The book theory of the Ming Dynasty emphasized the ancient elegance, advocating both bone strength and research beauty. Tao Zongyi's "book history will be", Feng Fang's "book", Xiang Mu's "Calligraphy elegant words" and so on is its representative thesis.

The Qing Dynasty was a period of ancient calligraphy theory. From the middle of the Qing Dynasty onwards, it gradually formed the pattern of postal studies and monumental studies, and postal studies gradually decline, monumental studies are increasingly prosperous. Therefore, the theory of calligraphy in the early period emphasized the interpretation of ink and brushwork skills, represented by Gala Chongguang's Book Raft and Zhu Cuizhen's Calligraphy Jieyao. Later, it is mainly on the exploration of the theory of monumental, Ruan Yuan's "North and South School of Calligraphy", "North monument South post theory", Bao Shichen's "Art Boat Shuangyi" and Kang Youwei's "wide art boat Shuangyi" is representative of this work, and the formation of a suppression of the post and respect for the monument, the emphasis on the North and light of the South of the wind. Liu Xizai's "arts - book overview" of the characteristics of the north and south of the calligraphy style were summarized, emphasizing that they have their own strengths, it seems fairer and more objective. Not only that, but the General Introduction to Calligraphy also provides a comprehensive, systematic and concise theoretical summary of the history of the art of calligraphy in ancient China, the history of the evolution of calligraphic styles, and the techniques and styles of the art of calligraphy. These treatises occupy an important position in the history of ancient Chinese calligraphy. They provide a comprehensive, systematic summary of the theory and practice of Qing Dynasty Calligraphy and promote the development and prosperity of the art of calligraphy in the Qing Dynasty. And on the development of modern calligraphy, has had a profound impact.

The general outline of the development of calligraphy theory in ancient China, as mentioned earlier, it is not difficult to find the following salient features:

First of all, the importance of summarizing and guiding the aesthetic style. Generally speaking, a society is bound to have a social custom, and this social custom is bound to affect all aspects of social culture; and the welcome or resistance of social culture to this custom is bound to have a direct impact on the prosperity and demise of this social custom. Similarly, the aesthetic style of the art of calligraphy is not the same in each era. How to guide this aesthetic fashion, so that it becomes the dominant aesthetic fashion of the era, has become the book theorists of various eras of concern and explore the problem. Such as the Han Wei book theory in the "still like", Jin book theory in the "still rhyme", Tang book theory in the "still law", Song book theory in the "still meaning

Secondly, the study of the art of calligraphy is comprehensive and systematic. As long as we roughly flip through the ancient Chinese calligraphy theory works, you will see: China's ancient research and summary of the art of calligraphy is all-encompassing, involving all aspects of the art of calligraphy, and self-contained system. If you compare it with the ancient Chinese painting theory, it can show this characteristic even more. For example, the study of the history of the development of calligraphy, since the Southern Song Dynasty, Yang Xin's "picking the names of people who can write from ancient times" began its end, and then there are almost all such a group of writings in each dynasty. They discussed the history of the development of calligraphy from the ancient times to the end of the Qing Dynasty, preserving a complete picture of the history of the development of Chinese calligraphy. Another example is the study of the history of the evolution of calligraphic styles, which deals with the emergence, development, and change of calligraphic styles such as the Big Seal Script, the Small Seal Script, the Eight-pointed Script, the Regular Script, the Running Script, the Zhangcao Script, and the Imaocao Script, as well as the concepts and characteristics of these styles, and so on, which is systematic and comprehensive. The study of calligraphic techniques is also extremely deep and comprehensive, with detailed and precise research on the use of the brush, the sharpness of the brush, the execution of the brush, the junction, the use of ink, and the use of white cloth, etc.

The study of calligraphic techniques is also extremely deep and comprehensive.

Again, the relationship between character and character is emphasized. As early as in the Western Han Dynasty, Yang Xiong put forward the famous point of view of "the book for the heart of the painting", that calligraphy is a direct reflection of the ideology of the calligrapher, virtue, character. This viewpoint has had a profound impact on later generations. The Northern Song Dynasty book theorist Zhu Changwen in his "continued book breaks" that the high and low of a person's calligraphy art and his character cultivation has a great relationship, and cited the following example: "Lu Gong can be described as loyal ministers, ...... its hair on the pen, it is rigid and majestic, the body of the strict law, such as loyal and righteous, the color of the standing dynasty, in the big section and the The book is the heart of the painting. Yangzi cloud to book for the heart painting, in Lu Gongxin carry on." This actually means that Yan's dignified and robust style came from his high moral character. Liu Xizai, a great writer of modern calligraphy, said even more explicitly in "The Art of Calligraphy - Book Overview": "The book, such as also. Such as their learning, such as their talent, such as their ambition, in short: such as their people only." He believes that through the calligraphy can not only see the calligrapher's "learning", "talent", "will", and can see the calligrapher's person. The character of a good book must be good.

In addition, good use of vivid image metaphor to express the feelings of the reviewer to fully display the appreciation process of a variety of psychological activities intertwined situation. As early as in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong's "Pen Theory" used rich and beautiful metaphors to emphasize that the calligraphic creation of the body should be integrated into the various vivid forms of nature. Since then, calligraphy theorists have inherited this tradition. For example, Sun Tou-Ting wrote in the "book spectrum": "The view of the hanging needles hanging dew of the different, running thunder and falling stones of the strange, Hong Fei beasts horrified by the capital, luan dance and snake shocked by the state of the absolute shore of the decadent peaks of the situation, the danger according to the form of a haystack. Or heavy as collapsing clouds, or as light as a cicada wing; guide of the spring injection, ton of the mountain is safe; delicate like the first moon out of the sky cliffs, down to the stars of the list of the River Han ......." Here, the author uses a series of vivid and imaginative metaphors-actually metaphors-to compare the marvelous sights of the calligraphy of Zhong Yao, Zhang Zhi, and the Two Kings, so as to give people a sense of realization and make it easy to comprehend. The list is endless.

In short, the theory of ancient Chinese calligraphy is a valuable cultural heritage that deserves to be summarized and inherited.