Tang Dynasty Book A Study

The copyists in the Tang dynasty (618-907) refer to the official or unofficial social group who took in copying books, ancient records, religious works and daily document, etc. for the government, temples or individuals in the heyday of copying. They made a living and entered into officialdom by their own calligraphic skills. For one thing, they acquired a certain level of general knowledge and calligraphy. The contents they copied were based on words, thus, being literate and competent in writing was a primary condition of being a copyist. For another, they copied for the government, temples, or individuals out of a certain political task or some economic benefit. This paper begins with an analysis of the copyists' working conditions, official career, economical lives, social status, and their calligraphic styles and calligraphic levels, to get a complete picture of the copyists in the Tang dynasty; and then points out the impacts they exerted on calligraphy and culture of the Tang dynasty as well as their historical status in the history of calligraphy and culture. This paper contains four parts as follows:First, the author analyzes carefully on the classification and the working situations of the copyist, and divides them into two types: official copyist and unofficial copyist. Official copyists arose from the need of adapting to the bureaucratic system which was quite perfect at that time. Many kinds of copyist were appointed to different cultural institutions with definite duties, mainly including the work of coping and checking the ancient records and religious scriptures as well as some official documents and archives. The components of unofficial copyist were more complex, not only including poor literati, religious scripture writers and also people who copied unofficial documents or carved epitaph on gravestones. Their living standards varied from individual calligraphic skills and the economic strength of the investors and so forth.Second, the authors made a detailed investigation of the copyists' social status, their way to officialdom, the political prospect and their economic situation. The copyist arose from inheriting, imperial examination, and the governmental recruitment. They were qualified for officer working beyond the government as long as they have gotten the first appointment. Having been weighted by the Board of Civil Office, they could belong to the size of the government. In the early stage of the Tang Dynasty, the copyist in the college of Hongwen, the College of History and the College of Jixian who took five successive examinations could be recruited as an official. In the later stage of the Tang dynasty, the official-selection system and the structure of civil officials undertook great changes. On the one hand, there was a overflow of people who were beyond the government coming into the government, on the other hand, the government laid off large numbers of informal officials. Those changes have influenced the copyists' official career and their political, economical state a lot.Third, the survey of copyists' calligraphy. This paper studies on the scripts in the Tang dynasty in Dunhuang and Turpan, and investigates carefully on the forms and contents, the calligraphic origin, the calligraphic styles of their works from a calligraphic viewpoint. The contents of scripts involves literary compositions, Buddhist scriptures and sutras, contracts and letters, scripts and essays in which most are the scriptures. The styles of calligraphy are usually regular script and running script together with a few cursive script and seal characters. The copyists were from government or from the people or the temple with different calligraphic levels and styles. Their calligraphic styles featured uniqueness, stability and diversity.Finally, an analysis of the copyists' historical status and significance. Although the copyists names can't be found in books, and their calligraphic works can't be classified into classics and have advantages as well as disadvantages, it faithfully represents the ordinary calligraphers' calligraphic state and the aesthetic tendency in that period. The copyists were the main force who laid a solid social foundation for the calligraphy of Tang dynasty. They also made great contribution in spreading Chinese ancient books and records and Chinese cultures, and promoting the development of society. In short, their copying has made an obscure but irreplaceable contribution to the accumulation, conservation and spread of the ancient literatures and traditional cultures, which was of great significance.