The Study On Style Of Chinese Calligraphy Literature From Han Dynasty To Tang Dynasty

The theoretical research on Chinese calligraphy theory since the 20th century has been mainly about the content of what to talk about.This thesis takes a different approach,focusing on the formal research of "how to say".Taking the literature of Calligraphy Theory as the research object and the study of style as the goal,this thesis analyzes and studies the Chinese Calligraphy Theory from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty in terms of its genre,register and style.It makes an in-depth analysis of the theory’s structure,types of language,rhetorical devices and the stylistic features based on different styles.The thesis builds its framework on the style of the Calligraphy theory at the macro,meso and micro levels.The first chapter examines broadly the stylistic features of literature from the cultural background of Calligraphy Theory from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty,the classification of catalogs and general collections across ages.Firstly,the state of the calligraphic style was highly relevant to the social context of the Eastern Han literary style.The comprehensiveness of calligraphy practice and the pursuit of the art of writing has provoked reflection and summation on the art of calligraphy.How calligraphy was explored in its proper form was closely related to the literary and especially stylistic developments of the time.Liu Shipei believed that the various styles of writings were greatly developed by the Eastern Han Dynasty.Between the time of Han and Wei,the intellectuals inherited its style.Then during the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wei&Jin Dynasties,a number of small chants were composed on the theme of calligraphic tools such as brushes,ink,paper and ink slabs.Cui Yuan’s "Cursive Script" of the Eastern Han Dynasty,as well as Cai Yong,Zhong Yao,Wei Heng’s essays on seal style,clerical style and paleography style,provided literary depictions of the shapes of calligraphic forms and played a role in the dissemination of character copybooks.In the Eastern Han Dynasty,Zhao Yi’s "Blame on Cursive Script" was the first calligraphy treatise to discuss the possible negative effects of indulging in Cursive Script,and to portray’ the undesirable state of those who were obsessed with it in a literary manner.By the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties,various styles of calligraphy such as Pin,Qi,Biao and Lun competed to appear.Secondly,the thesis used bibliographic method to identify the calligraphic literature included in the official history of record of art and literature,record of classic works and official or private bibliography.In this way,it obtained specific information about the inventory of calligraphic literature in the past dynasties,and examined the tendency of the historiographers who transported calligraphy from Confucian classics to art department.However,their concern for style was not reflected in the arrangement of the bibliography,and they only added stylistic elements to the naming of a few documentary titles to showcase their knowledge of style.Thirdly,a study of the way in which four general collections of calligraphic literature from the Tang and Song dynasties including "Fashuyaolu","Mosou","Mochibian"and "Shuyuan Jinghua",were catalogued revealed the differences in stylistic concepts.The catalogs of several engravings of"Fashuyaolu"were basically the same,arranged in chronological order,and the concept of style was the weakest."Mosou",which was adapted to the need of spreading calligraphic techniques to the people,showed the characteristics of popularization,legendization,and storytelling in the style of the text."Mochibian" was the first of its kind to classify and include Chinese Calligraphy Theory literature,the criteria for its classification being the subject of the content."Shuyuan Jinghua" focused on the stylistic nature of the calligraphy treatises and classified them according to the style of the literature.Although some of the papers were classified inappropriately,it set a new standard for the classification of literature.Chapter Two is the mesoscopic stylistic study of Calligraphy Theory from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty,mainly screening and categorizing the treatise from six major categories,such as Shushi style,appraise and comment style,preface and essay style,historical biography style,poetry and prose style,figure and formula style.The Shushi style was a combination of history of calligraphy,Shushi and the chant of calligraphy with their distinctive features.The core part was Shushi.It described the shapes of different calligraphic styles before the arrival of ink rubbings and inscribed copy in order to achieve the communication function of today’s copybooks of calligraphy.Calligraphy appraisal and calligraphy comment were two ways of evaluating calligraphy.Appraisal involved grading and sequence while comment concerned esthetics connoisseurship.The two could not be separated from each other.Such kind of style was a combination of several genres with a variety of writing types.The overall style of the articles was relatively plain and concise in order to enhance the credibility of appreciation.The preface and essay style was an expository style,derived from Book of Yi and Comment of Jing and Zhuan.In the academic citation,the prose text based on "Bi" could be directly quoted from the text based on "Wen",while the text based on "Wen" was transformed to the prose text based on "Bi" in order to avoid stylistic inconsistency.The historical biography style inherited the historical-biography tradition of Chunqiu,Zuozhuan,and Shiji,and was mainly composed of biography of calligraphy style,biography of calligraphers,and records of classic calligraphy.The main types of its literary style were the register style,the extension style and "Shishuoxinyu" style.The poetry and prose style followed the tradition of Shijing and Hanfu,and included the types of the chant of calligraphy,poem of calligraphy comment and poem of calligraphy praise.The figure and formula style fit in with the need of getting close to the grassroots’society during the Tang Dynasty,with the teaching of calligraphic skills as the main goal,and the stylistic style being schematized and popularized.In Chapter three,the thesis conducts a close reading of the book treatise,using rhetorical methods at a micro level to examine how treatises enhanced the literary and artistic style of the text through the use of various rhetorical devices.The rhetoric of meta-metaphor,with the help of objects taken from far away and near to the body,metaphors of books ranging from generic human reference to individual reference and with musical and literary works,greatly deepened the aesthetic connotation of the calligraphic works,and strengthened the style of overflowing rhetoric taste.The rhetoric of allusion relied on the quotation of classical texts and the use of literary references in order to achieve a literary style that was interesting and substantive.Rhetorical techniques such as duplicated words,morphological repetition,coined words,hyperbole,metonymy,antithesis,parallelism,thimble,etc.were used to form beautiful words and sentences,thus effectively enhancing the literariness of the treatise.Passive rhetoric,which was characterized by the formatting of biography of calligraphers,the application of Chunqiu writing method,the exploration of"non-written common things" and the use of Shifa,was utilized to achieve a clear and elegant style of the historical-biography style.Chapter 4 summarizes the features,influence,and contemporary value of the Chinese Calligraphy Theory from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty.In terms of way of thinking,the calligraphy theory demonstrated moderate mode of thinking,holistic thinking,analogical thinking,circular thinking and trace back to original thinking.In terms of style,it showed the characteristics of diversity,complexity,subjectivity,and poetics of language.The style of calligraphy theory from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty also exerted an important influence on the book treatises of future generations,as manifested in the "Sequel to Shuduan" and "Sequel to Shupu",in the continued use of such literary styles as appraisal&comment,question&answer,as well as the use of metaphorical criticism.Finally,the thesis argues that in calligraphy research it is necessary to adhere to the poetic character of Chinese calligraphy theory,to inherit the excellent tradition of ancient calligraphy theory and calligraphy criticism,and to build a calligraphy discourse framework with "Chinese characteristics,Chinese style,and Chinese style".