A Study On Xu Wei 's Calligraphy Style

In the early Ming Dynasty，the style of calligraphy still continueof restoring ancient ways in the Yuan Dynasty, the whole calligraphy fieldhad became very rigid and lifeless. In the mid-late Ming dynasty,therewere many reasons made the whole social conditions have a great change：the ruler became more and more fatuous, the political, economic,socialcustoms,etc.The Ming Dynasty society followed the current of ideologicalemancipation and it made the realm of literature and art happened anearth-shaking change.In the aspect of calligraphy,the calligraphertrying to break the traditional barriers and to explore new form ofcalligraphy.In the process,Xu Wei played an important and ignored role.Hemade the cursive script play the function to the expression of emotionextremely.Xu Wei’s cursive script had break the traditional way inwriting writing style,structure,composition,etc.This thesis tries toanalysis of his calligraphy style from the related literature and previousresearch results.In this paper,the first chapter introduces the era he lived in whichthe social and cultural background.In the mid-late Ming Dynasty, thehierarchy begin to struggle for benefits；bud of capitalism began toemerge；the appearance of Wang Yangming’s thought；social custom and socialmentality had changed greatly，social contradictions becomes increasinglyobvious.In this social environment,the realm of literature and art beginto pursuit “the actual self”and“the inherent qualities”,the realm ofcalligraphy.The second chapter explains Xu Wei’s calligraphic style and formationprocess.On the basis of his life experience,his calligraphy style can bedivided into early and late.In the early stage, he had pay more attentionto the study of ancient people.But he also has his own thoughts and pursued the “vigorous”and“Zimei”.In the late stage,the first part describesXu Wei’s calligraphy pay more attention to the expression of emotion；In the second and third part,Xu Wei began to break the traditional inwriting style,structure,composition and created a new style incalligraphy.The fourth part he made a bold exploration in the form ofcalligraphy works.The fifth part described the combination of calligraphyand painting in his calligraphy works.The third chapter introduces the factors that affected the formationof the calligraphic style. The first part mainly described his lifeexperience on the psychological impact.The second part mainly introducesthe influence of Wang Yangming’s“xinxue”on Xu Wei’s artisticthoughts.The third part mainly explains the effects of other ideas on hisartistic thoughts. The third part mainly describes the origin of Xu Wei’scalligraphy.The fourth chapter discusses the influence and the enlightenment ofmodern calligraphy learning. In the first part described that Xu Weistarted trying to break the traditional barriers and his calligraphy hada great impact on other calligraphers. The second part described theinfluence on other of calligraphers in the late Ming Dynasty.The thirdpart described the influence on“Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou”.Thefourth part discussed what we should pay attention: facsimile and innovate,techniques and style.