The Bao Shichen Calligraphy To Re-examine

As a famous calligrapher and a calligraphic theorist in the Qing Dynasty, Bao Shichen influenced the calligraphic thoughts later quite a lot, and there has already been a stereotype about his calligraphic thoughts and achievement in the academic circle. Synthesizing scholars'discuss about him in the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and today, this thesis makes a profound study about Bao himself, his calligraphic thoughts, his calligraphic practice and the school he lead, and finds a series of questions that need to be re-discussed, and then presents different opinion on the evaluation that contemporary scholars make on Bao. This thesis thinks that Bao, with his calligraphic thoughts, is a special cultural phenomenon during the thriving of Epigraphy in the Qing Dynasty. Pointing out that his theory and practice on calligraphy had some problems on their own, criticizing his false ideas on calligraphy, carding the 'Bao Shichen School 'in local cultural phenomenon, this thesis finds out the shortcomings of his calligraphic theory. This thesis tries to make further research on Bao and his calligraphic thoughts from a new visual angle, and re-judge his status and value in the Chinese calligraphy history, in order to cause the scholar circle to further the study on Bao. We also hope to evaluate a calligrapher in a historic vision while avoiding the quarrel between Epigraphy and Booklet and Handwriting Calligraphy, as well as raise the possibility of re-appraise the historical value of the Epigraphy in the Qing Dynasty.