The Zhou Lianggong Yinren Pass Study

This is the first study of the famous literati, connoisseur and artworkcollector, seal carver Zhou Lianggong(1612-1672)who lived at the end of MingDynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, focusing on himself and hiswritings on seal carving. The literatis' cultural activities in this period and theirrelationship with the social and cultural environment are discussed thoroughlyin this dissertation.In the study, as either an literati or an official, Zhou Lianggong's entire lifeis investigated. His activities on the historic stage of the end of Ming Dynastyand the beginning of the Qing Dynasty are analyzed by looking at thecharacteristics of his era, his names (ancient Chinese literator usually hadthree names, the first one was got from their parents; while the others aredecided by themselves according to their own thoughts, ambitions, or affection,etc.), his native place, the places he visited, the choice he made during "thechange of Jiasheng", his impeachment during the period of Shunkang, andburning books. Zhou Lianggong's extensive acquaintance of literati andinteraction in arts activities are showed by looking at his relationship withliterati circles in the North, Jinling, Yangzhou, Zhejiang, and-Fujian. Thisdissertation also conducts a systematic study on the thoughts, behaviors,works, and calligraphy arts.Based on the discussion of Zhou Linggong himself, this dissertationfocuses on the first work in Chinese history recording the activities of carverswritten by Zhou-yinren zhuan. It is discussed in the following three fields:Firstly, it discusses the relationship between the prosperity of seal cuttingactivities of literatis at the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the QingDynasty and the edited Laigutang Seal cutting Paper. And the writingprocesses, version development of yinren zhuan and Duhualu. Secondly, itinvestigates the thoughts of yinren zhuan. On one hand, it compares andanalyzes the relationship of writing motives of Qian Qianyi's Wuzhi ji, WangYuyang's ganjiuji, and yinren zhuan; it studies the influence of poets-selectingand biography-writing fashion at the beginning of Qing Dynasty on the writingstyle of yinren zhuan; it indicates that the writing of yinren zhuan shows thehistory and cultural memory of literatis' reminiscence at the end of MingDynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. On the other hand, from theperspective of the development of seal cutting in that-period, thecome-into-being of seal cutting "literati taste", the promotion of the status ofcarvers, the influence of Jinling cultural environment, the exchange betweencarvers and literatis, the changes in seal cutting materials, and the changes infunctions have all improved the tastes of carvers and seal cuttings. The writingof this book is really a necessity of seal cutting development. The"reminiscence memory" and "literatis taste" talked about in the book is not only of special value in the seal cutting discussion, but also of universal significancein the area of art history. Thirdly, yinren zhuan represents the seal cuttingartistic viewpoints of Zhou Lianggong. The important point "the skill is similar tothat of literature and poetry" proposed by him greatly enriches the cultureconnotation. The dissertation probes into the origins of his seal cutting artisticviewpoints and indicates that he is greatly influenced by "join" and "separate"of his poetry viewpoints and Gongan school of literature viewpoints. Thediscussion concerning his seal cutting artistic viewpoints include the essenceof seal cutting, the criticism of problems about Wenpeng, Hezhen seal cuttingschools, the rules of "upright" and "changes", the problem of adopting Qin andHan carving style, the appearance of comments tanguage, the creationstatus of carvers, the relationship of seal cutting methods, the carvingtechniques, and the knife techniques, etc. These contents comprehensivelyrepresent Zhou Lianggong's clarification in terms of culture and art. They verifythe historic status and value of this book. By the thorough analysis, the clue ofseal cutting development at the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of theQing Dynasty and the track of changes in seal.cutting taste, yinren zhuan alsouses a few criticizing methods to make carvers and seal cuttings the center ofartistic criticism, which enriches the literature criticism of ancient China.Attached there are three parts as supplements of the discussion in thebody. They are: Deleting and Destroying Problem of Prohibited books byQianlong and Works of Zhou Lianggong, The Chronological Table of ZhouLianggong, The table of Zhou Lianggong's Acquaintances. These parts keepan eye to the fates of literatis' works in particular historic period, and thegeneral characteristics of artistic activities held by literatis during the dynastychanging period. They show the internal relationship between carvers'activities and cultural environment and boost the art history research of Mingand Qing Dynasty a deeper and further development.