Eastward Spread Of The Song Dynasty Zen Monk Ink

This dissertation is a monographic research on calligraphy and painting by SongDynasty Chan masters that were passed down to Japan.Song China witnessed a very important age in its history of cultural development.Many a cultural giants came on stage, including artist emperors such as Song HuiZongand Song GaoZong. In Chan Buddhism in this period, a constellation of culturally andartistically remarkable masters also shone. Calligraphy and painting by Chanmasters—the subject matter of this dissertation—constitutes an integral part of SongCulture, particularly Chan culture.Since Confucianism was respected as the mainstream or the principal part ofstate deolo-gy in traditional China, Chinese history was normally perceived andrecorded from the Confucians' (the literati and the officialdom) perspective. Buddhismand Taoism, in con-trust, were considered sub-cultural and their roles and influenceoftentimes understated. As far as Song calligraphy and painting are concerned, muchthat was recorded was about the works by Confucian literati and officialdom, eclipsingthe works by the Buddhists, es-pecially Chan Buddhists.Song China saw the prewiling of Chan culture, and almost all the Songintellectuals and scholars were influenced by Chan Buddhism, one way or another.The "atmosphere (sig-nificance)-driven" style—initiated in the middle and late NorthSong and represented by Su (Shi), Huang (Tingjian), Mi (Fu), and etc.—was intimatelytied in with Chan Budd-hism. Su, Huang, Mi, and the alike had extensive exchangeand communication with Ch-an monks, leading to their profound understanding andappreciation of the philosophy of Chan Buddhism. Conversely, many a Chan masterswho were also excelled at calligraphy and painting, naturally contributed to the"atmosphere-driven" style. No doubt their cont-ribution is not to be underestimated.It is an unhappy situation now in China that rarely is any calligraphy or paintingby Song Chan Masters seen, let alone carefully studied. There is, however, a plenty ofcalligraphy and painting works by Song Dynasty Chan masters in Japan. I havestudied in Japan for more than 10 years, burying myself in the examination of theseworks. This present dis-sertation is a study of a selection of the calligraphy andpainting that signifies it quinte-ssential part, but due to the length limit for mydissertation and the deadline for its subm-ission, I have to reluctantly give up morecomprehensive and detailed discussion of the abovementioned calligraphy andpainting that I would hope to discuss otherwise.In Song China trading beats commuted frequently between China and Japan,and a large number of Japanese student monks arrived China by these trading boats.These students brought numerous Chan calligraphy and painting works back to Japan,including the works by Chan masters. In the late of South Song China, the arrival of anumber of Chinese Chan masters in Japan also fueled to the pool of Chan calligraphy and painting. Chan ca-lligraphy and painting works collected from both channels hadgreatly enriched the Jap-anese Chan culture, and by a marriage with Song China's Teaculture, they also gave bir-th to the famous Japanese Tea Ceremony.The calligraphy and painting of the Song China Chan masters have been givenparamount respect in Japan. They are revered as "the ink-trace [of Song Chanmasters]" (mo ji), to be distinguished from other calligraphy and painting. How theJapanese use "Mo Ji" then, is not completely similar to how we use the phrase inChina, which is a generic term, co-vering everything in writing and painting byeminent artists or scholars in the history. My dissertation makes a carefulinvestigation of this unique phenomenon in the cultural exch-ange history betweenChina and Japan, and aims at clarifying and evaluating the role it played in SongChina's calligraphy history, and in the overall China's history of callig-raphy andpainting.The study of Chan "Mo Ji" is not merely a study in calligraphy, and it is ramifiedinto the history of Chinese Chan, history of Chinese culture, Japanese Zen history, andJapanese cultural history, and so on. Only through a multi-layered andmulti-perspective scrutiny of this phenomenon of "Mo Ji" can its content andsignificance be properly grasped. Un-fortunately, the study on this in China is almost ablank, and references and resources are fairly scarce. My dissertation, in this light, islargely an independent and original study. It is also my hope that that my dissertationcan not only serve as a pilot project which shou-ld draw attention to this importantphenomenon of "Mo Ji" but also encourage others to come up with more valuable andcomprehensive research on it.