Calligraphy In The World, In The Late Ming Lives

The Late Ming is a critical period for the change in politics and culture in China, in which the civil classes grew up, cultural powers went down from elites to ordinary intellectuals, and an unprecedented cultural pattern emerged. Observed in the light of social background and psychological characteristics of the intellectuals in that time, the cultural turn since the Middle Ming Dynasty is characterized by its multi-thoughts and changeful styles.The social consciousness and cultural psychology in this period can be reflected by art state at that time. The calligraphy with strong Late Ming features had experienced the change in style and personality in intellectuals'cultural lives. This paper, based on the lives of intellectuals and in the terms of the histories of society, culture and art, discusses extensively the noumenal categories of calligraphy in the Late Ming.An import reason for the delicacy and exquisite of intellectuals'living style in the Late Ming is that they were zealous in those jobs used to be done by artisans, such as garden design and construction, study-room upholstering, furniture design and so on, which reflected a characteristic of literati. The living styles resulted from their wealth and leisurely mood. Therefore, consideration in the light of the leisurely living styles is helpful for us to understand why intellectuals in Late Ming were so interested in calligraphy. In that time, the prosperous industry of commercialized publishing promoted the rapid development of rubbing calligraphy, which then future contributed much to the generalization of calligraphy art. In the background of civil commercial spirit and greatly-improved education, the intellectuals'idea of appreciation and collection in calligraphy exerted an extensive influence to ordinary people, and finally the interaction of art values focusing on calligraphy and the interchange of commercial value came into being among different intellectual classes.The calligraphy on folding-fan, unprecedentedly popular in the Late Ming , is an aspect of the intellectuals'lives, which is worthy being paid much attention to. The paper studies the fan-calligraphy regarded as a unique material culture as well as its cultural roles and social implications in intellectuals'daily lives.The prosperous development of traveling custom and Zen Buddhism in the Late Ming resulted from the guiding and promotion of intellectuals. In the exquisite lives valued by intellectuals, calligraphy can not only contribute to intellectuals'leisurely lives but also can be used to enlighten their inspirations. The paper, with a special reference to Yuan Zhongdao(袁中道) and Dong Qichang(董其昌), has made a discussion on the implications and values of calligraphy in intellectuals'life of the boat-traveling and Buddhist happiness.For the forms and development of calligraphy, both calligrapher and their works are closely linked to the care and promotion from various cultural classes. Therefore, the paper begins with and focuses on intellectuals'lives which go beyond calligraphers and cover social and cultural elites as well as ordinary intellectual classes. The author is not going to throw too much light on the analysis of calligrapher and their works, but pay much attention to life state and values embodied in the intellectuals'living history in the Late Ming , and extend to the discussion of calligraphy changes in that time.