A Study Of Liu Xizai's Calligraphic Thoughts

Liu Xizai whose calligraphic thoughts are always valued highly is a focus in Chinese ancient calligraphy study. The dissertation makes a comprehensive study of Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts on the basis of the previous accomplishments. It is composed of four parts: introduction, the main body, conclusion and appendix.The first part is an introduction. It mainly introduces the history and present situation as well as the theoretical and practical significance of the study of Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts. Not long before Liu Xzai's calligraphic thoughts were known to the public, they aroused great attentions. Scholars like Yuan Chang, Zhang Mingke, Li Fang, Ma Zhonghuo all made comments on his"A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy."Kang Youwei twice quoted from"A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy"in his The Double Oars of the Spacious Art Boat and spoke highly of it. The contemporary study of Liu Xizai started from the 80s of the last century. The theoretical value of Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts is very high and it needs us to make a careful research on it. Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts, especially the parts concerning the techniques in calligraphy, are a summery of his own experiences in calligraphy. Therefore, Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts also have an instructive significance for our calligraphic practice today.The second part is the main body. It includes 7 chapters.Chapter 1 A review of Liu Xizai's life and activities. It prepares the necessary documents for the research of Liu Xizai and his calligraphic thoughts. In the meanwhile, it also makes a textual study of Liu Xizai's intercommunion with many calligraphers and personages of various circles, which expands the study of Liu Xizai's scope of communication, thus enables people to see an animated Liu Xizai.Chapter 2 Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts, calligraphic practice, and the origins of his academic studies. Besides"A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy", Liu Xizai also wrote another book titled"Concise Words in the Entertaining Art". In his other works like"A Brief Introduction to literature","A Brief Introduction to Poetry"and"Collections of Non-Yesterday", and even in his great calligraphic works, his calligraphic thoughts are also expressed. All these are a part of Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts. Concise language and rich meaning feature Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts . Liu Xizai is not only a calligraphic theorist, but also a great calligrapher. This chapter analyzes more than ten of Liu Xizai's calligraphic works. In his mature period of his art, his pursuit for art is in harmonious accordance with his artistic theory, which also demonstrates that theory comes from practice. The reason why Liu Xizai has achieved so great achievement lies in the fact that he has successfully learned from his predecessors'experience in calligraphic thoughts to enrich his own theory. In his"A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy", he quotes 66 theorists'works by 58 theorists, which makes it self-evident from where his own theory originates.Chapter 3 Theory of Liu Xizai's style of calligraphy. Liu Xizai divides style of calligraphy into two categories. Zhuan ,Li, Kai is a"detailed and serene"style while XingCao is a"concise and active"style. Liu Xizai makes a careful distinction between the origins, evolution and features of myriads of styles of calligraphy. Many of his points of view are unprecedented. Liu Xizai focuses on Li and Cao style of calligraphy. As for Li style of calligraphy, he mainly concentrates on the distinction between Li and before or after the Eighth Fraction to clarify the previous ambiguous understandings. His exposition on Cao calligraphy mainly focuses on aesthetic aspects and many of his ideas are very enlightening.Chapter 4 Liu Xizai's exposition on the South and North school of calligraphy. Tablet movement in the Qing dynasty is a very important event in the history of calligraphy. The goal of this movement is to raise the status of North Tablet, and to express a negative opinion against South Tablet, thus it starts the conflict between North and South Tablets. Liu Xizai's attitude on North and South Tablet is objective. While he has a positive opinion on the achievements of North Tablet, he does not evade its shortcomings. And he doesn't follow Shi Xiang'negative ideas on South Tablet. On the other hand, he even thinks that there exists something"lofty and ancient"in South Tablet. Crane Inscription's style is implicitly similar to Zhuan style and bears a great similarity with Zheng Dao Manifestation in Late Wei. Liu Xizai thinks that both the North and South Tablet have their own advantages and disadvantages, therefore we shouldn't simply reject either school.Chapter 5 The discussion of calligraphers in Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts."A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy"begins with calligrapher Cai Yi and ends with You in the Northern Song Dynasty, making comments on more than 80 calligraphers. According to Liu Xizai's academic tendency, all the calligraphers can be divided into two categories: Wang style pedigree that sets Wang Xizhi as a model and Yan style pedigree that sets Yan Zhenqing as a model. Liu Xizai makes the highest evaluation on Wang Xizhi and his followers. In particular, the Southern school of calligraphers are profited by this and form a huge calligrapher pedigree: Wang Xianzhi, Yangxin, Wang Zhenqian, Xiao zhiyun, Zhi Yong, Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang, Sun Guoting, etc. Secondly, Liu Xizai also admires Yan Zhenqing and thinks Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy is free and comprehensive"that can be called the excellent combination with water and black ink"Yan calligraphy pedigree includes Liu Gongquan, Huang Tingjian, Shu shi, Mifu, Cai Xiang,etc.. Yan pedigree comes from Wang pedigree. Wang pedigree is good at copybook studies while Yan pedigree is good both at tablet and copybook. What's more, Liu Xizai also makes careful comments on the two calligrapher's pedigree, objectively evaluating the level of their calligraphic art and their status in the history of calligraphy.Chapter 6 On the technique theory of Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts. The technique theory is the most wonderful part in Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts and the most conspicuous feature is that he puts his own calligraphic experience in the thoughts, which is to get to one's destination by making use of others'means. It includes three parts: brush work, combination of characters and art of composition. When it comes to brush work, he stresses the use of the central part of the Chinese brush. When it comes to how to move the brush, he stresses"the Chinese brush should be used in a reversion, move slowly and unsmoothly, come to an end with some tension". He expounds"lifting and pressing"and"moving fast and moving unsmoothly,"the two opposite categories, which fully embody his dialectical thoughts. When it comes to the combination of characters, he stresses the main strokes of a character, and he makes an analogy between a character and nine palaces. He regards the main palace as in the middle, or in the central part of the four upright dimensional space, which is very enlightening. He also puts forward two new ways of combining words:"internally embracing characters"and"externally embracing characters."When it comes to the art of composition, he stresses the alteration in the regular and the interpenetration of the calligraphic tone. He continues to point out:"the art of composition ranges from a tiny thing to a huge thing. Tiny as one character or number, huge as one line or several lines, one piece of calligraphy or several pieces."All of them should be corresponding to each other. And the correspondence of one piece of calligraphy and several pieces of calligraphy is his unique contribution.Chapter 7 The exposition methodology of Liu Xizai's calligraphic thoughts. Liu Xizai is best at using metaphor to expound his calligraphic thoughts, but that belongs to the scope of rhetoric. Here what I argue is how to understand his exposition methodology from a doctrinal perspective. The chapter is divided into three parts : 1. Cultural exposition. Liu Xizai is very erudite. He is adept at Confucianism, Buddhism and Daosim and makes full use of the philosophical theories in his calligraphic thoughts."Zhou Yi"as the main work of Confucianism is used to illustrate the nature of calligraphy. A case in point is the image theory in"A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy"which requires"the observation of objects is reflected in the analogy of one's emotions"and so on. In his"Concise Words in the Entertaining Art", Liu Xizai said: Both article and calligraphy can be distinguished by Qian and Kun. Qian means change and Kun stability. When it comes to the style of calligraphy, Liu Xizai expounds calligraphy from the perspective of Buddhism by employing Zen terms to analyze why later generations tend to form"Yuan style of calligraphy"when they imitate"An Introduction to St. Teachings". He also uses the terms of gradual understanding and sudden enlightenment to form an exact analogy to show how ancient people get inspiration from Nature. As for Daosim, Liu Xizai mainly makes use of the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuanzi to expound his philosophy of Nature, and the inaction of calligraphy's creation. Daoism is made fullest use in his work"Concise words in Entertaining Art."2. The Aesthetic Exposition. Calligraphy is the art of beauty and Liu Xizai also views calligraphy from the perspective of aesthetics. Liu Xizai expounds the aesthetic category of supermaturity, rich rime, firmness and gentleness, peculiarity and normality, implication and artistry. He also expounds the natural, implicit, true , and frank features of calligraphy from the perspective of aesthetic tendency. 3 Ethical Exposition. Liu Xizai's calligraphy has another conspicuous feature, that is , he stresses calligraphy reflects one personality. He puts forward the proposition that"the man is his calligraphy"to determine the different levels of the calligraphers. Liu Xizai is a theorist and also and educator whose goal of ethnic exposition is to make a good man out of learning calligraphy whose conduct is in accordance with the doctrines of Confucianism. He means to cultivate and excise man with calligraphy and we must live up to his kind expectations.The third part is a conclusion, which sums up the whole dissertation.The fourth part is an appendix. Nine pieces of Liu Xizai's calligraphic work are attached as the appendix.