Writing And Truth

Despite all the progress and development witnessed in the development of Chinese calligraphy in the modern times, there are some problems, and even serious crises. As a result, there is a most serious problem, the oblivion of "brush writing’". The reasons for the oblivion of "brush writing" are twofold. Due to the loss of "ancient techniques","brush writing" has been shaded, leaving the totally objectified works calligraphy the only thing in Chinese calligraphy; on the other hand, with the introduction of the thought of epistemology, which has been taken as the major methodology for different disciplines and cultural studies as well, the process of westernization in the last century has put us farther away from "brush writing". And that is the intrinsic reason for the crisis of calligraphy.This thesis aims to analyze the history of Chinese calligraphy since Sung dynasty with the methodology of phenomenology so as to explore and identify the original "ancient techniques" of the Jin and Tang dynasties. The exploration is based on the phenomenological principle of "returning to truth", and so far as Chinese calligraphy is concerned, this truth refers to "brush writing". Therefore, this thesis aims to interpret the true meaning of "brush writing" and to explore the "original writing" revealed in the world of real life. And through the phenomenological interpretation of "ancient techniques", a conclusion can be reached that, in the Pre-Jin and-Tang dynasties Chinese calligraphy had been in a truth-seeking process where beings, such as brush, ink, paper, ink stone as well as Chinese characters, and dasein (the writer), were constantly presented. Thus, from this perspective, Chinese calligraphy is a self fulfilling process of beings and dasein in an open state of mind.Therefore, the proposal made in this thesis to return to Jin and Tang calligraphy, or to return to Wang Xizhi, means to return to "original writing", which is the highest realm of Chinese calligraphy,"shu zhe ru ye"("Chinese calligraphy is like......"). Reaching this realm, a calligrapher enters the realm of freedom that Heidegger refers to as the nature of truth.