A Study On Zeng Guofan's Calligraphy Thoery

This thesis makes a special study on the calligraphy theory of Zeng Guofan(1811-1872),with an alternative name of Di Sheng, a famous figure in politics, literature and calligraphy of the late Qing Dynasty. It consists of two parts.With an introduction of the friendship between him and the fellow calligraphers, the first part discusses Zeng Guofan' s special position in calligraphy history of the late Qing Dynasty and presents a detailed analysis of the academic career that influences his calligraphic ideology, with the purpose of making a logical explanation of the forming of his calligraphic ideology, with which as a basis, a further discussion on Zeng' s understanding of calligraphy and writing techniques is conducted. The thesis concludes that Zeng Guofan didn' t hold any sectarian bias though he had an association with both Bei and Tie Calligraphers and, judging from the views he held on writing techniques, it is safe to say that he should belong to the School of Tie Calligraphy.The second part presents a study on Zeng Guofan' s calligraphy ideology. It mainly focuses on Zeng' s calligraphy theory from the perspectives of thoughts, esthetics and education. Beginning with the analysis of some of Zeng' s calligraphy theories such as "Every thing has two aspects" amd "Expert in one field leads to a broader horizon" , Zeng Guofan' s way of thinking, aesthetic standards in different periods are studied, so is the concrete context from which his educational theory on calligraphy was derived. The thesis intends to highlight Zeng' s pursuit of "the learning of the virtuous" in calligraphy, as well.