The Threshold Of Chinese Calligraphy Entering The Field Of Chinese Painting

Abstract Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting are two very important systems in the Chinese artistic history. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yanyuan advanced his theory that the calligraphy and the painting are of the same mother. Since then, his theory had had its influence for more than one thousand years. Painting theorists in the past dynasties argued about the relationship between calligraphy and painting from different perspectives. Among these theorists were Su Dongbo and Mi Fu in the Middle of the Song Dynasty, who were calligraphers putting forward theories and practicing their theories. And there were other theorists in the following dynasties. During the earlier years of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu clearly put forward his view that the calligraphy and the painting are affinal. When it came to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the development of freehand paintings reaching its prime time, calligraphy entered the painting field to an unprecedented degree. The ways of carrying brush, the ideas concerning the space and structure and even the aesthetics in calligraphy had been carried into the field of painting in a wide range. For example, Xu Wei, Huang Shen and Wu Changshuo had renewed the painting world by introducing the grass style and seal style of calligraphy to painting. The fusing of calligraphy and Chinese painting greatly influences the aesthetics and formal factors of Chinese painting. The relationship between calligraphy and painting is an unavoidable issue in the development of Chinese painting.In the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the western thoughts gradually being accepted by the Chinese, western arts were introduced to the Chinese too, hence becoming a great impact on the Chinese painting system. During the following 100 years, the eco-system of Chinese painting was put in complex circumstances where various elements work together. The establishment of various artistic principles and the practice of diversified medium materials confronted the discourse system of Chinese painting with new challenges, especially during the last century when traditions and conventions were negated. After that, the remnant of the essentials of Chinese painting is scarce and the main spirit that supports the existence and development of Chinese painting is missing, hence causes the awkward situations in the painting world nowadays. It is indispensable to explore the relationship of Chinese calligraphy to Chinese painting in order to retrieve the missing main spirit of the Chinese painting. We can safely say that the relationship between calligraphy and painting has always been an important issue with a practical and theoretical significance in the development of Chinese painting.The relationship between calligraphy and painting is very complex because it concerns many different elements and involves different phases and levels. But now when the tradition of Chinese paintings has been forsaken, the relationship between calligraphy and Chinese painting tends to be simplified, the ways of carrying brush has been displaced by contour lining, inking has been misunderstood as optical things of darkness or brightness, and the spirit of fusing calligraphy and painting together has been put into oblivion when the Chinese culture crashes against the western culture. Confronted with a complicated relationship between calligraphy and painting, this thesis aims to clarify the aesthetic relationship between the two in some main categories by exploring the origins and functions of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting, their common aesthetic features, the nature of the forming process of calligraphy and its integration with Chinese painting and the changing methods of carrying brushes in practice, so that we can better understand the inherent relationship between Chinese calligraphy and painting.Part One of this thesis traces back to the historical period of ancient times when there was only a combination of painting and calligraphy, discusses the calligraphic medium—the hieroglyphic features of Chinese characters, and goes on pointing out that the common features between Chinese calligraphy and painting predicts the later integration of the two. Part Two starts with the functions of Chinese calligraphy of reflecting the objective world and the subjective feelings, discusses the philosophical agreement of Chinese calligraphy and painting in such areas as "numen" and "spirit", thus shows the common philosophical soil that Chinese calligraphy and painting both grow, which transcends the external relations of tools, materials, lines and forms and illustrates the common inner ideological roots. Part Three begins with the nature of the forming process of the art of Chinese calligraphy, the abstract ideographic nature, it goes on to discuss the aesthetic meanings and feelings with which calligraphy can endow the lines and strokes, and then it concludes that Chinese painting's absorption from Chinese calligraphy is a perfection of its own artistic language, which is a necessity for the Chinese painting to constantly raise its aesthetic level.。Part Four explores the methods of carrying brushes, which reflects the relationship between Chinese calligraphy and painting in a lower level but explains it completely. Methods of carrying of brushes involve the speed of carrying brushes, the ways of holding brushes, and the spatial movement of brushes. This part sets forth that the introduction of calligraphy to painting is to integrate calligraphy's function of expressing ideas and to liberate writing which uses the brush as its symbol, and that in this way it combines the Chinese calligraphy's ability to expressing emotions and the Chinese painting's shaping ability.Through Chinese calligraphy's participation in the Chinese painting, Chinese painting absorbs the abstract art's ability to represent the world, the artistic language of Chinese painting raises to a new level, the aesthetic potentials of brushes and ink have been explored, and Chinese painting's aesthetic taste has been vigorously raised to a higher standard. The nature of the integration of Chinese calligraphy with Chinese painting is the combination of Chinese calligraphy's emphasis on meaning and the Chinese painting's focus on image. Only when we realize that, can we grasp the essentials of fusing the two together among the various arguments concerning the relationship between calligraphy and painting, and thus can we make our contribution to the further integration of Chinese calligraphy with Chinese painting.