A Study On Zeng Guofan's Calligraphy

Zeng Guofan firstly is a well-known statesman, a great thinker and a famous writer in Chinese modern history. To him, calligraphy is a redundant matter. This thesis tries to perform a study on the calligraphy of Zeng Guofan via the exploration of the origin of his thought, and put his calligraphy into the large social background, ideological background and cultural background to make an observation. Hence, a objective and appropriate judgment of the position of Zeng Guofan's calligraphy in Chinese modern calligraphy history-a guard of Tiexue calligraphy in late Qing Dynasty.The situation of calligraphy in late Qing Dynasty is shown as:on the one hand, since Wei and Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi's and Wan Xianzhi's calligraphy had gone through Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasty and gradually deviated from Confucian Theory of Tiexue Calligraphy. By late Qing Dynasty, it had been about to disappear. On the other hand, since Qian Jia Reign, due to the need for textual research, a large amount of calligraphy materials from underground as well as remote and border areas emerged. Thanks to the advocacy of Ruan Yuan, Bao Shichen and Kang Youwei, it evolved to a calligraphy upsurge called Tablet Calligraphy, which greatly impacted the Tiexue tradition since Song Yuan Dynasty and was going to replace it.Zeng Guofan immersed himself in the traditional Chinese culture all his life, and was deeply influenced by Confucian Thoughts. He pursued the extreme goal of "self-cultivating, Regulating the family, Governing the country, and Unifying the world", constantly went after the essence of Confucian Thoughts, and formed the distinctive "Neo-Confucianism Practical Thoughts" in practice. Taking "Guarding the Confucianism" as the starting point, starting with the benefits of his own class, his thought tried its best to maintain the already-existing feudal political systems and moral orders, conservative but not destructive. Starting from the purpose of guarding the Confucianism, Zeng Guofan thought that calligraphy firstly should be practical, a tool to "promote education and help moralities", a tool to keep feudal dominating system. It took after the aesthetic standards of "guarding to harmony" "guarding to the doctrine of mean" in literary thoughts. On the one hand, it tried to protect traditional Tiexue, keep the calligraphy order, disabuse the deviation from orthodox Tiexue since Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasty. Starting with the inside of Tiexue, his thought absorbed the intrinsic measure, order, power, and momentum in regular scripts of Tang Dynasty, and formed a calligraphy style which gave priority to masculine and combined both firmness and flexibility. On the other hand, the overdependence on intrinsic measures and order, it lacked artistry and creativity, and was not able to escape from the influence of Taige Style, failing to exceed the Tiexue calligraphy in Late Qing Dynasty.However, it doesn't mean that Zeng Guofan's calligraphy is meaningless in calligraphy history. On the contrary, his calligraphy thought means a lot in the whole calligraphy history.First, it takes after Confucian thought culture, Confucianism being the form while calligraphy being the practice. Calligraphy is taken as a means and way to cultivate the people, to achieve the ideal realm of peace and harmony, and to achieve the purpose of keeping the feudal managing system.Second, Zeng Guofan's calligraphy thought gives priority to masculine, and combines both firmness and flexibility, which amounts to unification, harmony and nature, and reach the realm of "Zhongyong" "Zhonghe" in Confucian aesthetic thought. It grants deeper and more colorful contents to calligraphy dialects.Third, the calligraphy style of "integrating majesty with tranquility" "combining grandeur with peace" mirrors Zeng Guofan's obsession with traditional Tixue calligraphy, and also reflects his confidence and determination to revive the calligraphy orthodox since Wei and Jin.Fourth, it can be observed from the perspective of Zeng Guofan's calligraphy situation that in the calligraphy area the upper class bureaucratic calligraphy and tablet style in Late Qing Dynasty still took the dominant position, and various calligraphy styles co-existed and paralleled, which clarifies the partial description that tablet calligraphy took the absolute monopoly.Besides, this thesis does not restrict to the explanation of calligraphy. It also analyzes Zeng Guofan's calligraphy phenomenon under the macro social, cultural and thought background, and tries to search for the answer from the thought origin. It first provides a clear understanding of Zeng Guofan's thought origin, and then further put his calligraphy in a large calligraphy history, making a full exploration about his calligraphy thought and calligraphy style. On the basis of mastering Zeng Guofan's Neo-Confucian Practical Thought, the thesis restores the true face of history on the question of the position of Zeng Guofan's calligraphy in modern calligraphy history, and provides reliable evidence to modern and contemporary calligraphy production and calligraphy theory research to make up the blank in calligraphy history of Late Qing Dynasty.