System Of The Tang Dynasty Calligraphy Appreciation

Appreciation and evaluation system, which is one the important methods of ancient art criticism, had enter its heyday in the Tang Dynasty, of which the appreciation and evaluation of calligraphy inherited and innovated by calligraphy theorists of the Tang Dynasty had developed to its best. This thesis has mainly researched and discussed the development of appreciation and evaluation of calligraphy in Tang Dynasty systematically.Appreciation and evaluation should be traced back to appreciation as its subcategory, so the theoretical research of appreciation and evaluation has taken the angle of evaluation as its point of penetration and concluded the concept of appreciation and evaluation.The use of appreciation and evaluation were not first applied in calligraphy and ink painting. It was endowed with aesthetic meaning after nine grades of rank in former regimes of Wei and Jin Dynasty broke away from politics and interests and turned to human aesthetics. After that, appreciations and evaluations in various art fields came to full swing, the first of which was the Grades of Poetry, written by Zheng Rong. It is not only the earliest ancestor of appreciation and evaluation system, but also it was the first to introduce the theory of appreciation and evaluation into art and set up the model for later generations in the process of appreciation and evaluation. Yu Jianwu in South Dynasty was the first man to apply appreciation and evaluation into calligraphy. When it came to the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, calligraphy critic, Li Sizhen inherited and improved the appreciation and evaluation system. With further perfection of this system, Li Sizhen introduced逸品as a kind of style into the appreciation and evaluation system, and this is the beginning of appreciation and evaluation on style and had laid a solid foundation for later system.During the climax of the Tang Dynasty, appreciation and evaluation was pushed to its peak with ShuDuan, which was written by Zhang Huaiguan, as its symbol. That the appreciation and evaluation system got great development in this period has its historical reasons. On the one hand, the stable political environment and prosperous economy had provided a good environment for the development for calligraphy. On the other hand, the Tang Dynasty with a breadth of mind could tolerate all kinds of thoughts, which was favorable toward calligraphers to get nutrition from it to enrich calligraphy. Born in this background, Zhang Huaijin procured the emergence of ShuDuan by drawing thoughts from Confuses and Taoism. In ShuDuan, the mystery, ingenuity, and ability have become the standard of appreciation and evaluation of calligraphy. Tracing it back could give us a way to deeply understand the characters of appreciation and evaluation on Tang calligraphy.During the Tang Dynasty, critics had their own ways to appreciate and evaluate calligraphy. It is a process that combines natural beauty and artistic beauty and depends on the soul to recognize and understand the works. So it has the characters of intentionality and intuitiveness. If there are fuzziness and subjectivity of this characterized appreciation and evaluation, Zhang Huaiguan's appreciation should have the objectivity due to his quotation of classical works, tracing the calligraphers to its source and the inheritance of ancestors'valuable appreciation methods, which undoubtedly proves his objective and just attitude of appreciation and evaluation.The appreciation and evaluation of calligraphy during the climax of the Tang Dynasty has extremely great influence and value. On the one hand it had provided reference structure frame and appreciation standard for later generations; on the other hand, as Zhang Huaiguan had carefully sorted the quoted historical materials in his ShuDuan, which has great historical value that was used by later critics very often.Our purpose of researching the appreciation and evaluation system is not only to explain it historically; what's more important is that we could realize the communication and dialogue between old appreciation thoughts and modern development of calligraphy and find their linkage. Through combining ancestors'methods and experience, it could provide more inspiration for modern calligraphy, which reflects its important realistic meaning.