Study On Calligraphy Education Of Song Dynasty

The South and North Song Dynasties saw the prosperity of the Chinese culture. Duringthese periods, the imperial government put intellectual pursuits above material arts andthere appeared six of the Eight Great Men of Letters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Andthese six literary giants achieved a lot. There were also great achievements in painting andcalligraphy. Running script stood out in the art of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty andcalligraphy education enjoyed its unprecedented development. The advocating of theemperors, the impact of the imperial examination system, the setting up of the relevantadministrative organizations, the prevailing of the transcription and engraving systems, theappearing of the ideas of fashionably valuing books and the artistic- conception-oriented allproduced profound influence on the development of the calligraphy education of the SongDynasty. The wider scope of calligraphy education of this period helped the appearance ofsuch calligrapher groups of the emperors, the folks and the religion communities and therewere such modes of the calligraphy education as learning through paternal teaching andinfluence as well as private learning. Specialized courses went along with the courses ontheory. The calligraphy education began to function socially. And there emerged the famouscalligraphers as Song's Four Masters and a lot were achieved in the theory aspects. In aword, calligraphy theories came into being on the basis of the calligraphy practices and inturn they can guide the practices in the calligraphic field. Owing to the great achievementsof the Song Dynasty, its calligraphy education has influenced the later generations a lot notonly from the perspective of the influences on the writing styles of the Song Dynasties butalso its teaching methods being adopted by the later generations.