A Study On The Artistic Conception Of "Seeking Change" In Xu Wei 's Calligraphy

In late Ming Dynasty, Zen thought prevailed, Taizhou school of thought emerged, andpeople’s thought was emancipated; it was one important turning point in the developmenthistory of Chinese calligraphy. For a long time, archaism feudal thought and value conceptrepresented by Zhu Cheng’s theory suffered strong impact. The pioneer of ideologicalemancipation-Xu Wei stood outstandingly relying upon his unsurpassed unique artistic style,and raised a romantic tide of personality emancipation. His uninhabited and unruly calligraphicstyle brought a ray of vitality for lifeless calligraphic community in late Ming Dynasty, andexerted far-reaching influence to the development of calligraphic art in later generations.Xu Wei represented the “change” artistic thought fully and delightfully via free, easy,informal and unconventional calligraphic lines, and also permeated such thought into hispaintings and poetries, thereby integrating poetry, calligraphy and painting. Therefore, weshould not only seek the cause of formation of his unique calligraphic style from externalpolitical, economic and cultural aspects; but also further understand the “seeking change”calligraphic style via analyzing his calligraphic thought. It is the main idea of this paper, and theaim of research is to conduct deeper-level analysis on calligraphic style of Xu Wei. Finally, onsuch basis, it discussed the enlightenment and influence of “change” calligraphic style of XuWei to later generations.This paper mainly consists of four parts. The first part expounded on the socialenvironment, living environment, cultural environment and family background that Xu Wei wasin and his lifetime, aiming at making a comprehensive understanding and exerting a prospectiverole on Xu Wei. The second part carried out research on calligraphic theory of Xu Wei, andrespectively represented the thought of his brushwork, structure, method of use of ink and water,and imitating calligraphy. This chapter plays the role of connecting the following, as it can onlybetter research his “seeking change” calligraphic art and style thought only when firstlyunderstanding his understanding to calligraphy. The third part is the emphasis of this paper,aiming at describing the “seeking change” artistic thought of Xu Wei’s calligraphy. Firstly, theway of selection of Xu Wei’s calligraphy was described to understand its development source;in-depth understanding on unruly, elegant, graceful, and changing calligraphic style with simplestrokes, as well as the peculiar and steep brushwork and charming art of composition werecarried out to generalize his “seeking change” calligraphic art and style. The final partelaborated the enlightenment and influence of “seeking change” artistic style and thought of XuWei’s calligraphy to calligraphy in later generations, which unscrambled Xu Wei from a new angle and illustrated that the research of this paper is valuable.This paper was researched mainly through the literature reference, analysis, comparative,case analysis, combining theory with practice and other methods of research.