Chen Chun Calligraphy Study

The "Wu Men" calligraphy genre was the most influential scholar calligraphy genre characterized for its regional feature in Ming Dynasty and Chen Chun, a famous calligrapher of that time, was one of the most outstanding representative of this genre in its great prosperity period.Appearance of Chen Chun as a great calligrapher had special historic significance in the development of "Wu Men" calligraphy genre. Therefore, this paper collect and tidy a large amount of historical data about Chen Chun, trying hard to use methods such as textual research, synthesis, comparison and picture analysis, giving an overall study to Chen Chun's art life, the origin of the calligraphy, and his great achievements. This article point out that the unexpected pass away of Chen Chun's father and the deep sorrow he felt after the accident, greatly changed his individual personality, philosophy of life and concept of value. On the other hand, this accident also gave him stimulation to his creativity and formed his new trend of calligraphy. Furthermore, his division with Wen Zhengming also offered space of freedom in his creativity objectively. This article also explain how Chen Chun inherited the brilliant tradition of "Wu Men" outstanding forgoer by consulting the home preserved works of masters as Lin Zao, Yang NingShi, Mi Fu's calligraphy, forming the unique style of his own. The article which describes the comparison of Chen Chun's with works of masters in different time made the reason that he was entitled as the main calligrapher obvious. This Article emphasizes that it is because Wen Zhengming being the leader of "Wu Men", that effected inappropriate appraisal of Chen Chun's calligraphy for a long time. The article makes a proper evaluation of Chen Chun calligraphy in the "Wu Men" calligraphy genre and makes clear its important linking role in Ming Dynasty calligraphy history in the last part of the article .