Wang Duo Cursive Study

This thesis is a treatise on the cursive hand of Wang Duo, the calligrapher in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. To order to do a thorough, deep analysis and discussion on the origin, traits and influence of Wang's cursive hand style, this thesis is divided into four parts: the formation of Wang's cursive hand style, the analysis of his artistic treatment, his position in the cursive history of Ming Dynasty and his influence from late Ming Dynasty to the present age with the attachment of the Brief List of Wang's Cursive Hand Works. The formation of Wang Duo's cursive style is divided into two sections: the origin of the style traces Wang's cursive style to his mastery through a comprehensive study of the calligraphy in Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties, greatly influenced by the ideology of the late Ming Dynasty, Chunhua ge tie(Model Letters from the Imperial Archives in the Chunhua Era) of the Song Dynasty, and the method of copying and creating in a natural way, irregular imitating and expanding. Wang Duo's cursive works, chronologically can be divided into starting period (before 40 years old), the period of seeking change (between 40-45) and mature period(after 50). The analyses of his artistic style mainly focus on his cursive stroke, structure, art of composition, art of using ink and manner with detailed discussion respectively. His stroke mostly is medium-sharp, elegant and vigorous, swift rhythm with powerful energy. The structure is almost straight, set up sparsely and densely in proportion. He is extremely skillful in using the technique of slanting, flexibly dealing with characters with the same form but in different positions. The art of composition he exploits in handling character-to-character link is oddity with double axis. The space between characters is dense while the space between lines is sparse. The overall effect of the composition is swift, changeable and vigorous. His use of ink emphasizes the combination of the two extremes of heaviness and lightness. His style mainly is vigorous, lush, strong and queer. In His Position in the Cursive history of Ming Dynasty, based on analysis, comparison and integration, his position is considered as representative of that dynasty's cursive handwriting. In the influenceof Wang Duo's Cursive handwriting, the influence of Wang on the late Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and contemporary periods. the Brief List of Wang's Cursive Hand Works is a brief introduction to Wang Duo's 205 pieces of works, including ink writing and carving, with time, name, size of material, place of collection or origin.Wang Duo left a lot cursive works in the world with great achievements, receiving both and with complimentary and derogatory views. Due to the limitation of the knowledge of this writer, there are mistakes in the arrangement of the materials, the analysis and the exposition, which calls for the corrections from experts.