Ming Dynasty Calligraphers Calligraphy Of Su Shi

Su shi is a distinguished advocate and practitioner of "Shang Yi Calligraphy Style" in North Song Dynasty, whose achievement is often treated as a landmark in the history of Chinese calligraphy. He has such a great impact on the aftertime development of Chinese calligraphy that his name can almost represent the calligraphy of his times. However, when the specific course of his being acknowledged as the practitioner of calligraphy art, and when his being received is compared to that of other calligraphists in the dynasty, it can be found that he is really distinct. Just like Yan Zhenqin's calligraphy, Su Shi's calligraphy being received has also gone through such a course, the course of Su Shi being treated at first as a cultural individual and then as a cultural symbol, and thus over the course the assessment regarding his composition has differed vastly. This paper times this course from Su Shi's ages to the middle of Ming Dynasty to finally the reception of Wu Group's representative calligraphists about Su Shi and his calligraphy.Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Mi Fu, as the main representatives of the calligraphy in the North Song Dynasty, accorded with each other as regards the calligraphy style of emphasizing the spirit, who co-established the so-called ""Shang Yi Calligraphy Style". In South Song Dynasty, Su Shi's composition being received tended to follow these two trends. The first one was to be directly copied by Shidaifu and celebrities of the times, which exactly deviated from Su Shi's style to the sense of its essence and as a result to some extent contributed to the style's being formed in the dynasty. The other one was to oppose Su Shi's style and he was criticized typically as a negative example since Zhu Xi's conservative view of calligraphy had begun to effect impact at that time. However, the reactionist calligraphers in the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mehgfu as the representative, invented a totally new method, who, influenced mentally by the conservative concept, didn't copy Su Shi's style but at the same time didn't oppose Su Shi's ideas on calligraphy. Then as time went by, there appeared a relatively quiet tendency for the moment in regards to Su Shi's being received until the early Ming Dynasty when the controversy about the reception of Su Shi's calligraphy was almost forgotten and actually disappeared in practice due to the calligraphy's being confined by absolute monarchy. But in the middle of Ming Dynasty, there developed a different tendency that the "Wu Group" calligraphers, with Zhu Yunming and Wen Huiming as representatives, on one hand, not only attached great importance to but learned from the distinguished calligraphists in North Song Dynasty, and Su Shi's composition was highly valued. On the other hand, most of them were not keen on choosing Su Shi's works to copy. This paper is written to try to analyze this phenomenon, the "Wu Group" calligraphers' reception of Su Shi's calligraphy. The specific content is as follows:The Introduction part deals with the significance and academic value of choosing the subject of this paper and sums up the past present study on Su Shi and "Wu Group" calligraphers.Chapter One discusses Su Shi's vision of Calligraphy.Chapter Two summarizes the reception of Su Shi's calligraphy in the North Song, South Song and Yuan Dynasty.Chapter Three analyzes the reasons why Su Shi's calligraphy was attached no importance and sums up the acknowledgement of his calligraphy in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.Chapter Four parses in great details the reasons why "Wu Group" calligraphers appraises highly but acquires little Su Shi's calligraphy, which is done in these aspects such as the utilitarian purpose, the different embodiment of "Love the calligrapher, love his composition" in the practical field and the Calligraphy practical needs of "Wu Group" calligraphers.Chapter Five, based on the deep reflection on the reception study of Su Shi's calligraphy, validates again the traditional concept and judging standards of ancient people about calligraphy, and consequently probes the root of the contradiction for "Wu Group" calligraphers when receiving Su Shi's composition.