Zhao Zhiqian Study Of Calligraphy Art

A historic change took place in Chinese calligraphy in the Qing dynasty due to a dramatic change in people's aesthetic appreciation caused by the prosperity of epigraphy brought by the social environment, the rise of Chinese philology and other relevant factors. With an increase in the number of the objects unearthed in the Late Ming and Qing Dynasty, lots of stone tablets were discovered, and this produced a huge effect on the aesthetic appreciation of calligraphy, greatly updating scholars' and calligraphers' cognition of calligraphy and reformation of techniques. These unearthed stone tablets, eaves tiles, measuring tools of Qin and ancient coins helped extend the range of imitation. Later, a learning climate created by a school during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jianqing further pushed the aesthetics of calligraphy closer to inscription calligraphy, breaking the pattern that the science of calligraphic copies held a mainstream position. What's more, the science of calligraphic copies became weaker and weaker under the background of calligraphic reform and aesthetics at that time. In the meantime, epigraphy came into being, opening up a new way for the development of calligraphy in Qing Dynasty.Zhao Zhiqian, a representative calligrapher and painter in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, was a master of stone inscription rubbings. By virtue of his own efforts, extreme intelligence and superb calligraphic skills, he integrated various schools' strong points together, and combined the vigorousness of stone tablets with the elegance of calligraphic copies, creating a vigorous and elegant calligraphy style. He applied this style to his regular, cursive, official and seal scripts, and made great achievements. His success is an important hint that we should research calligraphy in accordance with the “epochal characters”.The achievements of this paper include the following three ones: first, the objectivity and subjectivity of the formation of Zhao Zhiqian's calligraphy in the late Qing Dynasty; second, the subtlety of Zhao Zhiqian's treatment of the cursive tabletinscriptions of the Northern Dynasties; third, the influence of Zhao Zhiqian's calligraphy thought on the contemporaries.A study of Zhao Zhiqian's calligraphy let us know how to understand the relationship between inheritance and development based on creativity. That is, “calligraphy should go along with the times”, a view advocated in the contemporary era.