Guo Song's Study Of Confucianism And Calligraphy

Guo Songtao(1818-1891)was a famous Confucian scholar in modern China,and his Confucianism and Confucian mind had important influence on his concept of calligraphy.This paper aims at doing a systematic study about the concept of calligraphy of Guo Songtao from his Confucianism and Confucian mind,and also in-depth exploration of Guo Songtao Confucianism and the deep connection between temperament influenced by Confucianism and his concept of calligraphy.This paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter discusses the relationship between Guo Songtao's ideas of Neo-Confucianism,country-management and inner concentration together with his "uprightness" mind for calligraphy.For Guo Songtao,from Neo-Confucianism standpoint,he paid attention to humanistic pragmatism,emphasized the individual moral cultivation.The individual moral cultivation cannot live without the inner concentration,in Guo Songtao's mind,calligraphy could be the indispensable part of self-cultivation for those traditional literati,which could be used as an important content of their daily "uprightness",that was to assist the individual moral training by "how to write" "why to write" "what to write" these three aspects of calligraphy,so as to realize their social functions.The second chapter discusses the relationship between Guo Songtao's ideas of "morals change when the world changes" and "study all subtle truth" together with the "including all ancient and modern changes" concept of calligraphy.Guo Songtao insisted the "substance first before conscience",objects pre-existence,inherited from Wang Fuzhi,he admitted objectivity of consciousness but did not acknowledge the its absoluteness,holding idea of "morals consciousness change when the world changes".Only with "getting consciousness from objects,and inner concentration making efforts",can reach humanistic pragmatism.And "study all subtle truth" needs "knowledgeable mind",so Guo Songtao was open-hearted towards culture,he dedicated to all the culture from ancient and modern,Chinese and western,learned widely from others' strong points to enrich himself.Also,Guo Songtao insisted that "study all ancient and modern changes" in concept of calligraphy learning,which is mainly embodied in three aspects as equally treatment to ancient and present,compatibility of stele and model calligraphy,and hard work.The third chapter discusses the relationship between Guo Songtao's ideas of "amassing morals to world peace" and "inner sincerity expressed outside" and his "casually producing" concept of calligraphy creation.Guo Songtao affirmed "moral" was real,as long as practicing inner concentration to the "sincere" of sage,it could make "metal and stone crack" and produce "world peace" effectively.In other words,"inner sincerity" must be able to "form on outside".Therefore,Guo Songtao,in the calligraphy creation idea,asked for personal expressions of real temperament and charm,and creating casually in free style,instead of deliberately arrangement,artificial actions.The fourth chapter discusses the relationship between Guo Songtao's "frantic" personality and magnificent aesthetic concept of calligraphy.Guo Songtao fully affirmed the "frantic" personality,he thought "frantic" was not a negative personality type deviated from the "medium",it is a state during "medium" process but not reaching the perfection in reality.If there was no "frantic",there would be no "medium"."Frantic" is the only road of "medium",and "medium" is just of proper use from "frantic".The "frantic" personality in pursuing ideals' practice,struggled with "custornary" and "hypocrite",in which resolute,forceful and sublime was produced,and that influenced and formed magnificent aesthetic idea of calligraphy for Guo Songtao,Aesthetic pursuit of calligraphy for Guo Songtao was mainly embodied on the spiritual level finding the magnificent of metal and stone,he cared ancient and modern calligraphy with magnificent aesthetic standards and implemented this magnificent aesthetic requirements consciously during his calligraphic practice.