A Review Of Li Jianzhong's "Six Posts In The West"

Just like most historical relics,Li Jianzhong's calligraphic works Xi Tai Liu Tie has developed its value after being collected by different people with personal orientation and floating with the whirligig of time in ancient Chinese history.Resulted from a lack of knowledge and materials,however,recent researches concentrate less on the the circulation of Xi Tai Liu Tie in different dynasties.This article tries to clarify the skeleton of the collecting and passing-down of Li's Xi Tai Liu Tie by checking part of the handwriting of the works and seals for collecting and appreciating in different postscript texts of the Ming Dynasty.Moreover,a number of document associated with this matter is consulted to firm the analysis in this essay.According to some available literature materials,Xi Tai Liu Tie has been inscribed by calligraphers or preservers of Song,Yuan and Ming.The whole volume which contains six pieces of correspondence were altogether while flitting but left only three named Tu Mu Tie,Gui Zhai Tie and Tong Nian Tie,on which only the postscript texts written by Jiang Liang,Xiao Yingao,Wang Cheng,Wang Yishi and Liu Risheng from Ming dynasty are still visible.Tun Tian Tie,Xian Lang Tie and Pi Feng Tie,together with the appendixes written by Yuan Liru,Wen Jiweng of Song and Guobi,Yang Weizhen,Qiu Yuan of Yuan,were gone.The first pat of this article is a sketch of Li Jianzhong's living background and learning experience in order to illuminate his writing style and status in the Chinese calligraphy history.Also,some of his other productions are going to be introduced in this module.In the second chapter comes the crucial discussion.The author gives a deep study on the collecting and delivering of Li's Xi Tai Liu Tie in each period of time.The issue will be discussed in more detail.The question how Xi Tai Liu Tie was going through during Song and Yuan can be learned only by document compilations in which some postscript texts are included by other people.For example,(from the relics we know that)it had been once kept by a person named "Tangyi" and a place called"Yianshi".For now,none but the postscript texts of Yuan Liru and Wen Jiweng can be found existed from the Southern Song Dynasty while that of Guobi's,Qiu Yuan's and Yang Weizhen's were the only-remaining ones of Yuan.Compared with those circumstances,materials of the time Ming-Qing,related to Xi Tai Liu Tie,are relatively abundant.In the light of the available remains of Xi Tai Liu Tie and certain seals in the early Ming postscript texts,we can conclude that this works had been appreciated and inscribed by Jiang Liang,Xiao Yingao,Wang Yishi,Wangcheng and BeiTai each and were undoubtedly stored up by Xiang Yuanbian.So,by studying the relationship between Xiang Yuanbian and his fellow collectors around the same time we can find clues to the main problem this thesis is trying to solve.In addition,Xi Tai Liu Tie had been sealed by Anqi,Chending,Dong Bangda and Gaozong Emperor as well.The event it was separated during circulation time had been recorded in Shu Hua Ji written by Wu Qizhen,who lived between Ming and Qing.That Xi Tai Liu Tie were split into certain parts and then found its place in the imperial storehouse with the passing-on of Anqi Wu had written provides a firmly and reliable evidence for the matter.Xi Tai Liu Tie took its flickering but traceable tour through each period.Up till now,Tu Mu Tie and four postscript texts of early Ming were collected in the Palace Museum in Taiwan while Tong Nian Tie,Gui Zhai Tie and Liu Risheng's script were settled down in the Palace Museum in Beijing.The rest part of it remains nowhere to be found.