Study On Bai Yuchan's Calligraphy

Southern Song Dynasty has always been a poor and weak Dynasty in people's mind.However,the cultural thoughts of the Southern Song Dynasty were extremely active in Chinese history.This period witnessed not only the formation and maturity of Neo-Confucianism,but also the competition of different schools.Buddhism and Taoism were further expanded and flourished as well.The calligraphy in the Southern Song Dynasty presented a rich aesthetic orientation,including the continuation the appearances of various schools in the Northern Song Dynasty,the pursuit of the restoration of the ancients and the advocating of the Jin and Tang Dynasties,because of the continuation of the style of calligraphy in the Northern Song Dynasty,the prosperity of inscriptions and the rise of the idea of restoring the ancients.However,as far as the artistic influence is concerned,although this dynasty has what later generations called the "four schools of Southern Song Dynasty",it is still weak compared with the Northern Song Dynasty.This thesis will take Bai Yuchan,a Taoist priest and a calligraphy in the Southern Song China,as its case study.He has outstanding literary and artistic talents,profound artistic outlook,therefore,he has a unique position and research value in the Southern Song Dynasty..Bai Yuchan's life was full of ups and downs.He spent his young and middle-aged years roving around the country.In his later years,he learned from masters and formed a church.He had transcendent pursuit andstrong literary sentiment,judging from the remains of his literary works.Rich life experience and learning experience have helped form his personalized calligraphy.Its regular scripts are mainly based on Yan Zhenqing,Huang Tingjian and Zhu Xi.The cursive scripts are based on Zhang Xu,Huai Su and Huang Tingjian,and are deeply influenced by Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy.The style is delicate,elegant,sharp,seemingly random,yetimplying the method of interest.His works in his later years show the style of Wei and Jin Dynasty,which is rare and valuable.Through textual research,analogy and illustration,this paper makes a detailed analysis of Bai Yuchan's calligraphy and aesthetic thoughts,and compares Bai Yuchan's calligraphy with his contemporary calligraphers of different knowledge,experience and identity to further explain Bai's calligraphic artistic characteristics and humanistic value.Bai Yuchan's understanding of calligraphy from Taoism perspective should have a place in the history of calligraphy in Southern Song Dynasty.This study may provide some useful thoughts for current calligraphy creation and research.