Calligraphy in troubled times-chapter 16

Notes on China's Calligraphy History (Volume of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties) (8)

From 304 to 439 AD, there were many ethnic separatist regimes in the north and Sichuan, which were called "Sixteen Countries" in history.

Map of the Sixteen Kingdoms Period ↓

Among them, there are regimes such as Xiliang, Beiyan, Yunnan, etc. established by the Han nationality, and there are also people's regimes with fewer people established by the "Five Lakes" of Xiongnu, Anta, Xianbei, Bianyi and Qiang.

During this period, the northern region was chaotic and divided, and political power changed frequently. Both gentry and ordinary people are displaced and miserable.

Fortunately, the minority rulers had to cooperate with the northern gentry and local forces to consolidate their political power in the Han areas. This objectively preserved and spread the cultural traditions of the Han and Jin dynasties, and also accelerated the sinicization process of the upper rulers.

In the history of calligraphy, the writing calligraphy of sixteen countries has received little attention and is almost blank. Besides being covered by the light of the "two kings" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the main reason is that the Sixteen Kingdoms are very rare. It was not until the 20th century that some documents, classics, inscriptions and epitaphs were unearthed.

During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, most ink documents and classics were written in running script and regular script, while inscriptions and epitaphs were written in official script.

1 and the characteristics of sixteen official scripts

One of the inscriptions on official script in the Sixteen Kingdoms period was official script. This kind of official script inherits the "folding knife head" form of Wei and Jin official scripts, which is clear and smooth. Such as Deng Taiwei's ancestral tablet ↓

There is also a square and flat official script, such as the title and signature of the third volume of Faji written by Xi Liang.

The third kind of Fang Bi official script, such as Zhenjun's tomb table and Liang Fujun's tomb table, is thick in strokes and square in shape, but compared with the Eastern Jin official script, its structure is not as flat and thick and its waves are distinct.

Another kind of official script belongs to variant official script, whose main feature is to write official script in uppercase. Such as "Guangwu General Monument".

2. Regular script ink

Regular script in the Sixteen Kingdoms period is mainly found in ancient documents unearthed in Turpan, Xinjiang and Buddhist scriptures written in Dunhuang, Gansu.

Dunhuang has been a famous calligraphy town since ancient times. Both Zhang Zhi and Suo Jing are from Dunhuang, and they are also respected as teachers by local people. It can be said that the writing ink found in the Northwest during the Sixteen Kingdoms period can be regarded as the remnants of Han and Jin calligraphy.

The first category is the writing of ancient books. There are still official scripts when writing regular script. Representative works include Preface to Shi Mao Guan Ju and Countermeasures for Scholars.

The second category is Buddhist scriptures. This kind of regular script is characterized by long horizontal and short vertical; Horizontal painting is heavy and thick; Draw left low and right high horizontally; The left and right structure prefixes are flush. The representative figure is "the essence of the wandering woman".

The third type of regular script is daily letters. This kind of regular script is often not so neat, and there are running scripts. The length and width are straight, the tip is blunt, the pen is retracted forward, the vertical pen is long and tight.

3, running script ink

Most of the running script ink unearthed before the founding of the People's Republic of China was lost overseas, and the ink unearthed after the founding of the People's Republic of China was also found in the northwest. In a word, these running scripts are characterized by the common writing style of regular script or Lian Bi style at that time. Specifically, it can be divided into three categories: vertical, horizontal and vertical. These running scripts are close to the beautiful handwriting of Jiangnan at that time. For example, "Wang Nian buys camel coupons".

Another famous representative of the sixteen-country running script is Li Bo Instrument (two complete * * *).

The two "Li Bo Documents" are different in style from the book. The strokes are thick and thin, but they are all written by the same person. What is rare in this document is that an unknown calligrapher in the northwest has shown a flattering gesture similar to that of the two kings in the south of the Yangtze River, but it was several years earlier than Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Orchid Pavilion.

Northern calligraphers in the Sixteen Kingdoms period were represented by Cui Shi in Qinghe and Lushi in Fanyang. During the wartime when the cultural construction in the north was far behind that in the south, they adhered to the calligraphy tradition of Han and Wei dynasties and continued the calligraphy style of the Western Jin Dynasty. Their calligraphy is very cultured. In the cracks of the "Hu people" regime, it maintains the symbol of the aristocratic family and is also the spiritual sustenance of the vast number of northerners who are "wandering the old country".

Next: Calligraphy in Northern Wei Dynasty