Calligraphy in the Sui Dynasty was founded in a short time. Although calligraphy was integrated with the North and the South, it did not fully develop and only dominated the calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty. In 30 years, the calligrapher and monk of Sui Dynasty, Zhi Yong, wrote 800 copies of True Grass Thousand Characters and distributed them to monasteries in eastern Zhejiang. His calligraphy has been improved by Wang Xizhi's method, which is fair, beautiful and wonderful. There is a stone carving "True Grass Thousand Characters" handed down from ancient times, and the ink of "True Grass Thousand Characters" has been circulated in Japan, which was also written by Zhiyong.
Calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty The calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty can be divided into three periods: the early Tang Dynasty, the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the late Tang Dynasty.
In the early Tang Dynasty, the society was stable, the economy was booming, and calligraphy was booming. The imperial court legally recognized calligraphy as one of the six schools in imperial academy, and set up a doctor of calligraphy, taking calligraphy as a scholar. Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, loved calligraphy and admired Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. This promoted the development and prosperity of calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty.
Calligraphers in the early Tang Dynasty were represented by Ou Yangxun, Yu Shinan and Chu Suiliang. Ou Yangxun's calligraphy is rigorous, vigorous, and vigorous, winning by danger. Yu Shinan, who was bravely educated in Sui Dynasty, was regarded as the orthodoxy of Wang Xizhi. His calligraphy is serene, plain, solid, soft outside and rigid inside. Chu Suiliang was a rising star of junior high school in Tang Dynasty. His handwriting is clear, vigorous and beautiful, with bones and muscles in it, and he has made new creations in brushwork. In addition, Xue Ji, who studied under Chu Suiliang, was once known as the four early Tang schools with Ou, Yu and Chu. Similar to Xue Qi's style, there are works such as Sacrifice Monument, Preface to Autumn Banquet and Preface to Summer Poems. Li Shimin made great achievements in calligraphy creation and calligraphy theory. Calligrapher Wang Xizhi was the first person to use cursive script as a monument, and his works, such as Jinci Ming and Wenquan Ming, were handed down from generation to generation. In theory, he advocated learning calligraphy from its strengths, and praised the biography of Wang Xizhi in the Book of Jin, saying that its books were perfect, ranking first in ancient and modern times, and he also spent a lot of money to buy its calligraphy ink. So studying Wang Shu is a fashion.
Later, important calligraphers were Sun and Li Yong. Sun is good at cursive writing, learning from Wang Xizhi and writing with a pen. His calligraphy is vigorous and powerful, and is considered as a typical genre of the cursive script of the two kings. The ink passed down from generation to generation has a book spectrum. Li Yong is a talented and prolific calligrapher, and his calligraphy works are mostly inscribed. His calligraphy is thin, vigorous and profound. His works include the tablet of Lushan Temple, the tablet of General Li Xiubei of Yunhui and the tablet of General Li Sixun of Yunhui.
Lu Jianzhi is Yu Shinan's nephew. He studied calligraphy in Yu Shinan, and his handed down works include Ink and Wash.
In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, with the development of social economy and culture, the art of calligraphy also changed and improved greatly. Calligraphy style tends to be vigorous from the early Tang Dynasty. At this time, Zhang Xu, Huai Su, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan and other famous calligraphers appeared, who created a new situation of cursive script and regular script respectively.
Zhang Xu, also known as Zhang Dian, created the wild grass and was known as the sage of grass. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai's poems, Pei's sword dance and Zhang Xu's cursive script numbers were three unique works. Its cursive script is ever-changing and does not deviate from the rules. He can also write very strict regular script, and his Preface to Langguan Shizhu is regarded as the official script of the Tang Dynasty. Huai Su and Zhang Xuhe are called "crazy people". Huai Su got Zhang Xu's brushwork from Yan Zhenqing and Wu Tong.
His words are like a frightened snake, and Zhang Yu is raging. There are ink handed down from ancient times such as "self-narration", "bitter bamboo shoots" and "eating fish". Yan Zhenqing is an innovative calligrapher. His calligraphy is mostly centered, rich in structure and magnificent in Zhuang, which is called Yan Ti. He left the most inscriptions, and there are many kinds. Liu Gongquan is an important calligrapher after Yan Zhenqing. Gu is called Yan. Its words are vigorous and mellow, and its writing is rigorous. The famous calligrapher of this period is Zhong Shaojing, whose works include Ling Fei Jing.
In the late Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty gradually declined, and calligraphy was not as prosperous as in the early Tang Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty. However, some calligraphers appeared, such as Wang Wenbing's seal script and Li E's official script, which were praised by later generations.