As far as personality is concerned, Tang Taizong's calligraphy should be particularly strong, but all the calligraphy we see are elegant and brilliant, such as Wenquanming (the running script inscription written by Tang Taizong for Lishan Hot Spring is also the first running script inscription in the history of calligraphy in China, and the original stone has been lost. The rubbings were originally stored in the Dunhuang Sutra Cave, and are now stored in the National Library of Paris, France), and the cursive "Screen Post" [Figure 8, made in the fourteenth year of Emperor Taizong's Zhenguan (640). The original book was written on silk in the form of real grass, counted eleven, and then lost. In the 4th year of Song Jiatai (1204), Wang Yun carved it in Yuhang for the first time, and it was handed down as a rubbings, which is an interesting phenomenon. The integration of the north and the south made the calligraphy of the Tang Dynasty begin to exert its strength.
However, there is one thing that you may easily overlook, and it is easy to imagine the Tang Dynasty with the situation of the Song Dynasty, resulting in a particularly large error. Most calligraphers in the Song Dynasty did not practice martial arts, while most calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty did. There is an essential difference between the two.
We know that the most important official positions in the Tang Dynasty were all related to Wu Zhi, such as our time, secretariat and satrap, and the civil and military functions were not as distinct as later imagined. For example, there is a word called "going out into the phase" ("going out" is assigned to other places; "Entering" refers to being an official in the imperial court. From "Biography of the Kings of the Old Tang Dynasty", this word basically failed after the Song Dynasty. Because the Song Dynasty was divided into civil and military, which was very clear. The frontier generals of the Tang Dynasty or our envoys engaged in military activities and returned to the imperial court as prime ministers after making meritorious deeds. For example, Zhang Yanyuan, the most famous art historian in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the first art history of China, recording the famous paintings of past dynasties. Zhang Yanyuan's great-grandfather is called Zhang. He used to be a frontier general, and later returned to the imperial court to be prime minister.
In the Tang dynasty, both civil and military were cultivated. The best calligraphy can only be produced in the era of paying equal attention to both civil and military.
Fig. 9 "Golden Wind Post" by Mrs. Jin Wei
I often chat with some calligraphers, such as my former neighbor and contemporary calligrapher Mr. Wang Yong. He also talked about the word "powerful" in Jin and Tang Dynasties (Eastern Jin to Sui and Tang Dynasties). I also talked to Sun Xiaoyun, a calligrapher in Nanjing, and he also said that the characters in Jin and Tang Dynasties were "very powerful". Mr. Qiu Zhenzhong, a contemporary calligraphy theorist, also talked about the issue of "force". He believes that the primary criterion of good calligraphy is "strength".
I once played a joke on him: powerful things are not written like this. Power comes first from a strong wrist. There is a qualitative difference between wrist with sword and wrist without sword. Therefore, great calligraphers in the Jin and Tang Dynasties generally practiced martial arts. A poet like Li Bai also said that he learned swordsmanship in the Tenth Five-Year Plan (the original text is "Fifteen Good Swordsmanship" in Li Bai's Book of Jingzhou in Han Dynasty), which shows that he can use swords.
In Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, calligraphers were basically military families. For example, Wang Xizhi's teacher is Hedong Weishi [there is a calligraphy theorist in his family, Wei Heng, who writes four-body calligraphy]. There is also a famous female calligrapher, Mrs. Wei (Figure 9), whose real name is Wei Shuo and the word Mao Yi, who is also one of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy teachers. The Wei family in Hedong is a military family and has produced many great calligraphers.
There are also many misunderstandings about Wang Langya. We often think that Wang Langya is a literary family when we talk about him. This is only one aspect. In fact, Wang Langya is also a military family. If they talk about Xuan every day, drink some wine and write some poems, they can "the king and the horse, the world is * * *" with Sima Jia (this was a popular saying at that time, referring to Wang Langya and the royal Sima Jia mastering the power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty), which is impossible. In fact, Langya, the king of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, held the military power.
At that time, the south (Eastern Jin Dynasty) dealt with the north, and there were two most important military forts along the Yangtze River: the fortress in the west was now Jiujiang (Jiangzhou) and the fortress in the east was now Zhenjiang. This fortress in the west was controlled by Wang Langya, and later it got into a fight with the Yu family. So the king of Langya is with the [word emblem. People from Jinxiang County, Gaoping County (now Jinxiang County, Shandong Province). Lv Chi's great-grandson married Wang Xizhi's father-in-law and Chi Jian controlled Zhenjiang. In fact, Wang Langya also achieved control of another fortress. Wang Xizhi has a name called Wang Youjun. We said, "Your calligraphy is second only to Wang Xizhi's from Mrs. Wei", and the general of the right army is Wu Zhi. This basically formed a calligraphy tradition in the Jin and Tang Dynasties.
Figure 10 "disaster sticker"
Chi Jian, Wang Xizhi's father-in-law, is now guarding Zhenjiang. Chi Jian is a great calligrapher, and we can still see his calligraphy in The Pavilion of Spring Flowers (Figure 10). Of course, his original work has been lost. Chi Jian's daughter Xi Long (birth and death year unknown, word ovary. Wang Xizhi's seven sons and one daughter are all born by dragons. She is also Wang Xizhi's wife. She is also a calligrapher.
Therefore, we can say that Gao Pingya, Wang Langya, Wei Hedong and other families all pay equal attention to civil and military affairs. In fact, they have more military status.
Figure 1 1 Tang Yan Zhenqing's Biography of Cai Tie
Photo 12 ties between Tang Yan Zhenqing and Li Taibao.
In fact, so did the Tang Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, these calligraphers also had the status of soldiers. For example, Ou Yangxun's ancestors were all officers, and Chu Suiliang's father, Chu Liang, was a soldier. Yu Shinan is an aristocrat in the south of the Yangtze River. He went to Chang 'an with his brother Yu Shiqi very early. It is difficult for us to speculate on his specific identity. Yan Zhenqing, a famous official and calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty. There is a name called Yan Pingyuan, who created the "Yan Ti" regular script, which has a great influence on later generations. Because he was a plain satrap, he led troops to fight in the Anshi rebellion, and he was a warrior. So when we look at Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy, we can feel that his hands are very strong and have internal force (Figure 1 1, Figure 12). This should be a sword learner.
There is also Zhang Xu [Gao Bo, word, Han nationality, who was born in Wuxian County (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province) in the Tang Dynasty. When Kaiyuan and Tianbao were alive, they served as the county governors of Changshu and Jin Wu Changshi. Known for its cursive script, he was called "the sage of grass" by the gods of later generations, and he was also called a warrior with Li Bai's poems and Pei Min's sword dance. Jin Wu has a long history and is known as Zhang Changshi (Figure 13). According to the present situation, he is an officer of the praetorian guard, and an officer of the praetorian guard must have a sword, so he is very powerful.
Figure 13 Xu's late reply post and post 15.
In the tradition of calligraphy, paying equal attention to knife and brush is a secret of calligraphy in Tang Dynasty. There used to be a saying that there were three ends in ancient times, and the first one was the front end. What is the front end? It's a sword, a sword. The second is the end of the pen, and the pen is the writing brush. The third is the tip of the tongue, which means that you have a golden mouth, diplomatic ability and lobbying ability. So these three items are very important.
We noticed that people in the Tang Dynasty often used one word called "Jinli" and another word called "Kuaili" when judging calligraphy. It sounds like we are not talking about calligraphy, but about fencing. From this, we will also think of Zhang Xu's "Seeing Gong Sundaniang's Disciple's Sword Technique", and the level of calligraphy has soared.
There is an ancient saying: brushwork can pass the sword. This brushwork and swordsmanship are internal and external relations: the external is swordsmanship, the internal is brushwork, and it can be done with one wrist. This is very important.
We also noticed that the calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty, whether regular script or cursive script, was not uniform, but changeable. Because of the speed change, he can write such strength. I think this should be related to the tradition of martial arts. In fact, these emperors in the Tang Dynasty, from Emperor Taizong to Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, actually had a military course-martial arts, and they all had certain martial arts, so this formed a complicated relationship. After the unification of the empire in the Tang Dynasty, the north and the south merged and both civil and military disciplines were practiced, so there will be some signs. For example, in military-civilian relations, there will be complicated attitudes. Because in legend, Emperor Taizong especially liked the calligraphy of the "two kings", of course, mainly referring to Wang Xizhi, who collected Wang Xizhi's calligraphy ink all over the country.