"Jin people's books take rhyme, Tang people's books take method, Song people's books take meaning, or yue, meaning is greater than law? Otherwise, since the Song people took its meaning as a book ear, it would be impossible to have the meaning of the ancients. However, Zhao Ziang corrected the shortcomings of the Song Dynasty. Although he had already thought about it, he didn't need it. This will be covered by the words of the Song people. "
-Ming Dong Qichang's "Taiwan Province Collection"
Dong Qichang wrote in "Rong Tai Bieji" that "Jin people's calligraphy takes rhyme, Tang people's calligraphy takes method, and Song people's calligraphy takes meaning", which is the first time in history to summarize the "meaning" of Song dynasty's calligraphy style. At this point, the concept of "respecting meaning" in the calligraphy style of Song Dynasty was formally born.
"Meaning is greater than the law? Otherwise, calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty is an insurmountable peak in the history of calligraphy. But Dong's evaluation of the "Yi" style in the Song Dynasty is also quite high. But what needs to be pointed out here is that Dong's Song Dynasty calligraphy "Yi" refers to running script and running script, while his Tang Dynasty calligraphy "Fa" is regular script, and he even asserts that "there is no running script in Song Dynasty":
"The son of heaven Tang Dynasty regular script xuanhe celebrities. When there was no script in the Song Dynasty, they all brought running scripts. Mi Yuanzhang was particularly boastful, but he was also a script. "
However, Dong Qichang said that "there was no regular script in Song Dynasty" because the regular script in Tang Dynasty, like the poetic law in Tang Dynasty, was too neat, exquisite and beautiful, lacking some pure things in calligraphy:
"The poetic method of the Tang Dynasty is quite similar to its calligraphy, both of which are based on beauty, while the ancient law is a little further."
In other words, Dong compared the running script of the Song Dynasty with the regular script of the Tang Dynasty. It sounds like if he participated in such an unfair cross-category assessment, he would really be dissatisfied with Tang Kai. As a native of Ming Dynasty, Dong Qichang evaluated the calligraphers in Song Dynasty and Tang Dynasty from the perspective of "the virtue and cultivation of calligraphers";
"There is a calligraphy in the temple tablet. At the time of Zhenguan, Leng Yan had not translated it. Yongxing's theory of destroying evil is also a world of truth. Yan said a lot, but made a monument. Huai Su wore a cassock and gave up drinking. Cursive cursive script is crazy, insufficient and has the advantages of writing and proofreading. The calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty was so rich that it was not used in the interpretation of Jing. Liang Sufang Rong, whose book is not called. But Perseus is deeper than the inner point and has the ability to face the pool. The content released by Xi Chun is already. In the eyes of Su Song and Huang Gong, calligraphy belongs to Buddhism. Song people's books are not as good as Tang's, and their hearts are prajnaparamita and they should win. The flea 18-year-old learns to hear and see. There are several so-called newcomers in every book. "
His evaluation of Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy attainments is average. Li Beihai is a craftsman who can only make inscriptions, but Liang Su and Fang Rong's calligraphy works are not worth mentioning. These comments are relatively light, but they scoff at Zhang Xu and Huai Su, thinking that they lack self-restraint and only drink and have fun, go crazy and grandstanding. Instead of emphasizing the literati they advocated, the concepts of "thinking" and "enlightenment" are quite different, and they think that their achievements and contributions are not comparable. At the same time, he especially appreciated the Song people's behavior of integrating calligraphy into physical and mental cultivation. "For Su Song and Huang Gong, calligraphy is a Buddhist thing." Calligraphers in the Song Dynasty, led by Su Huang, set an example and convinced people with virtue. In view of the phenomenon that "the calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty was so rich that it was not used to interpret the scriptures", they finally came to the conclusion that "the calligraphy in the Song Dynasty is not as good as that in the Tang Dynasty, and it is prajnaparamita in the deep heart, so it should win."