The clever calligraphers of the Song Dynasty did not disappoint future generations. They stood on the peak created by the Tang people, gave full play to their intelligence, cleverly avoided strict laws, and formed "Shangyi" "artistic style. What is "meaning"? "Yi" means relative to form, and has the meaning of spirit. In layman's terms, it means not caring about the specific form of characters, but only focusing on understanding and grasping the spiritual essence of Chinese characters. Instead of emphasizing specific shapes, only paying attention to the general rules, this opened up a new trend of the era of "Song people's admiration for meaning" and began a new stage of calligraphy development.
Looking back at the transformation process of calligraphy styles in the past dynasties, the Shang and Zhou Dynasties favored Xiang, the Qin and Han Dynasties favored momentum, the Jin Dynasty favored rhyme, the Northern and Southern Dynasties favored gods, the Tang Dynasty favored law, the Song Dynasty favored meaning, the Yuan Dynasty favored attitude, and the Qing Dynasty favored quality. The change in calligraphy style of each generation has its historical reasons, and the Song Dynasty is no exception. The change from "shangfa" to "shangyi" has both its profound internal reasons and external factors that cannot be ignored.
First of all, the Shangyi style of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty is the result of the development of Chinese characters to a certain extent. Chinese characters have been closely related to everything in the world since their inception. , looking down at the traces of turtles, birds, and birds, I picked up all the beauties and combined them into characters. "[2] Chinese calligraphy can be said to be innate with the emergence of Chinese characters. The shape and aesthetic connotation of Chinese characters provide a broad space for the formation and development of calligraphy. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, due to the low level of productivity and limited people's understanding, As a writing, seal script has the characteristics of imitating objects and pictograms, exuding a primitive charm. The natural and primitive characteristics of the writing itself determine the main style of calligraphy style after the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. , the Qin Dynasty was unified. In view of the need for national unification, Li Si created the small seal script on the basis of the large seal script. "The small seal script is easy to write, with uniform thickness, rounded and thin ribs, flat and stable ends, and a well-proportioned font. The font is slightly longer and sparse. "Dense and balanced, elegant and stretched in balance" [3], so a corresponding form of calligraphy, Lishubi, came into being. Its distinctive feature is that compared with Xiaozhuan, the structure is simplified and complex, and it tends to be symbolic. The writing style changes from round to square. It is easy to write, and the emergence of official script is an important turning point in the evolution of Chinese calligraphy, which laid the foundation for the emergence of regular script. At the same time, cursive script and the prototype of regular script appeared. Due to the acceleration of writing speed, the tendency of the Qin Dynasty to favor the trend became more obvious. In the Han Dynasty, calligraphy was fully reflected due to the further development of regular script, running script, and cursive script. In the Jin Dynasty, the characteristics of Shang Yun appeared. Yun means charm, charm, and charm. In fact, it is the pursuit of a free and elegant style, with the purpose of expressing feelings. Jin is good at cursive writing, and cursive writing is most suitable for expressing emotions. The essence of Jin Shangyun is a historical necessity. Although official writing and cursive writing have appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the speed of development is too fast and the development level is low. Therefore, the evolution of writing cannot be achieved in a short period of time. A new breakthrough must be followed by a period of rest to summarize and perfect the above-mentioned aspects. The Jin Dynasty was a short respite after calligraphy experienced drastic changes, and literati and calligraphers showed their talents and gave full play to them. With their intelligence and wisdom, various calligraphy styles developed rapidly and achieved world-renowned achievements, laying a solid foundation for the practice of calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, calligraphy had developed to a quite mature level. The environment of the Tang Dynasty was favorable for calligraphy. The final formation of the system provided unique conditions. The powerful Tang Dynasty also hoped that calligraphy would have a certain system and rules to form a set of rules that could better meet the needs of the people of the Tang Dynasty to praise the law. The dynasty has become customized and formed its own complete model. The history of calligraphy evolving based on Chinese characters has basically ended. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, without the emergence of new fonts, the Song people may still follow the old people and live in the shadow of the Tang people. Or they found new ways. So they bypassed the strict laws of the Tang Dynasty and instead pursued the interest of calligraphy art, seeking ideas rather than following the law. From the above, we can see that the formation of the Shangyi style in the Song Dynasty was the first of its kind. An inevitable trend of evolution, an accidental result.
Secondly, the formation of Shangyi style in the Song Dynasty is inseparable from the social and political environment of the Song Dynasty at that time.
The Song Dynasty's national power was weak and crisis-ridden. The people suffered from wars. The entire country was under the shadow of war. The Song Dynasty government avoided war and sought peace, compromising and retreating. The country's weakness cast a shadow on the people, but the Song Dynasty government adopted an enlightened attitude towards the literati. Taizu of the Song Dynasty left a legacy not to kill civil servants. In such a dual environment of relaxed culture but weak national strength, it was impossible for calligraphers in the Song Dynasty to immerse themselves in the law as leisurely as in the Tang Dynasty. The dignified and quiet regular script could no longer meet their needs for expressing ideas, and the cursive script Its flexible expression can better meet their needs, so running script was most popular in the Song Dynasty. In addition, after the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the rulers of the Song Dynasty, especially Zhao Kuangyin, were afraid of repeating the tragedy of the Tang Dynasty. In order to prevent the separatism of vassal towns and local autocratic power, they adopted the method of setting up multiple people in one position around decentralization. Therefore, the Song Dynasty promoted the imperial examination to recruit talents, and the number of officials increased sharply. The increase of intellectuals has also contributed to the prosperity of art to a certain extent. All of these are closely related to the social, political, economic and social conditions at that time.
Thirdly, the artistically versatile personal qualities of the Song people also provided the possibility for their calligraphy to be artistic. Among the calligraphers of the Song Dynasty, more were calligraphers, painters, poets, poets, writers, etc. This diverse combination of artistic elements also provided necessary conditions for the formation of the Shangyi style of the Song Dynasty. . Calligraphers such as Su Huang, Mi Cai, etc. are also painters, poets, poets, writers, etc. Su Shi said: "Poetry cannot be exhausted. It overflows into books and changes into paintings." "If you withdraw a pen like a mountain, it will not be enough. Only after reading thousands of volumes can you understand the spirit." He not only believes that calligraphy and painting, like poetry, are a means of expressing oneself, but also Emphasizing literature as cultivation is an important way to improve calligraphy! Therefore, the calligraphers of the Song Dynasty were superior to the calligraphers of the previous dynasties in terms of their own cultivation and quality. It is of great benefit to the formation of Shangyi style.
Finally, I think the formation of Shangyi style in the Song Dynasty has a lot to do with the personalities and experiences of Su Huangmi and the others. Looking at the three of them, they all have the characteristics of being free-spirited, yearning for freedom, bohemian, and have a strong sense of independence and innovation. As the saying goes: "Words are like the person they are." Looking at the words of the three of them, they are all full of pride and ambition. Each stroke is free and easy, and it is full of joy! The family circumstances of these three people were not very good when they were young. The harsh environment caused them to develop similar character traits. They all have a strong desire to change the old system and establish a new one. Political dissatisfaction reflected in calligraphy means not following tradition and replacing the old with the new. It was the efforts of the three of them that led the development trend of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty and eventually formed the Shangyi tradition.