During the Southern Liang Dynasty, Liang Wudi and his ministers were both good calligraphers. In this strong calligraphy atmosphere, anti-Zuo Shu doctrine prevailed for some time. However, in this period of frequent regime changes, the dynasties of big and small rise and fall alternately, and many cultural factors influence and penetrate each other. Because of writing difficulties, anti-Zuo Shu gradually withdrew from the mainstream culture.
The atmosphere of the book circle in the Southern Dynasties was more free and inclusive, and many "miscellaneous bodies" appeared. More generally speaking, they are all kinds of strange books. Strangely, the "strange and heterogeneous, easy to reproduce and renovate" that many people are scrambling to imitate has also become the characteristic of that era-not only the Wei and Jin calligraphy style that we think is extremely orthodox today.
Among them, "anti-Zuo Shu" is an example. Left-handed calligraphy is called "anti-Zuo Shu" in history, and it is also called "mass leisure law" and "mirror calligraphy".
Liang Yu in the Southern Dynasties recorded in "On Books" at the end of Yuan Dynasty: "Those who oppose Zuo Shu were created by Kong Jing Tong, a bachelor of Datong Zhongdong Palace, and I reached them after seeing them; So I was rewarded on the seat, and you didn't know it, so it was called the leisure method of the masses. "
As a historical symbol, "anti-Zuo Shu" has been commented by many celebrities and scholars at home and abroad, and books have left different accounts. Among them, Qian Zhongshu, a famous writer and literary researcher in modern times, said: "The so-called" anti-"of Kong Jing was left-handed at that time, and its structure was like" mirror flower language. " (67 volumes and 226 volumes of Quan Liangwen) points out two characteristics of anti-Zuo Shu: first, the strokes are from right to left, which is opposite to the usual direction; Second, the structure is reversed, which is a mirror image relationship with the usual structure. According to reports, the so-called "Lu" is Lu Wen, a left-handed script in ancient India.
At present, such an example can still be seen in Nanjing, the birthplace of the anti-Zuo Shu movement. At present, the most important discoveries are two cases of national protected cultural relics on Shinto stone pillars in the Southern Dynasties. One is the stone pillar on the east side of Shinto, the tomb of Emperor Wendi of Liang Dynasty in Danyang, which is engraved with Liang Wudi's imperial pen on Zuo Shu's Taizu Shinto, and the stone pillar on the west side is the official book Taizu Shinto, which is exactly one positive and one negative, and the inscription is mirror-symmetrical, giving people an elegant, simple and solemn feeling; Another well-preserved anti-Zuo Shu stone pillar on the west side of Shinto in Xiaojing Tomb, October Village, Qixia District, the eastern suburb of Nanjing, is 6.5 meters high, with a column circumference of 2.48 meters. The bottom of the column base is a rectangular column, and the column is round, engraved with the words * * *. 23 reflexive words, very clear.
This "anti-Zuo Shu" is neat, rigorous, symmetrical and harmonious, so Kang Youwei praised it as "Pinglianzong" in "Guangyi Ship with Double Bows".
However, the "anti-Zuo Shu" prevailing in Nanliang soon disappeared.
Investigate its reason, and then enter the "respecting the law" of the Tang Dynasty. Calligraphy theory in the Tang Dynasty rudely criticized this kind of "juggling" calligraphy: "Calligraphy is an outsider, and calligraphy is a heritage"!
Although "the weirder the technique, the more likely it is to arouse people's desire to imitate", hybrids like "anti-Zuo Shu" can only "become the juggling of poor Confucian calligraphers at the lower level" and become the dust of history.
But at present, we can still occasionally see such "miscellaneous players", such as "anti-horizontal calligraphy", "left-handed calligraphy" and "writing books with both hands at the same time" According to the above historical trajectory, it is not "calligraphy" at all, but can barely be classified as "acrobatics".
Reference: Tamia Liu's Book Style in Wei and Jin Dynasties.