Bai: Why did officials in the late Qing Dynasty write so much calligraphy?

The keynote speaker of this lecture is Bai, an art historian of Boston University. Professor Bai has taught in the Department of Art History of Boston University for more than 20 years, and was awarded tenure. Professor Bai has published many papers on China's calligraphy, painting and seal cutting in both Chinese and English, especially on Fu Shan. His "The World of Fu Shan-/KLOC-The Evolution of China Calligraphy in the 7th Century" has aroused the keen attention of academic circles at home and abroad, and has been rated as "one of the best works to study a single artist so far". The topic of Professor Bai's speech is a question: "Why did officials in the late Qing Dynasty write so much calligraphy?" Answer the interesting relationship between official culture and calligraphy in the late Qing Dynasty. First, what is calligraphy? At the beginning, Mr. Bai explained and defined the theme of his speech in detail. He suggested that pure words should not be regarded as calligraphy, but something should be excluded. The "calligraphy" in today's lecture topic does not refer to ordinary written characters, but refers to calligraphy with the meaning of "creation" for hanging or appreciation. In addition, the "multi" in the theme refers to the number of works rather than the number of words. On this basis, its lectures are meaningful. He raised the question "What is calligraphy?" for three reasons. First, the tools of daily writing in ancient times are exactly the same as those of calligraphy "creation"; Second, writing has the daily necessity that painting and other general performing arts do not have; Third, once written, words will leave material traces. It is precisely because of the similarity, necessity and collectible materiality between writing tools and calligraphy tools that most ancient Chinese characters are probably calligraphy works. At this point, how to distinguish what is calligraphy and what is written language has become a very important issue. This question is more complicated because the beauty of art is not recognized, and there is no either-or answer in itself. Appreciation and appraisal of art has always been a process of exploration, not an absolute result. Second, practicing calligraphy for self-entertainment: Daily calligraphy activities of officials in the late Qing Dynasty. Through a detailed analysis of diaries, letters and calligraphy works of officials in the late Qing Dynasty, Professor Bai reinterpreted the phenomenon of numerous calligraphy sketches in the main daily calligraphy activities of officials in the late Qing Dynasty, and divided the daily calligraphy activities of officials in the late Qing Dynasty into the following three categories: First, practicing calligraphy. This is a purposeful calligraphy activity. Officials in the late Qing Dynasty paid special attention to the practice of calligraphy, so there were a lot of calligraphy in this part. Speaking with facts, Mr. Bai listed many letters or diaries of officials in the late Qing Dynasty, which recorded in detail the number of officials practicing calligraphy and the systematic methods of practicing calligraphy. The second is to entertain yourself. The imperial examination system had certain requirements for literati's calligraphy, and the influence of calligraphy atmosphere in the society at that time made calligraphy an indispensable entertainment activity for officials in the late Qing Dynasty. Officials take pleasure in calligraphy and record their experiences of learning calligraphy in their diaries. The third is entertainment. This is a very important function of calligraphy in the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, the main popular forms of entertainment calligraphy were couplets and fans, and there were a lot of sketches in this part. Regarding the causes of this phenomenon, Mr. Bai believes that it is closely related to the strong social calligraphy atmosphere at that time, the huge demand for calligraphy in society and the tradition of China humanistic society. Mr. Bai quoted Matteo Ricci's Notes on China, saying that men and women of all classes in China wear fans, otherwise it is considered impolite. The function of a fan is not only to fan the wind, but also a symbol of friendship. Based on his own research, he pointed out that fans became a very important gift in people's daily life after the middle of Ming Dynasty, fans were the most popular calligraphy form before the middle of Qing Dynasty, and couplets began to become the most popular form at that time. On this basis, Mr. Bai further analyzed the phenomenon that China's entertainment calligraphy is mainly fan-shaped and couplets. He believes that the huge demand for official calligraphy in the late Qing dynasty prompted them to find the most suitable, convenient and effective one, and at the same time, to meet the huge social needs while ensuring the quality to the greatest extent. Couplets used for hanging can form a pair with only a dozen words, while fans used for communication are superior to couplets in visual richness, exquisiteness and convenience. Both are indispensable. Third, the handling of calligraphy Mr. Bai pointed out that the ancients did not necessarily regard a large number of calligraphy works as calligraphy. When dealing with this matter, Bai cited the original records of the ancients. Among them, Ceng Jize recorded in his diary that he cleaned up many works, kept several excellent calligraphy and left the rest to his servants. For the handling of letters, there are cases where Wu Yun entrusts others to organize letters on his behalf. What Wu Yun thinks is of academic value can be kept, while others can be bundled into a big bundle or burned as much as possible. An interesting phenomenon is that most of the calligraphy works that have not been destroyed are in the hands of auction houses. In addition, combined with the current form of information globalization, Mr. Bai pointed out that the contact between people is mainly through e-mail and telephone, and the era of writing letters and interacting with calligraphy has gradually gone away. We should pay full attention to the calligraphy works with rich cultural connotations left over from the screening of ancient Chinese traditional culture by the ancients. Fourth, the changes of contemporary calligraphy. Mr. Bai's lecture aroused great interest of the audience. Among them, Mr. Bai gave his own unique views on the question of "how to understand literati calligraphy" raised by an audience. He thinks that there is a big difference between calligraphy art and painting, that is, there are professional painters and literati painters in painting, and many of them have low cultural level. But in calligraphy, it is difficult to distinguish between literati calligraphy and non-literati calligraphy, because the historical education level of calligraphy art is quite high. However, he believes that there was a great change in China's calligraphy in the 20th century, that is, China's political elite withdrew from the field of calligraphy, and this gap was now replaced by people engaged in educational calligraphy. He hopes to re-examine the great changes of China's traditional culture in the 20th century through the comparison between ancient and modern times. Source of this article: Netease