-said kang Youwei "chase, help, and" authenticity.
Zhuronghui
Kang Youwei's five-character couplet "chasing Xi Xi, helping the sky to draw high" (paper calligraphy? 128×? 30cm×2), now hidden in Duoyunxuan, Shanghai, is also included in The Complete Works of China's Fine Arts (Calligraphy Seal Carving —6— Calligraphy in Qing Dynasty), which can be described as Kang's "masterpiece". But around this link, people have been questioning:
First, the calligraphy of this couplet seems to be too scribbled, and its appearance is obviously different from most of Kang's calligraphy. First, there are obviously too many "failures", almost all sketches are slippery, and the whole work is exposed, broken and thirsty; Second, the word "Gao" at the end of the couplet was actually written in cursive-Kang's couplet calligraphy rarely writes cursive.
Second, it seems that the couplets are not aligned. Except for the word "chase" in the upper part and the word "help" in the lower part, all the other words seem to be the opposite; If you are familiar with China's traditional couplets, it is not difficult to think of an ancient couplet: "Chasing the sky will help Xi fly higher and higher." So some people speculate-how can Kang Youwei, a master of Chinese studies, copy traditional couplets and make such a mistake? Perhaps only those counterfeiters who have only a little pen and ink skills but can't read will make such mistakes.
In a word, this couplet is Kang's original work, and it seems doubtful whether it is calligraphy or couplet theory.
However, can we really determine that couplets are not Kang's original works only by these two points?
First of all, as far as Kang's calligraphy is concerned, it is not uncommon for Kang Youwei to fail in many entertainment works. Even in his "masterpiece", mistakes and failures are often inevitable. Perhaps because of this, Mr. Wang once described Kang's calligraphy as "rolling straw rope", which is not entirely a slander on him. Moreover, as far as this Federation is concerned, in my opinion, the words "chasing, fighting and harmony" in it are quite wonderful, which are typical "pastimes" and are by no means written by ordinary counterfeiters. Therefore, we can't judge whether a couplet is an original by writing a few words or even a few numbers, because "good", "bad", "true" and "false" are two different things.
Secondly, as far as couplets are concerned, it is actually a misjudgment made in the case of misreading Kang Lian-Kang Lian did not copy the ancient couplets, but included them.
So what exactly does Kang's implicit couplets mean? I searched the existing materials and found that no one has interpreted and translated them so far. The possible reason is that everyone feels that they can't read smoothly and don't read carefully.
However, it is hard to imagine that Kang Youwei, a master of Chinese studies, will write couplets that are obviously unreasonable in arts and sciences.
In fact, this couplet is not a clerical error copied by Kang Youwei, nor is it too obscure. Just to understand this couplet, we must contact Kang's political view, social ideal and calligraphy art view.
As we all know, although Kang Youwei is a calligrapher and calligrapher, he is first and foremost a social reformer and political activist. His greatest ambition and ideal in life is not calligraphy, but improving society. Therefore, his theory of calligraphy often starts from nature and society, not from calligraphy itself-he just borrows calligraphy theory's exposition to achieve the purpose of popularizing his social improvement thought. It can even be said that his calligraphy theories such as Guang Yi and Zhou Shuang are nominally calligraphy theory's works, but in fact they are only part of his social improvement theory. So what is the most basic proposition of his theory of social improvement? As we all know, it is constitutional monarchy and capitalism in China; More specifically, it is to learn from Japan's Meiji Restoration and make the idea of the Reform Movement of 1898 a reality. Knowing this, perhaps it is not difficult for us to understand why Kang Youwei is dissatisfied with the ancient couplet, but he wants to attach another couplet: the ancient couplet does not conform to his usual practice of seeking truth from politics in the name of discussing books, not to mention that the upper and lower couplets of the ancient couplet are all discussing books, and it is suspected that "hands are folded". Therefore, he merged all the contents of the two couplets of the ancient couplet into the first couplet, and the second couplet expressed his political proposition, that is, learning from the Japanese, changing the status quo of China and improving the status of China; Therefore, the word "harmony" and "Japan" in the lower couplet should mean "yamato" and "Japan"-although it is suspected of coining words, it is also allowed to be a temporary envoy in the couplet for confrontation. Therefore, this alliance is not only wrong, but basically antagonistic, but Kang Youwei can't do it.
To sum up, although this couplet is not the best work in Kang Youwei's calligraphy, it is undoubtedly his original work.