At the beginning of the founding of Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong advocated the culture of the Southern Dynasties out of the need of political and cultural unity, and spoke highly of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy and personal aesthetic taste. First, when historians compiled the Book of Jin, they personally made a biography of Wang Xizhi; Then, in the early years of Zhenguan, Wang Xizhi's Mo Bao was collected from the Imperial Palace, and calligraphers such as Yu Shinan and Chu Suiliang were ordered to identify and catalogue the Hong Wen Pavilion (a specialized calligraphy institution in the Tang Dynasty), and tatami calligraphers were selected to make tatami models, which were widely circulated. He spared no effort to establish Wang Xizhi's status as a "book saint". Li Shimin spoke highly of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. In addition to the needs of national political and cultural unity, his personal aesthetic taste is particularly worth investigating. His biography of Wang Xizhi said:
..... So look closely at the ancient and modern times, and verify that it is plain and perfect, and its talents are very few! Look at the dragging work, it is beautifully cut, the smoke is exposed, and it is connected when it is broken; The wind blows like a dragon, and the potential is oblique and straight. If you don't feel tired when you play, you don't know the end of it when you look at it, but you are chasing it with your heart. This man is just the rest. What's the point?
In his biography, Li Shimin listed the shortcomings of various schools and praised Wang Xizhi's book as "perfect". It is pointed out that Wang Xizhi's calligraphy skills are exquisite, and the charm of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy lies in "smoke falling and knot showing" and "phoenix falling and dragon rolling". At first glance, Li Shimin appreciated the perfection of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. In fact, Wang Xizhi was able to admire the emperor's Li Shimin, not only because of the beauty of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy form, but also because of the charm contained in the form. This seems puzzling. In fact, as an emperor admired by thousands of people, on the one hand, he needs to "rule the country and level the world" and realize his self-worth in "ruling the country and level the world", which is deeply influenced by Confucianism. Therefore, in On Calligraphy, he advocated "bones and muscles" and "bone strength", and even compared calligraphy to leading troops to fight. (On Books by Li See Shimin). On the other hand, when individual values are realized in social groups, it is essential for the emperor to think about individual physical and mental freedom and sound Taoist philosophy. Therefore, Li Shimin was deeply impressed by his "harmonious spirit". Wang Shu, who is extremely beautiful, advocates "thinking with God, thinking with nature, and not knowing why" (meaning by Li Shimin), which is the essence of Li Shimin's thought of "respecting the king". Judging from the existing Li Shimin calligraphy "Jin Ci Ming", it is a complete translation of Wang Xizhi's works, and its influence can be seen.
Li Shimin's aesthetic tendency of "respecting the king" established Wang Xizhi's position as a "sage of calligraphy", which directly influenced the calligraphy creation of Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang, Ou Yangxun and Xue Ji, the four great masters in the early Tang Dynasty, and made the calligraphy in the early Tang Dynasty shrouded in the wind of "respecting meaning". If the calligraphy creation of Li Shimin and the "Four Schools in the Early Tang Dynasty" only focused on inheriting Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style without much new ideas, then the calligraphy creation of Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Xu and Huai Su in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was the promotion and innovation of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy artistic spirit, which made the calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty reach its peak and established its position in the history of China's calligraphy. Yan Zhenqing's running script is the face of Confucianism, and its running script pursues nature, regardless of work, and it gives people a strong visual impact and strong shock everywhere; Zhang Xu's cursive script is full of momentum, such as the water of the Yellow River running thousands of miles. Huai Su cursive script is like a wisp of smoke. From the form of expression, the calligraphy styles of Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Xu and Huai Su are completely different from those of Wang Xizhi, but their artistic spirit is * * *. Wang Xizhi's calligraphy emphasizes self, publicizes personality and gets carried away. The innovative artistic spirit of expressing his spirit with Chinese characters has been perfectly embodied in Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Xu and Huai Su. It is precisely because they grasped the essence of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy art that these three calligraphers became epoch-making calligraphers in the history of calligraphy.
Successful calligraphers in Song Dynasty (Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fei and Cai Xiang) also grasped the aesthetic essence of Wei-Jin demeanor and inherited and developed the artistic spirit of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy.
Su Shi, an outstanding writer and painter. At that time, Su Shi was a scholar, and his poems, paintings and calligraphy were just by-products of "being knowledgeable in leisure and traveling to Sri Lanka". His real ambition is to do a great job in politics, and his mind is full of Confucian thoughts of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, and learning to be excellent and being an official. However, this is not the main aspect of Su Shi's artistic creation and aesthetic thought. Although Su Shi was determined to be an official, he failed to display his grand plan all his life. The life philosophy of China ancient literati, which was established in the Yi culture, had two aspects: entering the world and being born, making progress and retiring, and dying and being at peace, just like the yin and yang poles in the Taiji diagram, forming a whole that is both opposite and unified. This complementary cultural feature of Yin and Yang (Confucianism and Taoism) is evident in Su Shi. In addition, the confluence of Buddhism and Taoism in the Song Dynasty, the unprecedented prevalence of Zen consciousness and political frustration prompted Su Shi to join Buddhism and Taoism for spiritual comfort, which is very similar to Wang Xizhi. Everything in Buddhism is empty, and all illusions are completely consistent with the Taoist "no self", the Buddhist "original heart" and the Taoist "Qi Yi" in Su Shi's thought. Based on this idea, Su Shi advocated "not practicing the ancients" in calligraphy theory, and thought that the creativity of calligraphy art lies in the breakthrough of traditional "law", which can be called "law has no potential". "You can't learn Wang's books, but you can't help learning them." (Dongpo Collection). As for Tang Kai, who advocates rules, Su Shi thinks that he is a craftsman's spirit, and comments on Zhang Xu and Huai Su's calligraphy, such as "washing white", "common people advocate painting green and red" and "dancing with demons". Su Shi advocates "Yoga Yu is the best at the beginning of the book" and "naive as my teacher", and advocates the artistic style of natural simplicity, leisure and beauty. It is not difficult to see that on the one hand, Su Shi wants to break through the traditional calligraphy techniques (mainly Wang Shu's method), but the aesthetic taste of his calligraphy is very similar to that of Wang Shu. All these show that the aesthetic fashion of Wei and Jin Dynasties and Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style have a profound influence on Su Dongpo's calligraphy.
Huang Tingjian, one of the "Four Bachelor of Su Men", inherited Su Dongpo's calligraphy thought, put forward the viewpoint of "following others' plan to make future generations realistic", and practiced the aesthetic spirit of Wei and Jin demeanor like Dongpo in his creation. As for Mifei, Ziyun said, "When I was in my prime, I couldn't find a home. People say that my book is a collection of ancient Chinese characters in China, based on all the advantages. Because I am old, I have become a family. People don't know what my ancestors are. "Mi Fei's Collection of Ancient Chinese Characters is mainly the calligraphy of" Collection "and" Two Kings "(Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi and his son). Judging from the existing Mid-Autumn Post near Mi Fei, it can almost be confused with copying the calligraphy of "Two Kings", but the purpose of Mi Fei's "collecting ancient characters" is not to imitate, but to "summarize", from which we can easily find out how profound the aesthetic fashion of Wei and Jin dynasties and Wang Xizhi's influence on Mi Fei are. Cai Xiang, Song Sijia. The use of pens was greatly influenced by the Tang Dynasty, and the calligraphy style pursued quietness and movement, which was obviously influenced by Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style. However, his calligraphy lacks individuality and is not worth discussing.
The mainstream of calligraphy from Yuan Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty was shrouded by the trend of retro-ism. The "ancient" here mainly refers to Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style. Their calligraphy is completely a school of Wang Shu system starting from Wang Xizhi, and the highest purpose is to obtain the charm of Jin people and Wang Xizhi.
Zhao Paige, a leading figure in Yuan Dynasty, was the standard-bearer of retro-ism. His small letters are rigorous in statutes, graceful in shape, graceful in structure, smooth in lines, not bloated or slippery, white in cloth, elegant and lovely, which directly reflects the legacy of the two kings. The style of cursive script is also golden, but its technique is skillful, gentle and graceful, with an indescribable charm and posture, and it is a typical representative of aestheticism.
From the early Ming Dynasty to the middle Ming Dynasty, several emperors loved calligraphy, especially "calligraphy" represented by Wang Xizhi, so the integration of the ruling and opposition parties set off an upsurge of learning "cabinet calligraphy". Zhu Yunming, Wen Zhiming and Wang Chong, the "three sons of Wuzhong", have their own strengths, but they are all the continuation of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style.
Most calligraphers in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties gathered under the banner of retro-ism, and followed suit, deliberately depicting Wang Shu, without much expansion in concept and form. Formally, they are the representatives of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style and Wei and Jin demeanor, but their artistic spirit actually deviates from the aesthetic trend of Wei and Jin demeanor and the connotation of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style, which makes the development of calligraphy ontology stagnate.
In this context, a rebel group appeared in the retro camp in the late Ming Dynasty: Wang Duo, Xu Wei, Fu Shan, Ni, Huang Daozhou, Badashanren and so on. They rebelled against the page style of Zhao in Yuan Dynasty, and even destroyed the classic "Fa" of "Two Kings" followed by the retro school, which made calligraphy lyrical and vivid, and truly inherited the calligraphy styles of Wei and Jin Dynasties and Wang Xizhi from the aesthetic connotation and artistic spirit.
Nevertheless, the negative influence of "sticking to learning" led by the retro trend of thought with Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style as an aesthetic model after the Yuan Dynasty continued until the middle of the Qing Dynasty.
After the mid-Qing Dynasty, due to the prevalence of "primary schools", scholars studied the inscriptions in the Han and Wei Dynasties, and realized the beauty of broadness, boldness, simplicity, atmosphere and broadness from the inscriptions in the Han and Wei Dynasties, so "stele study" rose. The rise of "stele study" in the history of calligraphy, its value lies in making calligraphy re-describe the calligraphy techniques of Wang school under the banner of retro-ism, ignoring its artistic spirit and returning to the spirit of Wei and Jin dynasties and Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style of expressing meaning with lines, thus making calligraphy itself develop unprecedentedly ~