Song and Ming calligraphy paid special attention to interest and subjective expression, which opened up a new road.
Throughout the Song Dynasty calligraphy, the trend of respecting meaning is its distinctive characteristics of the times. Song Shu did not simply deny the Tang people, nor did it simply return to the Jin people. Zen Buddhism's "Heart is Buddha" and "Heart is Dharma" influenced the calligraphy concept of Song people, and the addition of poets and poets injected lyrical meaning into calligraphy. On the premise of emphasizing interest, calligraphers in Song Dynasty paid attention to self-cultivation, with high chest, extensive reading and wide knowledge, and their skills in poetry, music and fu were not as good as those of their predecessors.
A Summary of Calligraphy Research in Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, like the Song Dynasty, was also a prosperous time of iron and blood. The passing and engraving of law posts is very active. Among them, the most famous is the Chunhua Pavilion, which is often engraved in Quanzhou Post. Dong Qichang carved "Xi Hong Tang Tie"; Wen Zhiming carved "Stop Cloud Pavilion Post"; East China sand sculpture "Appreciation of Zhai Tie's Genuine Products"; Chen Meigong carved Su Dongpo's book as "Late Fragrant Hall Post" and so on. Among them, Zhai Tie in Zhen Jian is the representative of the calligraphy model in Ming Dynasty. "Ting Yun Ting Tie" included the works of Mo Bao, a famous artist from Jin Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, and it was a great success.
Because of the popularity of scholar-officials and calligraphy, calligraphy creation was affected. Therefore, the calligraphy style of the whole Ming Dynasty was mostly running script, which could not be traced back to Qin, Han and Northern Dynasties. The works of seal, Li and Bafen are almost extinct, and the regular script is exquisite and delicate.
During the Yongle and Orthodox Dynasties, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and Yang Pu successively entered imperial academy and Wen Yuan Pavilion and wrote a large number of inscriptions, which were called Guangchang Style, or Taige Style. Scholars compete to copy in order to be honest and clean, which makes calligraphy lose its artistic interest and personal style.
In the nearly 300 years of Ming dynasty, although there were some successful people, there was no great breakthrough and innovation in the whole dynasty. Therefore, in modern times, Ding concluded in "The Essence of Calligraphy": "All those who talked about art in the Ming Dynasty copied and imitated, and there was nothing to create."
Dong Qichang, Wen Zhiming, Zhu Yunming, Tang Bohu, Wang Chong, Zhang Ruitu and Song Ke are the representative calligraphers of the Ming Dynasty.