《中國(guó)文化經(jīng)典導(dǎo)讀系列:名家講中國(guó)書法(英文版)》精選《文史知識(shí)》歷年刊載過(guò)的名家講書法的文章,如沈尹默、費(fèi)新我、啟功、劉濤、歐陽(yáng)中石等知名書法大家,講述書法的由來(lái)、書法的特點(diǎn)、書法的練就過(guò)程及專業(yè)知識(shí),并補(bǔ)充進(jìn)若干字帖、圖片等。
《文史知識(shí)》編輯部,《文史知識(shí)》雜志自創(chuàng)刊以來(lái),一直堅(jiān)持大專家寫小文章,堅(jiān)持深入淺出地介紹和評(píng)述中國(guó)優(yōu)秀傳統(tǒng)文化,受到學(xué)術(shù)界的廣泛好評(píng)。其作者薈萃全國(guó)一流文史專家,內(nèi)容涵蓋中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化各個(gè)方面,文章知識(shí)性、趣味性、學(xué)術(shù)性兼?zhèn),深入淺出,雅俗共賞。
Stele and Rubbing
Qi Gong
At the outset, those who made the inscriptions on the stele were not necessarily celebrities, calligraphers, scholars or officials. All they needed to do was write clearly.
It can be terrible if nobody can identify their writings. That is why Chinese characters on the stele are all in a standard script. In the early Tang Dynasty (618-907),
Emperor Taizong of Tang (Li Shimin, ruling from 626 to 649) was so fond of calligraphy that he learned from Wang Xizhi. He wrote in xingshu (semi-cursive script).
Maybe he did not know how to write in kaishu (regular script) or was not good at it. He inscribed two steles, both in xingshu : one was Hot Spring Inscription and the other
Jin Ancestral Temple Inscription . His son Li Zhi also inscribed steles for many ministers in such writing style. It was from then on that xingshu began to appear on steles.Empress Wu Zetian (ruling from 690 to 705) erected a stele for her gigolo (sort of lover) Zhang Changzong and said that he was the reincarnation of Wang Zijin. She had
the tomb of Wang Zijin dug up in Dongshan but could not prove whether it was Wang Zijin or not. So she let people erect a stele there, known as Stele for the Ascended
Immortal Prince . The Chinese characters on the stele were all written in caoshu (cursive script), marking that caoshu began to appear on steles. Since then, people started to use caoshu to transcribe books, essays and Buddhist scriptures. For example, the Treatise of Calligraphy by Sun Guoting was written in caoshu , so were the phenomena and
individual theories of Yogacara (literally “yoga practice”). Such a trend surely influenced the writing styles in this era. However, kaishu was still dominant in stele inscription.Why? Xingshu or caoshu could not be identified by a majority of readers.
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