Chinese Calligraphy in Tang Dynasty

The History of Chinese Calligraphy

Tang Dynasty 618 - 907

Tang dynasty, which overthrew the Sui in 618, is regarded by the Chinese as their most glorious periods in culture. With the tremendous thirst for knowledge and veneration of scholars, China was the largest publishing venture in the world. Under a liberal social atmosphere, arts revived, literature boomed and the teaching of Buddhism spread throughout the country.

The perfection of regular script Growing out of centuries' technical difficulties and confusions, regular script which superseded clerical script as official script during the Jin reached its perfection. The finalized regular script is dignified but graceful, exuberant but composed. With assigned moves and speed, great attention was given to produce firm strokes and balanced characters.

Four Tang Masters

	Ouyang Xun (557 - 641) 1 Huangfu Dan Stele Ink rubbing on rice paper The Spring, 632
	Yu Shinan (558 - 638) 2 Confucius Temple Stele, 626
	Chu Suiliang (596 - 658) 3 The Negative Code, 654 Ink on paper
	Sun Guoting (648 - 703) Treatise on Calligraphy, 687
	Xue Ji (649 - 713) 4 Monk Xin-xing Stele, 706
	Li Yong (678 - 747) Li Sixun Stele, 720

Wild cursive script. Tang's romantic approach toward the arts invited another script: wild cursive script. With much reduced stroke number, this script furthered the continuous stroke flow of modern cursive script into a wild scrawl. Still very much in vogue today, its style varies with its authors, who invent a large number of characters that are illegible but are very aesthetically executed and appreciated by collectors.

	Zhang Xu ( - ) Poems, 755
	Huai Su (725 - 785) Account of Myself

Popular regular script Tang restored Sui's imperial examination with its own standards: good looks, fluent speech, skilled regular script and proficiency in Confucian scriptures. While the usefulness of regular script contributed to its popularity, it bought to handwriting the taste of the masses. This is seen in later Tang masters' uniform characters and plain strokes.

	Yan Zhenqing (709 - 785) Yan Qinli Stele, 779 Temple of nun Ma, 771
	Liu Gongquan (778 - 865) Mystery Pagoda, 841

Five Dynasties 907 - 960

The Tang Dynasty ended in 907. It was replaced by five successive short-lived dynasties and ten regional kingdoms ruled by local warlords. This period of disunity was ended by the first emperor of the Song Dynasty in 960.

Zen practice When Taoism degraded itself by superstition, Zen Buddhism intrigued the intellectual Chinese of the troubled times. The refined quality of a scholar was stressed and unaffected styles were held in esteem, but the secular quality in Chinese calligraphy was purged away. This practice was carried on by Song masters, weakening the art for centuries to come.

Yang Ningshi (873 - 954)
The Heat

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