Chinese Calligraphy History: Artistic Values

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY HISTORY Name: Institution: Course: Date: Calligraphy The Chinese calligraphy is one that has holds some of the most significant artistic values in the field of art especially coming from the East. It is considered as one of the highest forms of art coming from the Far East and ironically has only come to be appreciated in the recent past. For the most part, the Chinese art requires that the audience understand what the writing mean, especially with reference to the calligraphy. However, on a deeper level of appreciation, it is important to note that, the audience are able to appreciate the quality and depth of the concepts by the artist simply from the abstract values that art conveys. For most of the calligraphy from the traditional Chinese artists, the refinement of their skills were largely associated with the inner psychological state of the artist which was conveyed by the individual brush strokes and also acted as a way of reflecting the degree of skill of the artist. Starting out in the Bronze Age, the Chinese calligraphy can be associated with eccentric essence of nature and the purity of skills of the artists. One such artist is Huang Tingjian, who lived between the year 1045 and 1105. He was predominantly known as a calligrapher but at the same time, he was known for his exceptional skills as pot and a painter artist. He is also known to have been one of the four calligraphers to have graced the song dynasty. Born to a family of poets and educated under the Confucius classics along with history and literature, he would come to be one of the most influential calligraphers in the Far East. He believed that calligraphy should be an expressive art form in a way to draw the picture of the mind of the artist. Ideally this is an element that depicts what calligraphy means to the artists and the audience; a way to express their inner self and more importantly their level of skill. The Chinese art is highlighted by their ability to present these same elements through their calligraphy that can be traced to the Bronze Age.[Stephen Little, "Chinese Calligraphy", The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 9 (1987).] ["Huang Tingjian - Chinese Calligrapher - The Art History Archive", Arthistoryarchive.Com, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /arthistory/asian/Huang-Tingjian.html.] [Stephen Little, "Chinese Calligraphy", The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 9 (1987).] Huang Tingjin As mentioned above, Huang Tingjian is one of the renowned calligraphers who were masters during the Song Dynasty. One of the works that he left behind is the scroll in which he wrote about the biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru. Po was a distinguished general at the time while on the other hand Lin was a reowned strategist. The scroll which is created on paper using ink, takes the dimensions 13 1/4 in. × 60 ft. 4 1/2 in. (33.7 × 1840.2 cm). When it mounted it takes the dimensions 13 1/2 in. × 71 ft. 5 5/8 in. (34.3 × 2178.4 cm). The piece that is dated back in the year ca. 1095, contains an estimated twelve hundred characters, in which the artist describes the feud between the general and the strategist. What is interesting is the fact that, the scroll measures close to twelve feet long. It contains cursive script which in essence shows the sustainable energy, round brush, exuberant curvilinear forms and lines.[The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru | Huang Tingjian | 1989.363.4 | Work Of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art", The Met’S Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /toah/works-of-art/1989.363.4/.] [The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru | Huang Tingjian | 1989.363.4 | Work Of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art", The Met’S Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /toah/works-of-art/1989.363.4/.] [The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru | Huang Tingjian | 1989.363.4 | Work Of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art", The Met’S Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /toah/works-of-art/1989.363.4/.] [The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru | Huang Tingjian | 1989.363.4 | Work Of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art", The Met’S Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /toah/works-of-art/1989.363.4/.] ‘Biographies moving account of the minutes of the Historian (Shiji) by Sima Qian (145-80 BC), the rivalry of two officials of the State of Zhao, King Huiwen (268 st -266 BC). Lian Po served describes a brilliant general and Lin Xiangru, who began his career as an administrator to a eunuch, but his talent as a strategist for the treatment of strong state of Qin, which led to support a better degree of General. Offended by this apparent attack, decided to humiliate Lian Po Lin, Lin, but to avoid confrontation, and eventually won the support Lian of welfare from private lawsuits. Focus Huang transcriptional changes to the text on this important historical event ends abruptly with the words of Lin: [] as the two tigers fight, one must die. Act like I do, why did the fate of our country, before making personal conflicts. Read in the context of the political factions of the Northern Song, Huang transcription is a powerful indictment of the parties, which led to exile in Qianzhou in Sichuan Province in the year 1094’["Chinese Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru", Chinese5art.Com, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /info/2/Chinese_Biographies_of_Lian_Po_and_Lin_Xiangru.html.] As indicated above, Huang was writing at a time when the political temperature in the Song Dynasties were failing and anyone that was found to have been partisan or in a way leaning towards the partisan politics would attract the attention of the state. Which is what happened to Huang and would end up exiled from his motherland. Huang was a talented artist is said to have indicated that he could write more than a thousand characters without tiring. He would repeatedly add ink to the brush but he could also maintain the consistency in his dynamics of the writings. When he made it that he changed the depth, tone and volume of his strokes, it was simply because he wanted to express his emotions. While the historical text is not complete, it points to the decision that Huang made and the intensions to have the piece play the role of a political commentary. A look at the piece also shows that the artist did not sign their work. This could have been relative to the fact that, it attracted the attention of the authorities and as such they abandon their work as they ran for safety. However, it is also clear that the piece contains the seals of the emperor Gaozong. This is a piece as such that carried much political undertones but also at the same time brings to the audience the element of abstract values. As mentioned above, most of the time, it is crucial to understand what the text means, however there are abstract values that also bring significant artistic qualities to the audience. In this case, this a scroll that plays a role in understanding what was going on in the life of the artist and the political developments during the Song Dynasty. But looking closely at the piece, it is clear that the element of artistic values are excellent and developed in a manner that artist is able to express themselves through the change in volume, tone and the depth. For the audience that do not have a clue about the Chinese characters, they can still enjoy the art relative to the values in the expressive piece.["Chinese Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru", Chinese5art.Com, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /info/2/Chinese_Biographies_of_Lian_Po_and_Lin_Xiangru.html.] [Patrick West and Cher Coad, "Drawing The Line: Chinese Calligraphy, Cultural Materialisms And The "Remixing Of Remix"", Journal.Media-Culture.Org.Au, last modified 2013, accessed May 9, 2018, http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/675.] ["Chinese Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru", Chinese5art.Com, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /info/2/Chinese_Biographies_of_Lian_Po_and_Lin_Xiangru.html.] ["Chinese Biographies Of Lian Po And Lin Xiangru", Chinese5art.Com, last modified 2018, accessed May 9, 2018, /info/2/Chinese_Biographies_of_Lian_Po_and_Lin_Xiangru.html.] Calligraphy Development as Art Calligraphy forms a very crucial part of the Chinese art along with paintings and poems. This can be traced to the Bronze Age, with some of the earliest forms of calligraphy appearing on oracle bones, turtle plastrons and shoulder blades of cattle. With most of the elements pointing to the Shang Dynasty which was around between the 16th and 11 century. In some of the cases, the inscriptions would find their way onto the bronze vessels and this would eventually find its way into the Zhou Dynasty which came in between the 11th and the 3rd century BC. For the most parts, the inscriptions that were on the bronze vessels, were expressions of the political or the religious legitimacy of the regimes in power at the time. Later on the developments would find their way into ink rubbings which then ushered in the development of the small seal script of the Qin Dynasty that only lasted a short while. Some of this elegant script can still be seen today curved in stone to remember the brutal emperor Qin Shihuang, who was the first of emperors of the Qin Dynasty. Later on there would come the Han Dynasty between 206 BC-AD 220. This would come with a less cumbersome script that was known as the clerical script. As the name suggests, this was a script that designed for the clerks who needed a simpler script that allowed for easy writing with a brush. This would allow the clerks to write using the brushes for documents that would be created on wood and paper. In the Chinese history, some of the best examples of the same exist as Hans Dynasty records. These are records that show the fluidity in the moderations of brushstrokes in rich and dark ink. This was also a time when calligraphy was elevated to a noble art. It was then towards the end of the Hans Dynasty that the three most important forms of Chinese calligraphy would then come to life. There was the standard script, running/ semi-cursive script and grass of cursive script. The three would be brought to apex of classical perfection.[Stephen Little, "Chinese Calligraphy", The Bulletin of the Clevela...