Cultural customs and Northern Wei calligraphy continuity

The development of calligraphy art during the Northern Wei Dynasty was an important stage of the transformation of Lishu to Kaishu, and a new style of Wei Bei style script appeared. Exploring the 会 我们, we will find that during this period, the complex and diverse cultural customs have created an irreplaceable role in the continuation and new changes of calligraphy art.

Tree monument tradition promotes calligraphy development

Although the Northern Wei Dynasty was a minority regime established by the Xianbei people, it has advocated Han culture since the beginning of the country, and many aspects have continued the heritage of the Han Dynasty. Many northern Wei emperors, the elegant poems, paid attention to the monumental stone as the Emperor of the Han Dynasty and preached their skills. The carved stone activities related to the emperor in the history books such as "Wei Shu" are common. Ancestor

Four years (431), "Le Shi Monan, to remember merit." In February of the four years (443) of Taiping Zhenjun, Emperor Taiwu "As for the Yang of Hengshan, there is a secretary Shi Le Ming." In the four years of Gao Zong Tai'an (458), he ascended the Shishi Mountain in February and watched the sea. Although these records in the history books have not left specific stone carvings and related information, it is difficult to check the specific situation in detail, but from the many important monuments of the Northern Wei Dynasty that have been trapped to this day, it can still see the prevalence of inscriptions at that time, and its promotion of calligraphy development of calligraphy. fact. For example, the "Emperor of the Emperor Taiwu Emperor" carved in the three years of Taiyan (437) in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the "Song Gao Ling Temple Monument" engraved by Wencheng Emperor Tai'an (456), and the "461)" "461)" "The Emperor of the Emperor's Southern Tour", "Huifu Temple Stele" engraved by Taihe Twelve years (488), "Tomb Tomb Tomb" engraved by Taihe Eighteen years (494), etc. The level has become a classic model for calligraphy learning today.

Another important evidence of the Northern Wei Dynasty attaches importance to the carved stone is the major incident of the minister Cui Hao and others publishing the national history. After Cui Hao wrote the history of the country and became a book, his men were "invited to Li Shi Ming, published the national book, and the five classics. Hao praise it. Effective three million "." It can be seen that this is a very huge monument project. In a sense, it is also an important calligraphy activity. Many scholars naturally participate in it. In addition to the stele, the large number of cliff stone carvings and statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty are also the product of the popular stone atmosphere. It turns out that the wind of the carved stone runs through the entire Northern Wei Dynasty, so that the destruction of the Northern Dynasties is still unabated. The long -lasting and universal engraving monument has cultivated a large number of calligraphy talents, spread the art of calligraphy, and created a number of valuable and long -lasting classic works. From various aspects condition.

The epitaph of the epitaph becomes an important calligraphy group

Another important reason to promote the prosperity of Wei Bei's calligraphy like engraving stone is the prevalence of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The style of thick burial has a long history. Although Cao Wei had the ban on the burial, the folk customs of funeral during the Northern Wei Dynasty were prosperous. The thick burial atmosphere brought serious waste, so that the court repeatedly ordered restrictions. For example, the Taiping Zhenjun recorded in "Wei Shu" was "extravagant with marriage, excessive funeral, and the division is more restricted." Probably the atmosphere is too prosperous and it is difficult to curb. Gao Zu Taihe said: "After the wedding and the court, the marriage and marriage are disadvantaged; the end of the burial is suffering. In the case of courtesy, the law is banned. "But the government's ban has not been strictly implemented, and because of the deep root of funerals such as" death and death ", the wind of burial is still repeatedly banned. Hard funeral is a waste of social wealth, but the burial also brings the popularity of epitaphs. At that time, not only did the nobles of the officials burial, there were many epitaphs, that is, ordinary civilians often also engraved the epitaphs. Most of the tombs of the Northern Wei Dynasty discovered today were the witness of the social atmosphere at that time.

The prevalence of epitaphs naturally promotes the importance of the society's engraving of calligraphy. The bookwriter generated around the epitaph should be a very important calligraphy group at that time. From a large number of unearthed styles, the superb writing of the Northern Wei Royal epitaphs can determine that these bookmakers are not only not only these scholars. There are many people and have extraordinary calligraphy professionalism. Due to the high requirements of epitaphs on the level of calligraphy, this also strongly promoted the growth of calligraphy talents and the overall progress of calligraphy art at that time. The continuous standardization and refinement of the epitaph itself have also prompted the inscription calligraphy from the early rough quality to the elegant and elegant, and the texture is transformed together. Therefore, the prevalence of the inscriptions on the inscriptions gradually promoted the mainstream book style of the time -the royal epitaph of the Yuan Dynasty The representative Wei Bei calligraphy style is the formation and popularity of Wei Bei's regular script. Of course, this style is also reflected in the popular status of the statue and cliff carving at the time. Moreover, this Wei Bei calligraphy style characterized by Fang Junxiong was centered on Luoyang at that time, and continued to spread to all parts of the country, so that it was popular in the Western Regions. This phenomenon can be clearly explained.

"Gorgeous Books for Industry" promotes calligraphy practicality and standardization

Due to the need to write inscriptions at that time, and the spread of text books depends on copying, plus a large number of scholars need to copy the scriptures, copy documents, daily records, etc., so there is a professional in the society. Fashion. There are many records in the "Wei Shu" as a record of the job. For example, Jiang Shaoyou, who was a former Chang Shaoqing, "sexually organic, quite capable of painting. There is a text, when chanting, there are short stories. The book is the industry, but the name is still in the town. " Minister Liu Fang is another more famous example. Liu Fang was originally from the Southern Dynasties. When he was a teenager, he migrated with his aunt north. History books recorded that he "although he was in embarrassment, and the karma was still true, clever, and the tomb. Read the chanting, do not go to bed in the end ... often write the scriptures for the monks and campaign, the handwriting is called good, and the roll is just one cricket. This record clearly tells us that at that time, the job of the job was an important way to support the family, and the income was not low. Liu Fangneng's "so decades" also shows that society is very needed. Although the commission is a person who is a poor at the bottom, the defeated Gao Gate's kingles often use this as the industry. For example, the ministers Cui Liang and Cui Guang were born in the Qinghe Cui family. They were the first high gate of the Han nationality in the northern Han Dynasty during the Northern Wei Dynasty. Essence The needs of a large number of epitaphs and writing scriptures make the helpers not only hire private and temples, but also become government commission. There are many government affairs, and the writing is also complex. As a result, many domestic helpers are requisitioned by the government and the court because of the good books, and some have become specialist officials at all levels, while others have become the royal scholars of the court. Of course, unlike those who generally use the commission books, many of these good books have later become prominent ministers. It can be seen that in the Northern Wei Dynasty society, people with multiple calligraphy, good calligraphy can not only use this as a livelihood, but also can reach the career, and the famous books are also expressed by the world. Therefore, the readers have been diligent and worked hard since they were young, and they went to the princes and nobles to go to the children of civilians. While studying the history from a young age, they worked hard to study the arts and master the calligraphy specifications. Items mainly learn content. Therefore, the social fashion of the community has further enhanced the practicality and standardization of calligraphy, and the promotion of calligraphy art cannot be underestimated.

Fusion of styling art and calligraphy art

The Shengdi Buddhist prosperity of the Northern Wei Dynasty, so it brought a large number of excavations of the grotto and the large -scale development of Buddhist statues, which not only promoted the wind of Buddhism, but also had a variety of influence on calligraphy culture. Before and after the establishment of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism has been deeply believed by scholars and people in the major regions of the north. "Wei Shu · Shi Lao Zhi" reads: "Emperor (Taizu) is good for Huang Lao, and the Buddhist scriptures are quite pretty. "Ask from time to time", treat the Buddhist people with no etiquette. In 398, just now Dingdu Pingcheng (now Datong, Shanxi), the north has not been fully unified. The Emperor Daowu Tuoba announced: "In the capital of the city, the palace house is built. Stop. "Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong also worshiped Buddhism," Wei Shu · Gao Zuji "records:" Yahao reads books, he can't read it ... Reading Zhuang, Lao, and Especially interpreted. "When Emperor Xiaowen was in Pingcheng, Beijing There are more than a hundred inner temples, 2,000 monks and nuns; 6,478 in Sifang temples, and 77,258 monks and nuns. After moving the capital Luoyang, he not only built a large number of pagoda statues, but also excavated the famous Longmen Grottoes during his reign to stimulate the wind of Buddha to admire the Buddha. By the later period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, because many emperors and royal believers believed in Buddhism, Chong Buddhism reached the peak of the Northern Dynasties at this time. "Wei Shu · Shi Lao Zhi" contains: "The monk of today's temple is everywhere, or it is better than Manchu, or even the Sugan. Its temple is more than 30,000. "This amazing number shows that the prosperity of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Buddhism, future generations are almost unimaginable.

During this period, the prosperity of Buddhist culture and spreading had a great impact on the text of the northern Wei Dynasty stone and calligraphy art. The most important thing was that the artistic style of Buddhist statues directly affects the "carving" and "writing" of the carved stone. From the perspective of engraving, in the carving method, the carving style of the statue of the Northern Wei Grottoes and the engraving style of the monumental epitaph have great consistency. For example, the Buddha statue of Yungang Grottoes, whether it is the pattern or the character's body, can be seen many straight sword methods, especially the nose of the Buddha statue, which is obviously straight, and the corners of many clothes are also sharp. The horns, these knives and the inscriptions of the Pingcheng period have more common pens. This phenomenon should be caused by the interaction between engraving, or the carved worker was caused by the engraving of the Buddha statue and the monument. Moreover, the characteristics and consistency of these knife methods have continued to the statues and monuments of the Luoyang period, continuously improved and strengthened, and influenced the integrated influence with the brushwork. From the perspective of writing, the artistic style of Buddhism will inevitably have an impact on the scholar. The straight and simple statue style is the mainstream of the early Northern Wei Dynasty art. It is reflected in the inscriptions and calligraphy style of the inscriptions of the inscriptions. The Northern Wei writers have subtly accepted the square pen and strokes that have been evolved from the square folding knife method, thus producing the characteristics of mature Wei Bei style script triangle and the folding pens of the turning point and the sharp edge of the skimming. Therefore, the formation of these strokes is closely related to the prevalence of Buddhist culture in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In addition, a large number of Buddhist scriptures require a large number of writers, and at the same time, the standardization requirements and speed of writing the scriptures also require the rapid implementation of the text, thereby promoting the improvement of the Kaita script of the Northern Wei Dynasty. It can be seen that the formation of the style of Wei Bei's regular script is inseparable from the influence of Buddhist culture on carved stone calligraphy at that time. This is the result of a major environment and art in the environment. Cultural customs are the vane of society and the rich soil of art. The style is here, and the art and literature follow. Liu Xizai in the Qing Dynasty once lamented: "The book of a generation is all the people and literati." Whether it is through the style of book or writing, we can feel the cultural pulse of an era and the depths of people's souls. Spiritual image. And only if you are healthy and healthy, you can bred the flower of art with permanent vitality.

(Author Unit: Academy of Fine Arts of Luoyang Teachers College)

Source: China Social Science Network-Journal of Social Sciences of China

Author: Gu Tao

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