张旭与草书艺术 英语论文.docx

1、张旭与草书艺术 英语论文Wild Cursive Script Art and Zhang Xu (张旭）IntroductionCursive script is a kind of traditional Chinese script produced for convenience of writing. Cursive script originated since the beginning of the Han Dynasty. (Barnhart, 1972) The characteristics are: having the basic appearance of char

2、acters, breaking the regularity of Clerical script, bold and unrestrained. Cursive script could be divided into three main types which are Zhang Cursive, Jin Cursive and Wild Cursive. (Li, 2002) Strokes of Zhang Cursive have some certain rules, the Songjiang version of Literature in a Hurry written

3、by Huang Xiang (皇象) of the Three Kingdoms Period is one of the representative works of Zhang Cursive. While Jin Cursive does not have certain regularities, strokes are very fluent and smooth, significant Jin Cursive works include Wang Xizhis(王羲之) New Moon and Deshi. Wild Cursive existed in Tang Dyna

4、sty and is represented by Zhang Xu (张旭) and Huai Su (怀素). Strokes of Wild Cursive is quite profligate and unrestrained, therefore Wild Cursive works become total artistic creations with out practicability. (Chen, 2011) Masterpieces of Wild Cursive such as Zhang Xu(张旭)s The Stomach Pains Therapy, The

5、 Heart Sutra, and Huai Su (怀素)s The Autobiographic Book have been preserved till today. In modern times, Lin Sanzhi (林散之) was praised as Saint of Cursive Script, his masterpiece Sino-Japanese Friendship Poembe is honoured as Lin Sanzhi (林散之)s best cursive work (See Fig.1). (Chen, 2011)Fig.1 Excerpts

6、 of Cursive script art, created by Lin Sanzhi (林散之)The author aims at making an in-depth study of the Cursive script art based on the contents in class. The author will combine the theories of traditional Chinese calligraphy with the authors own experience of writing, comb the historical development

7、 and characteristics of this kind of unique script, make a critical analysis of the cultural connotation and value of the Cursive script especially the Wild Cursive script. In order to narrow down the topic, the author also chooses one of the greatest Cursive script artists Zhang Xu (张旭) and his wor

8、k to do a case study. History of the Cursive scriptWhen in use, people have demands for convenience of writing every type of script, therefore the simplifying and hasty tendency occurs. The tendency is the main factor of character evolution. (Barnhart, 1972)The early form of the Cursive script was p

9、arallel with Clerical script, and was called Clerical Cursive script. In fact, it contained some strokes of Seal script. Early Cursive script broke the regularity and preciseness of Clerical script, which was a kind of hasty writing and called Zhang Cursive. The Zhang Cursive is a kind of elegant cu

10、rsive script that combines the typical Cursive script and Han Clerical script, strokes and interconnections are in the shape of waves. Each character is independent with each other, the shape of characters are oblate squares and in the horizontal type. The Zhang Cursive was most popular during Han a

11、nd Wei Dynasty, resumed till Yuan Dynasty and changed in Ming Dynasty. (Chen, 2011) Till the end of Han Dynasty, the Zhang Cursive became more hasty and rough, it got rid of the signs of Clerical script, strokes became connected with each other, even the radicals were simplified and interlibrary. Th

12、is new type of Cursive script is called Jin Cursive. Since Wei and Jin Dynasty, it had enjoyed long-lasting popularity for hundreds of years. (Chen, 2011) Till the Tang Dynasty, the Jin Cursive became further more unrestrained. Strokes had various changes and the characters looked very magical, this

13、 type was called the Wild Cursive or the Big Cursive. (Chen, 2011)Till today, the aesthetic value of the Cursive script has far beyond its practical value. People should know that the Cursive script also has some certain regularities rather than totally random writing, such as simplifying structures

14、 and sharing radicals, so as to connect the dots and strokes into character. One of the main features of the Cursive script symbols is that strokes have connections including the connections between the upper side and lower side, and the connections between the left and right. The horizontal tendenc

15、y of the Clerical writing provides references to the cursive connections between the left side and the right side. The fundamental difference between techniques of the Zhang Cursive and Jin Cursive writing is that the former type adopts the shape “-”, while Jin Cursive uses the shape “s”. (Zhang et

16、al, 2010)Development of the Wild Cursive script and its characteristicsFig 2. Huai Su (怀素)s Cursive script artDuring the evolution process of scripts, till the Tang Dynasty, all kinds of scripts attained their maturity. At that time, the Wild Cursive script had achieved its peak and could not be sur

17、passed by the later generations. The remarkable symbol was the existence of two Cursive saints: Zhang Xu (张旭) and Huai Su(怀素), and their brilliant accomplishments in Wild Cursive art. (Barnhart, 1972)Cultural situation is the Tang Dynasty was grand and magnificent, which linked closely with the poli

18、tical structure at that time, The political reforms during the Sui and Tang Dynasty largely reduced the power of landlord class. In Tang, the politics was very open, many talents from middle and lower class stepped onto the official career through Imperial examination, they entered onto the historic

19、al stage with beautiful hopes for the future and confident political goals. (Schlombs, 1998 Emperor Taizong of Tang also advocated the opening policy on cultural field. Therefore, the Tang society presented an inclusive and free cultural environment. (Chen, 2011) The opening policy in Tang Dynasty w

20、as also embodied as absorbing foreign cultural consciousness such as the medicine and architecture from the West Asia, dance and music from Mid-Asia, calendar and the Buddhism from South Asia etc. (Schlombs, 1998 Therefore, all types of culture and art earned outstanding achievements. The prosperity

21、 of calligraphy could not be separated from Emperor Taizong of Tang (唐太宗)s powerful pushing. He was keen on calligraphy and promoted calligraphy, even listed as an important content of governing the country. (Chen, 2011) As a result, the development of calligraphy was guaranteed. In such an open, fr

22、ee, inclusive, confident and passionate Tang cultural atmosphere, the existence of the Wild Cursive script broke the mannered aesthetic rules of many scripts represented by Seal script, Clerical script and Regular script. (Schlombs, 1998 On the basis of the Jin and Zhang Cursive scripts which had br

23、oken away from the practicability and become independent arts, the Wild Cursive established a milestone of formative arts with its crazy passion and the infatuated condition. (Chen, 2011) The strong emotional expression, bold and unrestrained strokes, profound and abundant artistic state of the Wild

24、 Cursive script, had created a new ear of Chinese calligraphy art. Zhang Xu (张旭)s Wild Cursive script artFig3. Calligrapher Zhang Xu (张旭), Tang DynastyZhang Xu (张旭) is a famous calligrapher of Tang Dynasty. His was very outstanding, generous and talented. He was a cursive script master with personal

25、ity. It is said that he often got drunk, yelled and ran round, and then wrote crazily, even dipped ink with his hair to write, therefore he won a nickname “Crazy Zhang”. As a matter of fact, he was very careful; he believed that everything in daily life inspired him to write. Once he got inspiration

26、s, he would involve in his calligraphy. (Gao, 2007) Even at that time, when people got his work, they would see it as treasures and collected generation after generation. Zhang Xu (张旭)s calligraphy art accomplishments are embodied in the two main aspects. The first aspect is the Wild Cursive script.

27、 One the one hand, his Wild Cursive script practices and the brilliant achievement opened a brand new art world which was totally different from other scripts. Since then, as a mature and important script, the Wild Cursive script was inherited generation after generation and carried forward, which h

28、as largely improved the expressing room of traditional Chinese calligraphy. (Ge & Li, 2008) On the other hand, Zhang Xu (张旭) created the peak of the Wild Cursive script in history, at the same time, he also established the fundamental standard system of this kind of script. He was the guy who pushed

29、 the Wild Cursive art to the mature stage, and also pushed the Wild Cursive art to the peak. The Stomach Pains Therapy, The Heart Sutra and The Four Notes of Ancient Poetry are the best-known works of Zhang Xu (张旭) among his many productions coming down to now. (Gao, 2007) In the next section, the a

30、uthor will mainly analyze these three masterpieces, so as to get a deeper feeling of Zhang Xu (张旭)s Wild Cursive art. Case studies of Zhang Xu (张旭)s masterpiecesFig 4. Excerpts of The Four Notes of Ancient Poetry, created by Zhang Xu (张旭)As for the creation of The Four Notes of Ancient Poetry, he us

31、ed his unique Wild Cursive style to freely write down the four ancient poems created by two eminent ancient writers Xie Lingyun (谢灵运) and Yu Xin (虞兴) on the priceless Five-color paper. This work consists of 40 lines and 188 words. The strokes of the overall work are very rich and strong, without any weak or flashy strokes. The style of writing is ups and downs, which combining the moving and motionlessness. The whole paper looks like the ever-changing clouds and smoke curling up,