{"id":341,"date":"2018-07-20T21:28:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T21:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/calligraphy\/?post_type=chapter&p=341"},"modified":"2019-01-10T12:58:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T12:58:32","slug":"chinese-calligraphy-in-the-republican-period","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/intro-to-chinese-calligraphy\/chapter\/chinese-calligraphy-in-the-republican-period\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Calligraphy in the Republican Period"},"content":{"raw":"
This chapter focuses on the past century of calligraphy's development and includes generally accepted rules that can \"personalize\" calligraphy through an artist's use of running script.<\/em><\/div>\r\n

Part I. Culture<\/h1>\r\n

1 Chinese Calligraphy in the Republican Period<\/h2>\r\nThe Republic of China (\u4e2d\u534e\u6c11\u56fd\/\u4e2d\u83ef\u6c11\u570b\/zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 m\u00edn gu\u00f3)\u00a0(1912-present)\u00a0<\/span>overthrew the Qing<\/em>\u00a0in 1911 and thus launched the Republican Period<\/em>. <\/span>With the Qing<\/em>'s fall<\/span>, the\u00a0<\/span>New Culture Movement<\/em>\u00a0began, one that defied every facet of traditionalism. The status quo in Chinese was impossible to maintain as civil war ensued between\u00a0the\u00a0Kuomintang\u00a0(the nationalists) and the\u00a0Communist Party of China. Further chaos ensued during the\u00a0Second Sino-Japanese War. Somehow surviving through this upheaval, artists began to integrate Western art techniques and perspectives into traditional Chinese painting.\u00a0<\/span>In 1949, with the founding of The People's Republic of China in the mainland, the new government guided <\/span>a<\/span>rt forms. Nearly two decades later, the most earthshaking impact of the\u00a0<\/span>Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was <\/span>\"<\/span>Destruction of the Four Olds<\/em>,\" with\u00a0<\/span>major consequences for pottery, painting, literature, art, architecture, and more. From the 1980's onward, art forms became increasingly diverse. Calligraphy and painting revived amid widespread popularity. <\/span>Famous calligraphers and painters during this period are Wu Changshuo (\u5434\u660c\u7855\/\u5449\u660c\u78a9) (1844-1927), Huang Binhong (\u9ec4\u5bbe\u8679\/\u9ec3\u8cd3\u8679) (1865-1955), Yu You-Ren (\u4e8e\u53f3\u4efb\/\u65bc\u53f3\u4efb) (1879-1964), Shen Yinmo (<\/span>\u6c88\u5c39\u9ed8) (1883\u5e74\uff0d1971),\u00a0<\/span>Xu Beihong (\u5f90\u60b2\u9e3f\/\u5f90\u60b2\u9d3b) (1895\u20131953), Lin Sanzhi (\u6797\u6563\u4e4b) (1898-1989), Zhang Daqian (\u5f20\u5927\u5343\/\u5f35\u5927\u5343) (1899\u20131983),\u00a0Fu Baoshi (\u5085\u62b1\u77f3) (1904\u20131965), Li Keran (\u674e\u53ef\u67d3) (1907-1989), Zhao Puchu (\u8d75\u6734\u521d\/\u8d99\u6a8f\u521d) (1907-2000),\u00a0 Qigong (\u542f\u529f\/\u5553\u529f) (1912-2005),\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Wang Jing-Zhi (\u738b\u9759\u829d\/\u738b\u975c\u829d) (1916-2002), and\u00a0<\/span>Liu Bing-Nan (\u5218\u70b3\u5357\/\u5289\u70b3\u5357) (1924-). See Figure 1 for painting by Qi Baishi, Figure 2 for calligraphy by Qigong, and Figure 3 for painting by Li Keran.<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_967\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"240\"]\"\" Figure 1: Painting by Qi Baishi[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_919\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"234\"]\"\" Figure 2: Calligraphy in running script by Qigong[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1054\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"683\"]\"\" Figure 3: Painting by Li Keran[\/caption]\r\n

2 Calligraphy or Painting Inscriptions<\/h2>\r\n\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Once an artist completes the main content of a painting or calligraphy piece, the individual normally will provide inscriptions. These could include the source of the main content of the artwork; recipients of the piece; date; signature; and author's seal. Except for the seal, inscriptions are written in running script. (For a beginner, regular script should be the preferred calligraphy style).\r\n

2.1 Date<\/h4>\r\nInstead of the solar calendar, the Chinese use a traditional system to denote years. It's a combination of\u00a0Celestial<\/em> or\u00a0<\/span>Heavenly Stems<\/em> \u5929\u5e72\/ti<\/span>\u0101n g<\/span>\u0101n and Earthly Branches<\/em> \u5730\u652f\/d<\/span>\u00ec zh<\/span>\u012b. Ten Heavenly Stems<\/em>, combined with 12 Earthly Branches<\/em>, form a cycle of 60 years. Each year is given a certain name with one heavenly<\/em> stem and one earthly<\/em> branch (Table 1). Traditionally, calligraphy, painting, and other art forms are dated with a particular year's name. Nowadays people also accept modern-era dates.<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_922\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"714\"]\"\" Table 1:\u00a0Four cycle calendar of the 60-year round named with Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches (in red). Adapted from\u00a0https:\/\/www.cchatty.com\/article\/Heavenly-Stems-and-Earthly-Branches.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn general, information of a particular year is sufficient to date a work of art. To provide more specifics about a date, artists might include information about a season. The four seasons in Chinese are \u6625\/ch\u016bn (spring), \u590f\/xi\u00e0\u00a0(summer), \u79cb\/qi\u016b (fall), and \u51ac\/d\u014dng (winter). Each season should be used together with \u6708\/yu\u00e8 (month) or \u65e5\/r\u00ec (day) to indicate the month and season in which an artist has finished the piece. A seasonal plant may also indicate a date.\r\n

2.2 Seal<\/h4>\r\nA seal (\u5370\/y\u00ecn) is normally written in seal script. It is not just the mark of ownership; it also has become the essential element in the piece because its red color is so prominent on a normally black-and-white rendering.\u00a0The artist may use one seal or two different ones on one piece.\r\n\r\nFigure 4 is a piece of calligraphy created by contemporary calligrapher Tian Yunzhang with basic inscriptions.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_944\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"320\"]\"\" Figure 4 Calligraphy in regular script with the date (circled in red), signature (circled in green), and seals (circled in purple). Adapted from\u00a0http:\/\/wemedia.ifeng.com\/47900139\/wemedia.shtml.[\/caption]\r\n

Part II. Calligraphy Writing<\/h1>\r\n

1 Characters<\/h2>\r\n\u5e74\/ni\u00e1n (year), \u6625\/ch\u016bn (spring), \u590f\/xi\u00e0\u00a0(summer), \u79cb\/qi\u016b (fall), \u51ac\/d\u014dng (winter), \u6708\/yu\u00e8 (month; moon), \u66f8\/sh\u016b (to write; book)\r\n

2 Sample Calligraphy Characters<\/h2>\r\n\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"\r\n\r\n\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"\r\n

3 Writing by following rules<\/h2>\r\n