Failed To Open Ancient And Modern Calligraphy Of Wonderland

This thesis is based on the disputes regarding Beixue (tablet inscriptions) and Tiexue (rubbings) in the Qing Dynasty and the changes of the situation in late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, as well as the social, cultural and academic situation of the time and the thought of Shen Zengzhi, and studies his calligraphy and explores some in-depth changes in the early 20^th century that are often ignored by contemporary researchers.The academic background of the Qing Dynasty themed "restoring traditions" gave rise to the disputes regarding tablet inscriptions and rubbings, which were in essence efforts of the calligraphic circles to sort out the origins and over 2,000 years of evolution of Chinese calligraphy. The rise of study on tablet inscriptions brought new impetus to calligraphy, and also triggered off conflicts between tablet inscriptions and rubbings and broke the previous dominance of rubbings. The conflicts also caused confusion and crisis within the entire system of calligraphy. The archaeological discoveries and application of modern printing in late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China dismantled the basis for the above-said disputes and led to the changes of the calligraphic frame of reference. As the restoration of the seal and the regular scripts had been completed by others, Shen Zengzhi studied the origin of the cursive script, and his study propelled the restoration of the art of cursive script. This filled up the gap left behind in the Qing Dynasty disputes and marked an ending of the disputes which were in essence to sort out the calligraphic tradition over the previous 2,000 years. The efforts of Shen Zengzhi and others had resulted in a grand system rebuilt beyond the disputes of tablet inscriptions and rubbings, consequently, the conceptual boundary and conflicts between tablet inscriptions and rubbings were erased, and the base of Chinese calligraphy was once again consolidated after more than 200 years of disputes.From the above analysis, it can be inferred that the current academic view has its limitation in that it holds that the calligraphy of late Qing and early Republic of China was the continuation of the Qing tablet inscription's replacing the rubbings and that tablet inscriptions took absolute dominance in the calligraphic circles at that time. A great number of evidence has proved that the understanding of calligraphy, especially tablets and rubbings, of the calligraphers and scholars of late Qing and early Republic of China was not a continuation of that of their predecessors, but a change.The disputes initiated by Fu Shan came to a conclusion by the time of Shen Zengzhi, and the following discussions were merely aftereffect.