A Study On Baijiao’s Calligraphy

Baijiao(1907—1969)was a great master of calligraphy from Tie School,and had been prominent ever since the Republican period.At that time,against the backdrop of the convergence of Bei School and Tie School,Baijiao learned his calligraphic skills from the ancient works,which started from Tangdynasty and went all the way up to Wei and Jin dynasty.He dedicated himself to the orthodoxy of the Two Wangs’(Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi).With all his efforts and concentration,he researched and pondered.While maintaining his bold unique calligraphic style,Baijiao dabbled into countless schools of calligraphy.And finally his work came to fruition.In addition to his calligraphic achievement,he is also a knowledgeable master of poetry,literature,painting as well as engraving.Hence,he enjoys the reputation of “celebrated scholar in Shanghai”.Baijiao’s calligraphic study can be generally divided into two parts.The first part being his personal calligraphic practice and the other is about his theory of calligraphy.To be precise,his practice is embodied by his experience of learning from the two Wangs’(Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi)worksandthe calligraphic works he left.Meanwhile,his theory is based on his profound knowledge as well as his rational thoughts built on the general comprehension of calligraphy.The former can be named as “the core of calligraphy” and the latter as the “the form of calligraphy”.Baijiao’s works demonstrated aseamless integration of the core and the form of calligraphy.This thesis aims at presenting a comprehensive investigation,analysis and research on Baijiao’s achievements on calligraphy.And his achievements onliterature,printing and engraving are also covered because they are closely related with the theory of calligraphy.Apart from the Introduction,this thesis is divided into five chapters.The main ideas and key points are as follows.The first chapter is the study on Baijiao’s life as an artist,thus highlighting his sincerity,his concentration towards art,his passion about his career,his ups and downs as an artist,and the bold spirit which helped him survive the political blow and enabled him to continue his artistic career and research.The second chapter is the research on Baijiao’s achievements on calligraphy and its theory.In terms of his calligraphic performance,this chapter mainly focuses on Baojiao’s ideology on the learning and creating of calligraphy,in whichhe demonstrates his belief that the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi can be traced back to the same origin.Also,his ideas of imitating the ancients,worshipping the style of Wei and Jin Dynasty and his esteem for the works of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi are also highlighted.Through a dynamic analysis of Baijiao’s existing works,this thesis untangle the path of his progression of his calligraphic skills.Also,this chapter will reveal Baijiao’s mastering and understanding of both Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi’s calligraphy by analyzing the characteristics of his calligraphic skills and his unique style.As for the aspect of calligraphic theory,this chapter will give a detailed analysis based on the essentials of Baijiao’s view about the creation,criticism,appreciation and education of calligraphy,which he developed through years of researching,reviewing and teaching.This is the most important part of this thesis paper.The third chapter is a further dissecting of the structure of Baijiao’s theory on calligraphy.Baijiao is a master on calligraphy and also a talented poet,writer,painter and engraver,with profound knowledge of literature and history.Baojiao’s calligraphy theory was born out of the convergence of all these attainments.It is his attainments that endowed him with a deep insight about the “Tao” of calligraphy.In general,Baijiao’s refined calligraphic skills,the insightfulness of his calligraphic theory,and even his fine taste of the “scholar’s four jewels”,without exception,are all the results of his attainments in various fields.The fourth chapter is to discuss the value and significance of Baijiao’s calligraphic theory in the contemporary era.It is believed that Baijiao’s best works are always the letters of scripts of poems that he casually wrote when at ease.It’s worth noticing that this type of writing,which is currently withering because of neglecting,belongs to one of the most common and most important part in our ancients’ writing.So I deliberately bring forward the proposal of“returning to daily handwriting”,a proposal which deserves our reflection,for discussion.Looking at the contemporary books that study Tie School,most of them simply query the ancients,and have neithertheir unique style nor deep insights.That’s why it is our top priority to “return to the orthodox Tie School”.Though Baijiaolearned from both Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi,he developed his own style in the end.And Baijiao’s calligraphic theory is also a perfect echo of the orthodox Tie School.A more detailed question would be: what’s the core of Baijiao’s calligraphic theory? I believe the answer to combine the form and the core of calligraphy.We start from the cultivation of the from and core of calligraphy,and end with the cultivation of our mind.This is the most remarkable significance of Baijiao’s calligraphic theory in our time.