The Study Of Shen Zengzhi's "Tie" School

Shen Zengzhi(1850-1922), a famous calligrapher in late Qing Dynasty and early Min Guo, was born in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province.Investigators have usually treated Shen as a great master on "Bei" School, but ignored his achievements on "Tie" to some extent since 20th century. This thesis tries to put Shen Zengzhi in the historical background of the rising movement of "Bei" school, focusing on searching his concepts of "Tie" School and his works of "Tie" in order to clarify how "Tie" school is entangled in the concepts of calligraphy in late Qing Dynasty and early Min Guo and how it influences the works of calligraphers.The thesis consists of three chapters: Chapter One will explore the origin of "Tie" School from his family, teachers and travels. Chapter Two will firstly discuss the keen thoughts of "Raising 'Tie'" in Shen and then emphasize on the concepts of "Respecting Jin" and "Praising Tang". Chapter Three will concentrate on the main writing thoughts of "Tie" school and analyze their features.The thesis holds that Shen is good at Bei school but his accomplishments on "Tie" school are also much notable. Shen's concepts of "Tie" school are the counterevidence of the saying that "Bei" school dominates in the late Qing Dynasty foreshadowing the coming forth of the combination of "Bei" and "Tie" in Min Guo. His practice of "Tie" school which focuses on the cursive writing style and imitates sutra calligraphy has broadened the later generations' learning of calligraphy. The frequent employment of square strokes has made great contribution to the tradition of emphasizing round smooth style.