The Study On Huangdaozhou's Xingcaoshu

HuangDaozhou, the most important calligrapher in the reform of art style of calligraphy in Late Ming Dynasty, set an example of perfect union of his personal character and that of his calligraphy for his profound knowledge, his fairness and his not being tacky. He showed obvious personality and prominent style in his calligraphy and inherited traditional Chinese-brush-writing techniques from ancient scripts creatively, learning from ZhongYou and SuoJing, and bringing in lishu and zhangcao, which made his calligraphy elegant and also unique in the calligraphy circle of Ming Dynasty. ShaMenghai once made such remarks :"In the late period of Ming Dynasty, none but HuangDaozhou could compare favorable with WangDuo."Huang's kaishu is meaningful with concise brokers, simple but elegant, antique and clumsy, While his xingshu and caoshu are of great momentum, impassioned and forceful with a heroic air, pretty in riotous profusion just like a breeze bending the grass. He found another way in his calligraphy by learning directly from the Six-Dynasties and broke out the oppression in calligraphy of the early and middle periods of Ming Dynasty. Therefore he became novel and original in the calligraphy circle of Late Ming Dynasty. This kind of creative spirit and the way of combining scripts and stele-inscriptions have had far-reaching influence on the calligraphy circle of since Qing Dynasty till now.The dissertation can be divided into four parts.The first part provides a survey of Huang's lifetime and the background about his epoch. And his ideology and aesthetic ideas of calligraphy are analyzed, in which three aspects are mentioned.The second part lays stress on the analysis of his xingshu and caoshu. What are discussed in this part include the cause, the origin, the formation and the development of his xingshu and caoshu. Furthermore, techniques of how to create xingshu and caoshu are discussed, including brush-using, composition, arrangement and Chinese-ink, etc. through the author's own experiences.The third part contains four comparisons between Huang and the other calligraphers of his time (ZhangRuitu, NiYuanlu, WangTuo and FuShan) which are to illustrate the features, the style of calligraphy of the period and the differences between their personal aesthetic ideas.The fourth part offers an objective analysis of the value and significance of Huang's calligraphy. The exposition comes to the conclusion that his calligraphy has an active influence on the calligraphy of Qing Dynasty and the time being, and that what an attitude we should take in inheriting and borrowing the traditional culture.. As a whole, in this dissertation a throughout discussion about Huang's calligraphy idea, about the origin, formation, characters and influence, is given by exploiting demonstration, comparison, textual research, plate-analysis, etc. And the author evolutes Huang's creative spirit for his time, especially the reference and the enlightenment he offered us in xingshu-and-caoshu creation combinating her own experiences of learning Huang's xingshu and caoshu.