A Study On Poems Of Appraising Calligraphy Of Du Fu

As a famous poet, Du fu had keen insight on many arts such as poem, calligraphy and painting .Both his grandfather Du Shenyan and father Du Xian were good at calligraphy, therefore, he learned much knowledge about calligraphy from them. Although his calligraphy was not been handed down, but it was appraised highly in Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasty. In his whole life, Du fu wrote more than three thousand poems, more than one hundred of which touched upon calligraphy, recorded his association with calligraphers and contained unique aesthetics ideas of calligraphy .Du Fu altogether associated with more than ten calligraphers, such as Wei Jiansu,Liu Bohua,LiBai, Li Yong,Li Jin,Li Chao,Zhang Xu,Zhang Biao,Zheng Qian,Zheng Dianshe,He Zhizhang,Gu Jieshe,CaoBa,Han Zemu,Cai Youlin,Pei Shizhou, and wrote many poems for them. In these poems, Du Fu described usually calligraphers and arts of calligraphy and expressed his own viewpoint on calligraphy by literary quotations, metaphors and contrast. These poems was distinctive in words and had great influence on later poems of discussing calligraphy.Du Fu hold that people should be diligent in calligraphy, absorb all useful ideas and follow all the examples of calligraphy. He praised highly the creating mind of"quiet is beautiful"and uphold the strange and ancient arts style. He also considered that the thin and hard calligraphy is beautiful. What is more, he thought understanding spirits as the best realm of calligraphy creating.The calligraphy idea of Du Fu was influenced by tradition of calligraphy, especially by the style of advocating bone in early period of Tang Dynasty. In the prosperous period of Tang Dynasty, the plump style was very popular because of the social custom and the rulers'favor. In view of the social conditions and artistic atmosphere then, Du Fu explicitly put forward the slogan: I was keen on strange and ancient artistic style in my whole life and only the thin and hard calligraphy can gain access to miraculous realm, which affected prevailing calligraphy custom and judgment of Tang Dynasty and later ages deeply.The formation of calligraphy thinking, which was embodied in the poems appraising calligraphy of Du Fu, had something to do with his unique personality and life experience. Du Fu was short-tempered and incompatible with the social conventions. Not being assigned to a key post, Du Fu failed to achieve his ideal of dedicating himself to the service of his country, moreover, the Tang Dynasty began to become weak,so Du Fu advocated strange and ancient, thin and hard style of calligraphy in order to express his complaints against the rulers. Du Fu was penalized because of rescuing Fang Guan, then he hold complaints against Yan Zhenqing, which made him oppose the plump style of calligraphy which is advocated by Yan Zhenqing ,and promote go back to the strange and ancient, thin and hard style of calligraphy which encouraged by Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi.