A Study Of Song Ke’s Cursive Script Styles And Thoughts On Calligraphy

In the cursive script art in the late Yuan dynasty and the early Ming dynasty,under the influence of previous calligraphers,“modern cursive script(jincao)”continued to develop mainly in the styles of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi,while“draft cursive script(zhangcao)” models of calligraphy for practice represented by Huang Xiang’s Hasty Writing Chapter(Jijiu Zhang)were also widely spread and copied.In the same period,the mixture of various styles also showed different tendencies between literati in and out of office.It was against such a background of modern and draft cursive script developing in parallel and in the unrest of changing dynasties that the calligrapher Song Ke created an unconstrained,fresh and vigorous style,by boldly writing in running script,modern cursive script and even “highly cursive script(kuangcao)”,based on draft cursive script,which has always been highly praised.Against historical backgrounds,this paper differentiated and analyzed Song Ke’s different cursive script works handed down,which were collected and sorted out,and studied reasons for the formation of his cursive script styles in different periods and their characteristics.His thoughts on calligraphy conveyed in preface and postscript works,letters and poems were also studied and summarized,the influence and value of which were also analyzed.The imitation of ancient styles and innovation in his cursive script art,as well as dedication to excellence and pursuit of changes in his thoughts on calligraphy,were not only of rich significance in that age,but also of guiding value and inspiring to our learning of cursive script today.