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The "Thousand Character Classic" in Chinese Calligraphy
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Dates: 2009/07/01
~ 2009/09/25
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| Gallery: 204, 206, 208 |
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The "Thousand Character Classic" was reportedly composed on the order of the Liang dynasty emperor Wudi (464-549) as a form of instruction in calligraphy for his princes. Rubbings were made from works by the master calligrapher Wang Xizhi (303-361) in the imperial collection to compile a list of one thousand non-repeating characters. Zhou Xingsi (?-521) was then ordered to put them to rhyme, creating lines of four characters each. The contents of the poetry touch on a variety of subjects, including nature, society, history, and ethics. Intended for teaching calligraphy, this text not only became a classic primer for educating children in ancient times, it was also used in daily life as a form of numbering. An example is the vast collection of painting and calligraphy amassed by Xiang Yuanbian (1525-1590), in which characters from the "Thousand Character Classic" served as accession numbers for individual works.
In terms of literary history, the "Thousand Character Classic" also inspired a trend in creating imitations, in which numerous variations developed over the ages. Some lines from the text were even directly mentioned in novels and dramas, reflecting the permeation of this classic in society. From the initial collection of Wang Xizhi's characters to Zhiyong's (ca. 510-ca. 610) transcription of 800 copies for distribution to various temples in eastern Zhejiang, the "Thousand Character Classic" has always been closely connected to the study and practice of calligraphy. Therefore, from its inception, this text has been the focus of attention among calligraphers and has continued to hold sway through the history of calligraphy. Since all the characters are unique and of appropriate length (as well as familiar and popular among audiences), the "Thousand Character Classic" became a primary choice among those seeking calligraphy and calligraphers creating modelbooks for study, resulting in many great transcriptions of this text.
Surviving examples of the "Thousand Character Classic" include those not only in seal, clerical, cursive, running, and regular script, but also a combination of these forms, such as Zhiyong's "'Thousand Character Classic' in Regular and Cursive Scripts," Yu He's (1307-1382) "'Thousand Character Classic' in Seal and Clerical Scripts," and Wen Zhengming's (1470-1559) "'Thousand Character Classic' in Four Scripts" in the National Palace Museum collection. Copied and calligraphed innumerable times through the ages, the "Thousand Character Classic" became an important part of mainstream calligraphy. Consequently, almost all calligraphers of renown through the centuries made transcriptions, turning the text into a unique cultural phenomenon in the history of Chinese calligraphy. This exhibition presents major examples of the "Thousand Character Classic" from the Museum collection for comparison and appreciation by general audiences and students of calligraphy alike.
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