An Interesting Talk about Calligraphy·Li Si

"Li Si": Li Si (?—208 BC), a calligrapher of the Qin Dynasty. A native of Shangcai (now southwest of Shangcai, Henan Province). He once studied under Xun Qing and later entered the Qin Dynasty and became prime minister. Li Si is erudite and talented, and is good at calligraphy. His works include "Stone Carvings on Mount Tai", "Stone Carvings on Mount Yi", "Stone Carvings on Langye Terrace", etc. Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang Dynasty commented on his calligraphy in "Shuguan": "The paintings are like iron and stone, and the words are like flying." Li Sizhen of the Tang Dynasty said in "The Book of the Book": "The essence of Li Si's small seal script is exquisite in ancient and modern times. The Qin Dynasty looked at the mountains and the emperor's jade seal, like a man with a thousand jun and a powerful crossbow, and a thousand stones and a bell."

Li Si's seal script

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, ended the long-term war situation since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and established the first centralized feudal state in Chinese history. Li Si was highly valued by Qin Shihuang and was named prime minister. He was not only a famous politician and writer in the Qin Dynasty, but also the first famous calligrapher in the history of Chinese calligraphy.

Li Sixiang

In the early days of his rule, Qin Shihuang implemented a series of policies to strengthen the country and enrich the people. In addition, he knew and made good use of talents, and vigorously promoted useful talents. Therefore, the domestic politics was stable, the economy was prosperous, and the feudal rule was increasingly strengthened, showing a good and prosperous development trend. However, because the Qin Dynasty inherited the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and throughout the more than 500 years of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the princes were divided and wars were frequent. This turbulent political situation also affected language communication and the use of words, so "linguistic differences" appeared. The sound and text are abnormal. For example, there are more than 100 ways to write the word "Qin" alone. How can this situation be conducive to cultural exchanges and development across the country? In order to change this situation, Li Si, as the prime minister, wrote to Qin Shihuang, requesting the unification of the scripts of the six countries and "dismissing those who disagree with the Qin script", thereby creating a new chapter for the Qin Dynasty economic and political development services. Qin Shihuang agreed with Li Si's suggestion and strongly supported him in reforming writing. Li Si convened people to conduct specialized research. Based on the large seal script, he extensively absorbed the essence of folk calligraphy at that time and created "small seal script", also known as "Qin seal script", which opened a new page in the development of writing in Chinese history.

As a new calligraphy style that combines the strengths of all calligraphy styles, "Xiaozhuan" has the characteristics of rounded lines, symmetrical structure, and long fonts. In order to make Xiaozhuan script quickly and widely used in real life and serve the socio-economic and political development, in addition to using administrative power to promote it, Li Si and other senior officials also set an example and set an example for themselves. Li Si himself wrote the "Cangjie Pian", the CRRC ordered Zhao Gao to write the "Yanli Pian", and Taishi ordered Hu Wujing to write the "Bo Xue Pian". These three books were prescribed as literacy textbooks for schoolchildren's enlightenment as a promotion Apply the standard of Xiaozhuan script. Since then, Xiaozhuan script has become popular in the world as an important calligraphy style.

Li Si's calligraphy was already very famous and well-known at that time, and was widely praised and affirmed. Many of the famous characters on tablets and seals in the Qin Dynasty were written by him. Li Si's calligraphy works are represented by stone carvings, which are mainly related to Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang, who unified the six kingdoms, had a great reputation. He liked to climb mountains and swim, and carved stones to record his achievements. Everywhere he went, he asked Prime Minister Li Si to write a eulogy and have the book engraved on stone. From Sima Qian's "Historical Records", we can know that in the Qin Dynasty, there were seven carved stones in six places, including Taishan, Langxietai, Zhifu, Jieshi, Huiji, and Yishan, and five texts were recorded. The stone carvings and writing were all written by Li Si. Among these seven engraved stones, no trace of the two stones can be found. The Yishan stone carvings were also destroyed. Later, copy carvings appeared. There have been many copy carvings since the Tang Dynasty. Among them, the copy carvings by Zheng Wenbao in the Song Dynasty are the best and are now in the Forest of Steles in Xi'an. "Langxie Stone Carvings" is now in the Museum of Chinese History, but it has peeled off badly and the writing is blurred, making it difficult to identify. The original stone carvings in Kuaiji no longer exist, but there are copies handed down by later generations.

"Langxie Terrace Carved Stone" (detail) Qin Li Si

As the first famous calligrapher in the history of Chinese calligraphy, Li Si has been widely recognized by later generations. Although his The original calligraphy works no longer exist, but his many historical achievements, such as reforming Chinese characters, creating small seal script, ending the situation of abnormal characters since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and laying an important foundation for the formation and development of Chinese square Chinese characters, will last forever and will be admired by future generations of scholars. .