Under the influence of China culture, calligraphy has always been closely related to painting in South Korea. Some people think that painting is influenced by calligraphy from the perspective of strong and harmonious brushwork arrangement. People often hang calligraphy works on the wall like paintings, and appreciate every uniqueness, the charm of its brushwork, the skill, backbone and charm of its overall layout, and so on. A good word is not formed by symmetrical arrangement of some strokes, but like a beautifully choreographed dance and coordinated movements-passion, movement, instantaneous pause and alternating active brushwork, forming a balanced whole.
Technically speaking, the art of calligraphy depends on how the writer uses skills and imagination to show charm in strokes. These strokes with different expressions form a beautiful structure. After writing, you can't add pens or fill colors. The most important thing is to pay attention to the spatial symmetry between strokes, which needs years of practice and training to achieve. However, in understanding the basic nature of calligraphy art, proficiency in writing and aesthetic cultivation are not the only basic elements. In the past, in the upper class of South Korea, learning calligraphy was considered as a necessary process for cultivated people to cultivate their sentiments. The practical function of calligraphy as a means of writing or communication is often not as important as the philosophical significance of writing quality.
Like all other brilliant arts in ancient Korea, the basic inspiration of calligraphy comes from nature. Every stroke and every point of a word symbolizes the form of a natural object. Korean calligraphers, like those in ancient China, realized that just like every branch of a living tree has life, every stroke of a good word must be alive when writing. This is the essential difference between Chinese characters in calligraphy and printed characters. Ideographic Chinese characters have an abstract and visual feature, which further strengthens the visual appeal of calligraphy, because it allows calligraphers who have reached the perfect artistic level to express their thoughts almost infinitely, just like great painters in painting.
Like the tools used by traditional ink painters, calligraphers need simple tools-high quality ink, inkstone, pen and paper (some painters like silk paper). These four things have a good name "Four Treasures of the Study" (sometimes called "Four Friends of the Study"). People are very careful about the choice and preservation of these four things, because they often reflect the appreciation and aesthetic level of socialism.
Korean calligraphy has a long tradition, which can be traced back to the early Three Kingdoms. It is understood that since then, China literature has been taught in the Royal Academy and state-owned institutions of higher learning. Calligraphy has a long history. In many centuries, countless nobles and artists have made outstanding efforts to promote the art of calligraphy. Unfortunately, after many foreign invasions and internal disputes, few ancient calligraphy works have been preserved so far. In particular, the seven-year war between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Japanese army at the end of 16 caused many deaths and seriously damaged historical stone tablets and cultural relics all over the Korean peninsula. So there are less than 20 surviving calligraphy works belonging to the pre-war era.
What can satisfy the curiosity of modern scholars who study Korean calligraphy is that many stone carvings have survived the historical changes and have not been destroyed by the war. Among several stone tablets with inscriptions left over from the ancient Three Kingdoms period, the great stone tablet with unparalleled historical significance was built in the southeast of China in 4 14 A.D. to commemorate the achievements of King Koguryo.
This 6.4-meter-high stone tablet is engraved with about 1800 Chinese inscriptions, and the font is angular. Most epitaphs and experts who study ancient Korean calligraphy point out that the lettering on the tablet can express the courage and vitality of the people of this ancient military country that ruled a considerable part of northeastern China and the northern half of the Korean Peninsula at that time.
There is even less information about the height of calligraphy art in Baekje Kingdom in Southwest China. Judging from the high level and exquisite works of art of the literati in this kingdom, it is likely that they have reached a quite mature level in calligraphy. 1972, many cultural relics with important archaeological value were found in the tomb of King and Empress Wuning accidentally discovered by Zhou Gong, the ancient capital of Baekje in central Korea. One of the square stone tablets is rare for calligraphers and epitaphs. This stone tablet was placed at the entrance of this tomb in the sixth century, similar to the contract to buy a piece of land from the underground gods in order to build this tomb. The Chinese characters carved on the stone tablet have beautiful fonts, showing high technology; The font was obviously influenced by the non-cursive script in China at that time.
In the subsequent era of unified Silla, many great calligraphers, such as Jin Sheng and Cui Zhiyuan, emerged out of admiration for the culture of China in the Tang Dynasty. Their fonts basically follow those of China calligraphers Ou Yangxun and Yu Shinan. Another China calligraphy master, Wang Xizhi, is also highly respected, and his cursive script is widely imitated by people. However, the Ou Yangxun style spread from Silla Kingdom, with square fonts, still dominated the Korean era until about 1350. Around this time, Zhao, a calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty in China, introduced his exquisite and elegant handwriting into South Korea and became a popular calligraphy style. Since then, Zhao Ti has been the basic undercurrent of Korean calligraphy.
Following China's example, the rulers of the early Koryo era adopted the imperial examination system and selected civil servants through examinations. Candidates should write according to the proposition, and the font of the composition is naturally one of the marking standards. This system has promoted the interest of the upper class in diligently practicing calligraphy. Hanting also has an examination system for selecting junior officials who specialize in official documents. This era is an era when Buddhism flourished as a state religion, leaving a wealth of typical works, through which we can understand the calligraphy level at that time. Such cultural relics preserved to this day include tombstones, block-printed and handwritten Buddhist scriptures, inscriptions on stupas commemorating eminent monks and stone tablets in temples. Famous calligraphers in this era include Yan Li, Li Qixian, Judas and Han Yun.
Korean calligraphy was originally Zhao's style, advocating elegant and exquisite brushwork. The third son of Sejong, Dajun Anping (14 18-53), has unparalleled calligraphy attainments in Zhao Ti. He wrote an inscription for An Jian, one of the greatest painters of his generation, as mentioned earlier. Han Hu (1543-1605), more famous for his pen name Shi Feng, is also an important figure in the history of Korean calligraphy, but he only sincerely learned from Wang Xizhi. Although he was very proficient in Wang Ti's calligraphy, he didn't create his own style. /kloc-At the beginning of the 6th century, a weak and unimaginative style appeared, and Korean calligraphy entered a barren period.
However, in the 9th century, there appeared some unique styles related to China calligraphers, such as Wen Zhiming. The emergence of this new trend stems from the close cultural contact between South Korea and China during the Qing Dynasty. A group of scholars are keen on this kind of contact, because they are eager to emulate the Qing Dynasty and seek practical ways to improve people's lives and build a modern country.
The greatest calligrapher in the Korean era was Kim Jong-hye, a realist. Jin Zhenghui is an outstanding calligrapher and scholar. He established a style called "Autumn History School". His calligraphy was born out of China's official script, but its layout is full of painting feeling, and he is good at seeing harmony in asymmetry, and his brushwork is extremely powerful, which makes his words full of vitality. Because of these talents, he finally created his own vivid and powerful style.
In the first two or three decades of this century, there were not many Korean calligraphers alive, but the influence of Japanese calligraphy began to appear around 1920. After the end of World War II, traditional calligraphy only remained as a secondary art, and the new trend since the 1960s is that calligraphy is written in Korean letters.