The engraved model-letters compendia of the Song Dynasty.

• Author: McNair, Amy

THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT of engraved calligraphy compendia in China is important as an instance of how histories of art are created and contested. It also illustrates how China's cultural and political elite used styles of art for purposes of propaganda. Yet no detailed history of the origins and development of engraved model-letters compendia (fatie) exists, to my knowledge, in any Asian or Western language. This paper is offered as a survey of the Song-dynasty engraved model-letters compendia, from their source in the classical tradition of the Six Dynasties and Tang periods, to the creation of the first compendium in 992, to the steadily increasing numbers of compendia created from 992 to the fall of the Song in 1279. Traced over a period of nearly 300 years, the contents of the compendia reveal the process of how histories of art evolve. Which calligraphers were chosen, which of their works were included, and what percentage of the compendium their work occupied are significant, as well as who the sponsors were and when they were published. An analysis of this information will show how the compendia embodied the political tensions between the scholar-official class and the throne during the Northern Song and how, in the Southern Song, the throne came to accept scholars' ideas about which calligraphers were important historically.

1. THE IMPERIAL COMPENDIUM AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION OF CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY,

   TANG THROUGH EARLY NORTHERN SONG (618-992)

   The stylistic lineage of Wang Xizhi (303-61) and his relatives and followers in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (317-589), Sui (581-618), and Tang (618-907) periods has been termed "the classical tradition" by scholars in the West. Imperial sponsorship was largely responsible for the dominant position this stylistic lineage has long enjoyed. Several influential rulers practiced Wang Xizhi's calligraphic style and engaged in discussions of the authenticity of his extant works, notably Emperor Ming of the Liu Song (r. 465-72), Emperor Wu of the Liang (r. 502-49), Emperor Yang of the Sui (r. 604-17), and Emperor Taizong of the Tang (r. 626-49).

   The style of Wang Xizhi was part of the mantle of southern culture that Tang Taizong donned to help him unify the realm after his military conquest from the north. He studied calligraphy with Yu Shinan (558-638), who had himself studied with the Sui-dynasty monk Zhiyong, a seventh-generation descendant of Wang Xizhi. Taizong also attempted to gather all the extant works of Wang Xizhi into the palace collection. To get them, he confiscated the collections of his political enemies and sent out scouts to appraise and buy other works. In the notorious case of the Orchid Pavilion Preface (Lantingxu), he resorted to a cruel ruse to obtain it from an elderly monk. Soon after assuming the throne, he had amassed a large number of "authentic" pieces, from which various types of copies were made. One type was the tracing copies produced by the court calligraphers; another was the free-hand copies produced by his high officials, Yu Shinan, Ouyang Xun (557-641), and Chu Suiliang (596-658). The copies were distributed to court nobles, whose sons were instructed in calligraphy by Yu Shinan and Ouyang Xun at the palace school. When the official history of the Jin dynasty (265-420) was compiled, the emperor himself wrote an Imperial Postscript to the biography of Wang Xizhi, in which he declared Wang the greatest calligrapher of all time.(1)

   Tang Taizong fixed the style of Wang Xizhi as the imperial signature with such finality that it was maintained as such through the Tang dynasty and beyond. While warfare wracked the central plains during the Five Dynasties period (907-60), the classical tradition of calligraphy was preserved at the courts of the Shu kingdom, the Southern Tang dynasty, and the kingdom of Wu Yue. As the armies of the Song dynasty conquered these states, their calligraphers and calligraphy collections gravitated to the Song capital. Shu surrendered to the Song in 965, and its famous calligraphers, such as Li Jianzhong (945-1013) and Wang Zhu (d. 990), went to Kaifeng. When the Southern Tang capitulated in 975, Su Yijian (957-95), Xu Xuan (916-91), and others moved to the Song court. The kingdom of Wu Yue yielded in 978, and the palace calligraphy collection of works by Zhong You (151-230) and Wang Xizhi was offered to the Song throne. Southern Tang had submitted its palace collection earlier.

   Emperor Taizong of the Song (r. 976-97) welcomed the famous men of culture to his court. He became the special patron of Su Yijian, the author of Wenfang sipu, and Xu Xuan, editor of Xu Shen's Shuowen jiezi. The emperor also admired the calligraphic skills of Wang Zhu, who had studied the style of Wang Xizhi and was said to be a descendant of the same Wang clan of Langye (in modern Shandong). The emperor first appointed him to serve as a Court Calligrapher, in which capacity he acted as something of a personal calligraphy tutor to the emperor. He was ultimately promoted to serve as a Palace Censor.(2)

   Song Taizong commanded Wang Zhu to select the finest works of calligraphy in the Imperial Archives, where the scrolls obtained from the conquered courtsand from purchases made by Taizong's agents were stored. Wang was also granted the authority to buy and borrow works from among the private collections in the capital.(3) In the third year of the Chunhua era (992), the resulting assortment of 419 letters, representing some one hundred calligraphers from antiquity through the mid-Tang, was engraved in wooden plates, divided into ten volumes. Though never officially titled, it is known to posterity variously as the Chunhua ge tie, or Chunhua bige fatie ("Model Letters in the Imperial Archives in the Chunhua Era"), or Guan fatie ("Government Model Letters").(4)

   Wang Zhu's judgment was much criticized by later Northern Song connoisseurs. Huang Bosi (1079-1118) declared nearly half the letters in the Chunhua ge tie to be fakes, and Mi Fu (1052-1107) noted that on more than one occasion, when Wang asked to borrow famous works from the leading families in the capital, he failed to ask for the finest ones.(5) What is of interest in Wang's choices, however, is not the authentication of individual letters. Since most of the original letters are no longer extant, resolution of those problems is no longer a possibility for us. The interest lies in which works were chosen and how they were presented, as a reflection of the imperial purpose.

   The first volume of the Chunhua ge tie is entitled "Model Letters of Emperors and Princes of Successive Dynasties," and it reproduces the handwriting of members of the imperial families of the Han, Six Dynasties, and Tang periods. Their letters were not preserved solely for the glamour of the royal name, for these men were all renowned as skilled practitioners and connoisseurs of calligraphy. The second, third, and fourth volumes are entitled "Model Letters of Famous Ministers of Successive Dynasties," constituting a chronological survey of government officials who gained reputations for their calligraphy. Enrollment in these volumes was limited to subjects of the "Chinese" dynasties (Han, Southern Dynasties, and Tang), and particularly to those with some relationship to Wang Xizhi, either as his stylistic models (e.g., Zhong You), members of his social circle (e.g., the brothers Xie An [320-85] and Xie Wan [c. 321-61]), his relatives (the Langye Wangs, the Chi clan by marriage), or his stylistic followers (e.g., the early Tang calligraphers Yu Shinan and Lu Jianzhi). These calligraphers collectively represent the supporting cast of the classical tradition.

   The fifth volume is a miscellany entitled "Antique Model Letters of the Masters." The first six pieces of writing are attributed to the legendary or ancient figures of Cang Jie, the Xia-dynasty founder Yu (c. 21st c. B.C.E.), Confucius (551-479), Shi Zhou (fl. c. 827-782), Li Si (284-208) and Cheng Miao of the Qin dynasty (221-207). These six pre-Han figures were probably intended to represent the various script-types that developed prior to the advent of the classical tradition. Cang Jie would represent the invention of ancient script, Yu of Xia would represent the unchanging use of ancient script through the Three Dynasties (i.e., Xia, Shang, and Zhou) and Confucius would represent the extinguishing of the ability to read ancient script (as the texts of the classics found in the wall of his house during the Han dynasty were said to be indecipherable). This follows the traditionally accepted history of the development of the script types, as given in Siti shushi ("Gestures of the Four Scripts") by Wei Heng (d. 291).(6) Shi Zhou, Li Si, and Cheng Miao are traditionally believed to have invented large-seal script, small-seal script, and clerical script, respectively. None of these attributed works is authentic.

   The other pieces in volume 5 are letters by Song Dan (fl. 713-41 C.E.) and Wei Shuo (272-349), a copy of "The Critique of Calligraphy by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty" by the Sui-dynasty monk Zhiguo, a couplet by the Han-dynasty poet Cai Yan (162-after 239), a letter by the Tang monk Huaisu (725-85), and two letters by the eccentric cursive-script master Zhang Xu (658-747). Interleaved with them are ten unattributed letters. The overall arrangement of volumes 1-5 mirrors the format of the biographical section of a dynastic history, with imperial family members placed in volume 1, then "gentlemen of the body politic" in volumes 2-4, and lastly, in volume 5, "individuals outside of the political system."(7) Wei Shuo and Cai Yan, as women, and Zhiguo and Huaisu, as Buddhist monks, fit the category, but Song Dan and Zhang Xu seem out of place. Song Dan had served as an editor in the palace library, but since he is listed prior to the Jin-dynasty figures in volume 5, he was probably not recognized as a man of Tang, much less as an official...