Ding Qixiang (1619-1679) contemporary scholar, calligrapher and painter Jao Zongyi said in his "Ten Important Notes on Books (《论书十要》)": "The style of calligraphy in the late Ming Dynasty changed rapidly, and the changes in cursiveness opened up new realms. It is extraordinary and should not be scorned by the time. It.” Appreciating Ding Qixiang’s calligraphy works, you will deeply feel that Mr. Rao’s words are right.

The book world of the Ming Dynasty was basically under the cover of Zhao Dong’s book style. It was soft, sweet and vulgar, delicate and graceful. Calligraphers competed to mention Yan Fei’s writing skills. They were exquisite and small but lacked masculinity, which made the book world cover. A fragile and delicate atmosphere. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, represented by Fu Shan, Wang Duo, Huang Daozhou, Ni Yuanlu, etc., they broke through the barriers of Zhao and Dong’s calligraphy and drew nourishment from the calligraphy style of the two Jins before Tang and Song Dynasties. It's a great change.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the calligrapher Ding Qixiang, his style was also influenced by Wang Fu Nihuang and others. The Five-Law Axis of Tang Poetry was written in 1669 (the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty). At this time, it was only a few dozen cattle before Wang Duo's death. The influence of Wang Duo's calligraphy in the book world is very obvious in Ding's writing. On the whole, this pen is dominated by square folds, and does not deliberately seek to lift and press. It has obvious seal script intent, such as "picture", "yuan", "han", "ink", "politics", and "pirate". "," "beauty", "song" and other words, the center line strokes, the lines are round and strong, the bone strength is embedded, like a cone drawing sand, and it is extremely tense. In addition, some of the more obvious characters are also heavy and solid, with inner strength (*), dark and strong, such as inkpad, without any vain and publicity, such as "west", "talking", "wine", "Load" and other words. In short, the first feature of this work is the introduction of the calligraphy of seal script.

The second feature of this work is: the introverted and reserved style, which has two aspects. One is that his pen hides more and reveals less, and disappears. This work pays attention to the inverse hiding when starting the pen, and rarely shows the front, except for those who draw the thread from the end of the pen and break the meaning of the pen, such as the first stroke of "Geng" and "Deep", "chant" and " Except for the second pen of "Talking", there is not a single place where the pen is written by the protagonist, and there are very few people who end the pen. This naturally constitutes the implicit feature of this pen. On the other hand, this work also uses tight knots and implicit connotation as the best way to make knots. The knots mostly use the "flower basket" style of Wang Xizhi and Mi Fu, that is, the upper part is open and the lower part shrinks like a flower basket full of flowers. Such as "fu", "ink", "wine", "load", "exhaust", "wei" and so on. The strengths of this posture are enthusiasm, unrestrainedness and restraint. It leaves enough room for the venting of emotions and the smooth flow of qi, and it also facilitates the drawing of the following characters. But this pose is not the only one in this work. In addition to this, there are also the "golden bell style" of upper and lower retracts, such as "Lin", "Wen", "Zheng", "Heaven", etc., as well as the postures that do not take up and put, such as "Wall", "Wen", "Zheng", and "Heaven". "Speaking", "Stealing", "Song", etc., make this work look colorful in its posture and style.

The third characteristic is that the rhythm is clear and the movement is smooth. Each row naturally forms several rhythmic paragraphs, which are independent and coherent with each other. Take the first line as an example: the three characters "East Wall Picture" are a rhythm section, which is the first in the whole article. Although they are independent, they are like three striking strong notes that lead the whole article. "Shufu" is a rhythm section, "Xiyuanhan" is a rhythm section, "Mo Lin" is a rhythm section, "Poems and Wen" is a rhythm section, and "Guozheng" is a rhythm section. In the end, the word "Speaking" is broken with a strong note, echoing the beginning. Each rhythm segment is either two or two characters, sparse and dense, long and short, jagged, self-adapting, and natural fit.

The main shortcomings are that this work is generally too stable, there is no big emotional ups and downs, there is no strong contrast, just like the slowly flowing stream, gurgling, calm, graceful and elegant, so it lacks shock. The visual impact of the human heart. Compared with the torrential rush and catharsis in the works of Wang Duo, Fu Shan and others, this work seems too plain, which may be related to the content of the writing. However, in terms of aesthetic style, the main reason is still the influence of Zhao Dong's style of writing. Although the changes made by Wang Duo and Fu Shan at the end of the Ming Dynasty made remarkable achievements, they did not form a mainstream position in the book world. Especially under the esteem of the two emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, Zhao Dong's calligraphy still covers the book world. From Ding Qixiang's work, one can see the calligraphy of the early Qing Dynasty.


Tang Poetry Five-Law Axis

188*52cm

 

Graceful, leisurely and elegant, implicitly borrowed

——Appreciation and Analysis of Ding Qixiang's Poems