Complete Collection of Chinese Calligraphy · Ni Yuanlu Volume: Traditional Chinese Characters

Author: Liu Zhengcheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-07-01
Features: Ni Yuanlu: styled Ruyu, known as Hongbao, was a native of Shangyu, Zhejiang. He was a renowned calligrapher and painter during the Ming Dynasty. Born as a jinshi (imperial scholar), he held positions as Minister of Revenue and Minister of Rites, and was posthumously honored as Wen Zheng (Literally "civil and rectify"). Qin Zuyong's Tongyin Lunhua (On Painting) stated: "Ni Yuanlu's calligraphy is ethereal and divine, with running and cursive scripts particularly extraordinary." Kang Youwei once remarked: "No Ming scholar was incapable of running script, and Ni Hongbao's innovative forms were especially abundant." His calligraphy, in running and cursive styles, features ancient yet vigorous brushwork, dynamic and unconventional character structures, dense inter-character spacing with spacious vertical spacing, and emphasis on rhythmic variation. His calligraphy excels in spirit and bone. His surviving works include the Dance of the Crane Scroll, Running Script Poem Axis, and Poem of Jinshan Axis, among others. He authored Ni Wenzhen Ji (Collected Works of Ni Wen Zheng). The Complete Collection of Chinese Calligraphy spans from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the contemporary era, comprising one hundred and eight volumes. The volumes are divided into two categories: 1) Dynasty-specific volumes; 2) Master-specific volumes. Each volume is organized into ten sections by era, with additional sections for seal carving, treatises, appendices, and supplements. It features high-quality reproductions of over thirty thousand pieces of Chinese calligraphy masterpieces preserved worldwide, along with over twenty million words of academic papers and textual annotations. Many illustrations are published for the first time. Each volume includes: a biographical essay on the calligrapher (or dynasty-specific analysis), illustrations, the calligrapher's theories on calligraphy, a chronology of the calligrapher's life, a schematic map of the calligrapher's life journey, annotations and explanations of illustrations, and a bibliography. This book is not merely an artistic album but represents an unprecedented comprehensive, research, and introduction to China's millennia-old traditional cultural and artistic heritage—calligraphy—by the contemporary Chinese calligraphy academic community. Such a thorough, systematic, in-depth, and meticulous study of an art form is rare not only in China but also in the global academic world. This book holds immense value for calligraphy experts, researchers, enthusiasts, and collectors alike.