Sun Guoting's "Book of Calligraphy"

Author: Ji Lin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Sun Guoting, styled Qianli, was born in 648 and died in 703. He was a native of Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu) or Fuyang (now Fuyang, Zhejiang). He held the position of Shufu Lushi Canjun and was a renowned calligrapher and theorist of calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty. Sun Guoting's Shupu is a handwritten manuscript in paper, written and inscribed by Sun himself. It was created in the third year of the Chuihong era (687 AD). The vertical dimension is 27.2 cm, and the horizontal dimension is 898.24 cm. It consists of 351 lines and over 3,600 characters. There are over 70 variant characters, with 30 characters missing after "Han late Bao Ying" and 30 characters missing after "The heart is not tired of precision." Sun Guoting wrote a single volume of Shupu, in which he elaborates on the brushwork in detail, hence it was also known as Brushwork Theory during the Tang and Song dynasties. Shupu has a clear lineage of transmission. The original manuscript was originally stored in the Song imperial collection, inscribed with the seals of "Xuanhe" and "Zhenghe," and signed by Emperor Huizong of Song. Later, it was collected by Sun Chengze, Anqi, and the Qing imperial collection, and is now preserved in the Palace Museum in Taipei. Works such as the Song Dynasty's Xuanhe Shupu, Mi Fu's Shushi, and Zhang Chou's Qinghe Shuhua Fang all record it. Shupu is not only a groundbreaking calligraphy treatise in the history of Chinese calligraphy but also a classic work in the history of cursive calligraphy. It is a perfect combination of flourishing calligraphy art and calligraphy theory. In terms of theory, it primarily expounds on the calligraphy of regular and cursive scripts, proposing the famous calligraphy view of "ancient without deviating from the times, modern without following the faults." His insights are profound and concise, laying a foundation for calligraphy aesthetics theory. In terms of calligraphy art, Shupu directly inherits the legacy of the Wei and Jin dynasties represented by the Wang brothers, while also incorporating its own interpretation and transformation. The characters are light and unrestrained, reflecting Sun's style, opening up a new realm and making significant contributions to establishing the style of Tang Dynasty cursive calligraphy. It has been highly praised by generations and has had a profound influence on later generations.