Translated Abstract
The cursive script of the Han Dynasty is one of the outstanding traditional cultures of China. Originated from people’s daily practice of handwriting Chinese, the inked cursive script not only fulfilled practical needs, but also embodied artistic values. Because of being expanded its aesthetic space and cultural connotation in the course of use, so it has the double attribute of practical and artistic, marks the beginning that calligraphy can be used to express emotion and individuality freely. In this paper, I make the Han Dynasty cursive in its ecological environment, and deeply analyze the potential aesthetic value combined with the literature handed down.
The cursive script of the Han Dynasty had its own system and experienced five stages of development including sprouting stage, developing stage, mature stage, prosperous period and peak period. We can see its prosperity from the quantity of bamboo slips handed down, the crazy of wise men about it, the emergence of the cursive theory and many cursive symbols etc. The prosperity and the aesthetic pursuit were closely related to the background of the society at that time. Such as the love of the emperor ministers, the collating and copying of classics, the establishment of official and private schools and so on. The varieties of styles are closely related.to the multiplicity of the social and literary thoughts, handwriters, and writing tool materials in the Han Dynasty.
The beauty of the cursive script of the Han Dynasty is mainly reflected in four aspects: The first aspect lies in its extensive atmosphere. Embedded in its profound style is a microcosm of a vast, prosperous nation, a romantic soul that pursues freedom, a big heart full of generosity, and an attitude that China can embrace all cultures around the world. The expressive strokes have brought the unrestrained artistic spirit of the Han Dynasty to us today. Second, its style is free of any affectations. Its configuration is so simple and unadorned that the readers are often touched as if the fragrance of nature were pervading from the paper. It is filled with purely natural but energetic artistic elements, retains the original beauty intact from embellishment, contains the true feelings of the ancient citizens, and utters the passionate love for nature and life. Third, it is not a kind of simple beauty but concise beauty. The cursive script is full of rich information and meaning in a simple line, and has a high abstract. Forth, it was partly created by power beyond man. It is expressive and touching because the art was not intended with elaborates plans, but was purely inspired at improvisations. Each character is the carrier of the writer’s true enthusiasm for aesthetics, and his own understandings of the cursive style. Thus, it’s not hard to understand that the thriving of this calligraphic style has resulted from the emergence of a sharing aesthetic appreciation by common citizens. It symbolizes the vital bound between human and all the other creations. It is the product of the unity of body and spirit, man and nature.
Han Dynasty is the stage when the cursive script initially occurred and developed, not finalizing the design yet. There was not an accordant writing standard because the Official did not pay enough attention to it, so the writing style was free and complicated. Therefore, it is familiar to see one character with different fonts, different characters with the same font, similar fonts and special fonts. From these phenomena, you can realize the complexity of the inked cursive script. However, complex and changeful as it is, one stroke of the inked cursive script still can’t be removed. That is to say, there are still laws you have to obey.The evolution of the Han Dynasty cursive script was a symbolization progress from singleness to diversity, from detail to abstraction. It began from rapid writing of convenient purpose, developed into a kind of complicated and systematic chirography style of calligraphy, and then sublimated into a kind of art. The progress itself is complex and regular, flexible but not baseless, reasonable but not stable. Both perfectly complement each other, reinforce each other and achieve dialectical unity. This paper also explains the aesthetic information contained in the complexity and regularity of the Han Dynasty cursive from the textual research on the origin of difficult words.
The cursive script of the Han Dynasty and the cursive script of the Wei and Jin Dynasties come down in one continuous line. The cursive script of Han Dynasty lays the foundation of Weijin cursive climax. If there hadn’t existed the cursive of the Eastern Han Dynasty for bedding, then the cursive script in Jin Dynasty couldn’t have reached such art level and history status. Based on the tradition of Han Dynasty, Wang Xizhi followed the times trend, abandoned the writing method of flipping, and created elegant style. It not only paid attention to practical writing, but also strengthened cursive writing skill and artic fun expression.
The cursive script of the Han Dynasty has extensice knowledge and profound scholarship; it is flexible and inexhaustible source of inexhaustible. It widens the performance of calligraphy art space through the simple atmosphere, fresh temperament and the form of freedom. This aesthetic paradigm breaks the rigid and rigid concept of the font. it not only has important guiding significance for the contemporary cursive research and inheritance, but also provide a way of thinking for research and creation of the other calligraphy styles.
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