Calligraphy exhibition returns to the beginning

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One of two major exhibitions that coincide with the National Palace Museum’s 83rd anniversary, Masterpieces of Chin and Tang Dynasty Calligraphy (晉唐書法名積) is the kind of tour de force that marks the institution as one of the great museums in the world. The whole exhibition includes just 17 items, but these include many of the texts that formed the foundation of calligraphy for the millennium that followed. According to He Yan-chuan (何炎全), an assistant curator of the exhibition, the calligraphic texts shown in this exhibition represent a very considerable portion of all the extant original calligraphic texts from this early period, and never have so many of these texts been displayed together at one time at the museum.

The Jin Dynasty (separated into Eastern and Western Jin) ruled in China from 265 to 420 and the Tang ruled from 618 to 907. They were both periods of enormous cultural efflorescence, when many aspects of what we now accept as Chinese culture were established. The scrolls on display are some of the oldest, though among the colorful ceramics, the priceless jades, and the imposing bronzes, this exhibition might seem to have little to recommend it to the non-expert viewer. In darkened rooms specially lit to protect the delicate exhibits — under museum regulations they cannot be shown again for at least two years after this 40-day stint in the limelight — the pages of text are dark with age. With a number of notable exceptions, the calligraphy itself does not look that spectacular — indeed, if you’ve been wondering around the museum for a while, it might look all too familiar.

The reason is that these texts, especially the three works by Wang Xizi (王羲之, 303-361), became, during the Tang Dynasty, templates for good calligraphy. The works by Wang are not originals, but copies made in the 11th century of 4th-century originals that are now lost. They are the closest thing that now exists to the writing of a man regarded as the godfather of Chinese calligraphy. Microscopic inspection shows a work such as the Yuan Huan (遠宦帖) to have been reproduced by the careful tracing of outlines. “It makes this work just one step away from the original,” He said.

An introduction at the beginning of the exhibition and longer-than-usual explanatory cards placed with the exhibits provide some context, but without a general knowledge of the cultural background in which someone like Wang is known to every high school student, the true importance of what is on display is hard to appreciate. The other artists on display also hold seminal positions in the pantheon of Chinese calligraphy. There is the Autobiography (自敘帖, 777) by Huai Shu (懷素), which formed the template for the wild cursive style, the Draft of a Requiem to My Nephew (祭姪文稿, 758) by Yan Zhenqin (顏真卿), which established a more rustic style in contrast to Wang’s elegance, and Inquiring After Friends in the Twelve Months (十二月朋友相聞書), an instructional template in the art of polite letter writing by an anonymous Tang Dynasty calligrapher.

There is something endlessly fascinating about being in the presence of the very ancient, especially when there is such a clear connection with the present world. Wang’s calligraphy, after all, formed the basis of every child’s eduction in calligraphy until at least the beginning of the last century. As fascinating as this exhibition is, it also highlights the academically driven nature of many of the museum’s “special” exhibitions. The fun is in the details, and while some effort has been made to make these works accessible (a fairly detailed English-language introduction to some of the works is available at the museum’s Web site at www.npm.gov.tw/exh97/chintang/eng_info.html), much that makes this exhibition so important is likely to remain just beyond the grasp of a general audience.