Since the discovery of the Dunhuang Scripture Cave in 1900, tens of thousands of ancient documents have been made public, attracting great attention from researchers in various disciplines. Due to the special natural environment and geographical conditions, Dunhuang not only preserves a large number of murals and painted sculptures, but also preserves a large number of calligraphy and ink. The unearthed Dunhuang calligraphy has made an immeasurable contribution to the study of the development history of calligraphy in ancient my country, especially in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and even in the Wei, Jin, Qin and Han dynasties.
Dunhuang calligraphy covers a wide range of teachings, mainly calligraphy on posthumous books unearthed from the Sutra Cave, and also includes calligraphy on bamboo slips from the Han Dynasty unearthed from ancient sites in the Dunhuang area, grotto inscriptions, and existing calligraphy on stele.
The Dunhuang posthumous writings include more than 40,000 volumes of ink from the Jin Dynasty, the Sixteen Kingdoms, and the Northern Song Dynasty. They are the richest and most systematic first-hand materials for studying the history of the regularization period of Chinese characters and the art of calligraphy. The style of Dunhuang posthumous writings has obvious characteristics of the times and regions, and is called "scripture style". "Jingshu style" originated from the "Simplified Script" style of the Han Dynasty and was completed in the Tang Dynasty's Regular Style style. It was an important style for copying scriptures after the Jin Dynasty. It records in detail the entire process of Chinese characters becoming regularized after the official change, and played a significant role in promoting the development of characters.
There are three kinds of rubbings from the Tang Dynasty contained in the Dunhuang posthumous documents. There are Ouyang Xun's "Inscription on the Pagoda of Zen Master Qi in Huadu Temple", Liu Gongquan's "Diamond Sutra", Tang Taizong Li Shimin's "Hot Spring Inscription", and even 3 of Wang Xizhi's 17 copies. These rubbings and calligraphy are extremely valuable and are rare Tang Dynasty ink treasures today.
There are three-leaf fragments of manuscripts on calligraphy theory in the Dunhuang posthumous manuscripts, which are quite eye-catching. The first is a discussion of writing methods, with detailed and incisive discussions on the proportional relationship between strokes, thickness, length, width, and the size relationship between characters. The second and third parts are Wang Xizhi's calligraphy theory and the fragments of "Bi Shi Lun", which are copies of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy theory in folklore.
The hard-brush calligraphy in Dunhuang scrolls is a folk creation that has not been recorded in the history of calligraphy. The so-called hard pen here was a wooden pen or a reed pen at that time. Judging from the actual objects unearthed in Gansu, the tip of the hard pen was split into two pieces, which is exactly the same as today's water-dipped steel pen tip. This shows that hard-tipped calligraphy has existed in our country since ancient times.
Since Dunhuang was occupied by many ethnic groups in history, many writings in the languages of ethnic minorities are also preserved in the suicide notes. There are Sanskrit, Mongolian, Uighur, Xixia, Tubo and so on. Among them, Tubo script (ancient Tibetan script) has the largest number. These scrolls are all written with brushes or hard pens, which are quite neat and fluent, full of rhythm and unique aesthetic taste, and have high calligraphy artistic value.
Most of the Dunhuang posthumous scrolls were copied with a pen, which is a masterpiece of ancient folk calligraphy. The scribes of the scrolls were all hired scripture writers or ordinary people. They copy all the year round, practice makes perfect, and long-term writing becomes an art. Some writing is powerful, bold, and bold; some writing is skillful, graceful, and gentle. The calligraphy style is all in Chinese cursive, official script, and seal script. It is rich and colorful, showing natural simplicity and flexibility. His skills, laws and aesthetic taste are all admirable and admirable!
There are a large number of precious ink marks preserved in the murals in the 492 caves of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. One is the title of the Buddhist painting list, and the other is the inscription of the donor, both written by the painter who created the mural. Although there are a large number of these ink inscriptions, their workmanship varies greatly. Except for a few excellent ones, most of them are the work of painters with many typos. But the style of the calligraphy has a simple, naive and rustic flavor.
There are many steles from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty remaining in the Dunhuang area. The eras in which they were written are different, and the styles of calligraphy are also different. Among them, Li Kerang's "Rebuilding the Monument of Buddhist Niches in Mogao Grottoes" by Li Kerang in the early Tang Dynasty is a masterpiece among the monuments. Although the stele is in regular script, it has the style of Wei stele, with strange structure and wording, making it a rare stele in later generations.
More than 17,480 Han Dynasty bamboo slips have been unearthed from the Han Dynasty ruins in the Dunhuang area, occupying an extremely important position among the Han Dynasty bamboo slips discovered in my country. The bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty are the most precious materials for studying the history of the Han Dynasty in my country. It is also a first-hand source for studying the evolution of calligraphy styles and the art of calligraphy during the Han Dynasty. The unearthing of the Dunhuang Han bamboo slips has advanced the maturity period of the official script from the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the mid-Western Han Dynasty, which was recognized in the past. From this, we can see the drastic changes and mature process of the transformation from ancient official script to Han official script. The calligraphy of Han Bamboo slips connected the previous and the following, ushering in the regular script, running script and cursive script of later generations.
Dunhuang calligraphy, starting from the calligraphy of Han bamboo slips in the Western Han Dynasty and ending with the calligraphy of tablets and tablets in the late Qing Dynasty, has a long history and a huge amount. The variety of calligraphy, the variation of brushwork, the ingenuity of style and the profoundness of skills are breathtaking. It is the history of Chinese calligraphy. The most precious historical information.
