Description
Zhao Mengfu was a classic model of the literati ideal of the scholar-amateur artist in pursuit of self-cultivation. In spite of the private nature of much of his calligraphy, Zhao also executed many public writings, including Record of the Miaoyan Monastery. The text of this scroll, composed by the scholar-official Mou Yan (1227–1311), is a history of a Buddhist monastery near Zhao’s hometown. The scroll opens with a title piece written in large seal-script characters. This section would have been engraved at the top of the stele on which the entire inscription was intended to appear. The even, unmodulated strokes of the seal-script title set it off visually from the standard-script characters in the body of the text.
Zhao’s innovative standard script combined the elegant, fluid brushwork of Wang Xizhi (303–361) and the structural solidity of Yan Zhenqing (709–785). This synthesis resulted in a powerful new style that corrected what many critics saw as the weakness of Southern Song calligraphy represented by the somewhat flaccid style of Emperor Gaozong (r. 1127–1162). Within a few years of Zhao’s death, his standard-script calligraphy had become a popular model for even woodblock-printed books.
Published References & Reproductions
Wu Sheng, Daguan lu, 1712 preface, reprint ed. (Wujin: Li shi Shengyilou, 1920), 8/15a–16a.
Richard Barnhart, "Chinese Calligraphy—the Inner World of the Brush," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 30, no. 5 (1972), p. 232, fig. 5.
Richard Barnhart, "Li T'ang (c. 1050-c. 1130) and the Kōtō-in Landscapes," The Burlington Magazine 114, no. 830 (1972), p. 305–14, pls. 44, 45.
Chiang I-han, "Zhao Mengfu shu Huzhou Miaoyansi juan," Gugong jikan 10, no. 3 (Spring 1976), p. 59–81.
Shen C.Y. Fu et al., Traces of the Brush (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), cat. nos. 15a–b, p. 169, 251–52.
John Hay, "The Human Body as a Microcosmic Source of Macrocosmic Values in Calligraphy," in Susan Bush and Christian F. Murck, eds., _Theories of the Arts in China _(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 79, fig. 4.
Nakata Yujirō, and Fu Shen, Ōbei shūzō Chūgoku hōsho meisekishū (Masterpieces of Chinese Calligraphy in American and European Collections) (Tokyo: Chūōkōron-sha, 1981–83), vol. 3, p. 23–27, 138, pls. 18–26.
Suzuki Kei, Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Painting (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982–83), p. 130–31, pl. A17-055.
Wen C. Fong, Images of the Mind (Princeton: PUP, 1984), cat. no. 7, p. 94–102, 284–87.
Frederick W. Mote and Chu Hung-lam et al., Calligraphy and the East Asian Book, special catalogue issue of Gest Library Journal 2, n. 2 (Spring 1988), cat. no 57, p. 114–15.
Yin Sun, ed., Zhongguo shufa shi tulu (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1989), no. 683.
Tseng Yuho, A History of Chinese Calligraphy (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993), p. 183.
Barnhart, Fong, Hearn, Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China (Zurich: Museum Ruitberg, 1996), p. 82–83, fig. 18b (detail).
Harrist and Fong, The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection (Princeton: PUAM, 1999), cat. no. 11, p. 124–25 (illus.), 55–57, 302–19 passim.
Archives of Asian Art 50 (1998-1999), p. 113 (illus.; noted as recent acquisition).
Osaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan 大阪市立美術館 ed., Umi o watatta Chūgoku no sho: Eriotto korekushon to Sō Gen no meiseki _海を渡った中国の書: エリオット コレクション と 宗元の名蹟 (The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection_) (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shinbunsha, 2003), cat. no. 11.
