Great Masters and Their Masterpieces in the Qin and Han Dynasties

5 min read

1) Peaceful, Natural, Simple and Dignified Inscriptions on Ten Drum-like Stones Inscriptions on Ten Drum-like Stones in the Spring and Autumn period is the most famous stone inscriptions of Qin and has a history of nearly three thousand years.

It is honored by the later generations as “Ancestor of Stone Inscription”. It is also called Ten Drum-like Stones of Qiyang, Inscriptions on Ten Drumlike Stones ofChencang or Inscriptions of Hunting on Ten Drum-like Stones. The epigraph contains 654 characters describing the hunting scene of the Qin duke. It is a poem with four characters each line. Now only about three hundred characters are in existence. The stone drums are kept in the Palace Museum, Beijing.

The epigraph is naturally shaped and the characters scribed on it are tight in the upper part and loose in the lower part. They are sparsely and tensely arranged and the strokes are squarely shaped and full of vigor. The distance between characters and lines are regular but also with variations, indicating the natural and fluent taste. In the use of the ink-brush sharpness is concealed, the brush vigor is powerful but also shows the simple and refined quality, and the lines of the strokes are similar to bending iron rods. The structures of the characters are upright and foursquare, the length of the strokes is proper, and the appearance of elegance is well arranged. They are naturally steady and pretty. The whole structure of the characters are neat and complied with rules, embodying a whole style of simplicity and peacefulness as well as vigorous and graceful.

2) Li Si’s Small Seal Script

After Qin unified China under the Qin dynasty, Chinese characters were unified.

Qinshihuang ordered his Prime Minister Li Si to change the commonly used large seal script to small seal script and collate them as the uniformed standard official characters. Most important documents were written by Li Si and his existent writings are Inscriptions on the Rock in Taishan Mountain, Stone Inscriptions in Langyatai and Inscriptions on the Rock in Yishan Mountain.

Seal script written by Li Si best illustrats the traits of seal characters of the Qin dynasty. The strokes of them are mellow, full, neat and well distributed.

The characters are square and vertical-long shaped, forming the whole structure of neatness and evenness. The stress of the character are moved up or down complied with the natural stretch of the strokes, and has formed the dignified, composed and elegant art style, incarnating the awe-inspiring lofty quality and majestic imposing manner of the Qin dynasty.

3) Cursive Script in Official Script Cliffside Inscription Praising the Opening of Shimen Plankway

Cursive script in official script-Cliffside Inscription Praising the Opening of Shimen Plankway is also named Cliffside Inscription in Praise of Yang Mengwen. It was inscribed on the rocks in Shimen in Xigu in the second year (148) of Jianhe period in the Eastern Han dynasty. The forms of the characters on it are relaxed and natural and are written fluently and composed, showing the natural grace as well as simplicity and art tastes. It is honored as “cursive script in official script”.

The character strokes of Cliffside Inscription Praising the Opening of Shimen Plankway have the style of seal characters with strength and simplicity, and have their condensed elegance without the weakness of shallownesee and unsteadiness. Themain strokes are wave-shaped and the right-falling strokes are shaped according to the changes of the tail of swallows. They are rich in variation and not stereotyped.

For their special traits of the strokes and structure patterns, the art style differentiated from ordinary calligraphy and has extraordinarily refined, magnificent and vigorous, dignified and powerful artistic style. It is said that many people learnt to write style of the Han dynasty, but few learnt the style of Cliffside Inscription Praising the Opening of Shimen Plankway. Maybe it was because of the imposing manner of Cliffside Inscription Praising the Opening of Shimen Plankway that timid people dared not to learn and the weak people were not able to learn.

4) Elegant and Refined Yi Ying’s Tablet

In June of the first year (153) of Yongxing period of the Eastern Han dynasty, Yi Ying’s Tablet was erected at Temple of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong. The tablet recorded the event of Prime Minister of the prince state of Lu in the Han dynasty who suggested in a memorial to the throne to establish officialdom in Temple of Confucius to take charge of ceremonial rites.

Yi Ying’s Tablet is typical of the mature official script in the stone tablet inscriptions in the Eastern Han dynasty. The structures of the characters are dignified and a little flat with square shape. The distribution of the strokes and the combination of radicals are well arranged and natural. Judging from the writing rules they are vertically straight and horizontally even in lines. They are clear and neat and the space among the characters is quite appropriate. They have combinedwith the dignified structure and the plump and smooth lines to form a uniform style which is graceful, elegant, dignified and neat.

5) Elegant and Pretty Chao Quan’s Tablet

Chao Quan’s Tablet is in the Forest of Steles in Xi’ an, Shaanxi province. It was erected in the second year of (185) Zhongping period of the Han dynasty. The dignified and elegant official script on it is unrestrained and not written in ahurry, and it is really a masterpiece. The characters on the tablet are mellow and ful1, delicate and vivid, simple and condensed. The strength and softness are combined thinly and the bone and muscle are condensed thickly. The main strokes are freely written and the short strokes naturally written are complied with writing rules. They are fluently written, pretty and vigorous with natural changes. The ending strokes of the characters mainly are flat and even. The forms are decided by the shapes of the characters, relaxed among seriousness which vividly show the art realm of holding aloof from the secular world.

6) Solid and Simple Zhang Qian’s Tablet

Zhang Qian’s Tablet was inscribed in the third year (186) of Zhongping period ofthe Eastern Han dynasty in Dongping, Shandong. It is now kept in Temple of Dai in Tai’ an of Shandong province. The characters on it were written mostly with square strokes and were full of edges and corners. They are solid, mellow and full. The lines of the strokes mainly are up-rising while the short and small strokes are vivid with different postures. The moving of the ink-brush is slow with vigor, typical of the square strokes of official script in the Han dynasty. The forms of the characters are condensed inside and stretched outward, the upper part is relaxed and the lower part shrank, showing a strong sense of volume. The style of Zhang Qian’s Tablet is very distinctive-elegant with ancient delight, broad and vast with precipitousness in it.