Record on Building Statue for Master Shiping
3 min readCalligrapher: Zhu Yizhang
Creation year: AD 498
Style of calligraphy: regular script(stele inscriptions of the Wei Dynasty)
Size: stone height of 75 cm, stone width of 39 cm, rubbing ink paper height of 18.3 cm, rubbing ink paper width of 11.7cm .
Record on Building Statue for Master Shiping is carved in north wall of Guyang Cave in Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, which is one of the most famous works of the 20 Northern Wei Longmen Artworks. It is representative of square stroke calligraphy.
In this artwork, the strokes are square and thick. Central brush movement and side brush movement achieve ingenious combination, which seem angular, hard-edged and clear-cut, with immense carving sense and upright momentum. The dignifed and stable structure is rigorous and dense. Different from intaglio characters engraving method for other records on building statue, it adopts relief method with protruding dots in contrast with circles with square lattice as background. This looks more vigorous, uninhibited, exotic and majestic, with masculine beauty.
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Longmen Grottoes
GeneralKnowledge
Records on building statue
In ancient times, people took faith in Buddhism so they often carved statues to worship, and engraved statue time, dedicated people, donations and other inscriptions, which are called as”records on building statue”. Records on building statue appeared in large numbers during the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Brief Knowledge
Characters cut in intaglio（incised carving）
Incised texts or patterns carved on walls，seals or objects.
Characters cut in relief（relief carving）
Different from incised carving method，carved texts or patterns are convex outwards.
Bounded lattice
In order to make many character arranged neatly with the same spacing，many of lattices are drawn on paper or stele stone，with equal spacing and the same size before writing.
20 Masterpieces of the Northern Wei Dynasty on Longmen Mountain Buddhisn fourished during the Northern Wei Dynasty.After Emperor Xiaowen relocated the capital to Luoyang，caves and statues were cut and set up on Longmen Mountain outside Luoyang in a large scale.There are more than 1，000 kinds of carved inscriptions and statues，including about 20 kinds of the most beautiful ones.Their strokes are mainly square fold in strong and dignifed manner，with full of masculine beauty.They are reputed as”20 Northern Wei Longmen Artworks”，which are classic stele inscriptions of the Wei Dynasty.
—Angular and hard-edged Incomplete damaged areas add Bounded lattices cut the entire Stippling is raised strokes carry strong carving time-honored and rustic sensc.surface of records on building in the form of relicf The Chinese character”Pan”features stability structure The Chinese character”Da”features static and with variations.
dynamic strokes.
It echoes with each other and looks flexible in the
-The upper half is dense.
profoundness.
Tall and strong square stroke.
-The lower half is sparse.
Central part shows positive triangular configuration，which seems extremely quiet and stable.
Stone Gate Inscription
Calligrapher: Wang Yuan
Creation year: AD 509
Style of calligraphy: regular script(stele inscriptions of the Wei Dynasty)
Size: stone height of 175 cm, stone width of 215 cm, rubbing sheet height of 175 cm, rubbing paper widthStone Gate Inscription was originally carved on the stone cliff of Baoxiadao, Baocheng County, Shaanxi Province, which has now been drilled down to be kept in Shaanxi Hanzhong Museum. It is a detailed account of names of writers and carvers among stele inscriptions of the Wei Dynasty.
This is one of the well-known cliff inscription calligraphy of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which is reputed as”a masterpiece among stele inscriptions of the Wei Dynasty”. It not only adopts regular script font structure, but also blends mellow connotations of seal script and uninhibited and fowing body running script.
Like iron wrapped in cotton, lines are soft inside and robust outside, which stretch in vigorous and powerfulmanner. Characters are naturally arranged in line with stone wall texture, and font structure is either large or small and either upright or oblique. Central strokes constrain, while other strokes extend on both sides, with free, uninhibited, unrestrained and fying momentum. Elegant, simple and magnificent characters are like the happy immortals in the extraordinary heaven.
