Dong Qichang, Calligraphy in Running Script

Dimensions: 19.7 x 60 cm; mounting 33 x 62.6 cm

Calligraphy: 晨飛積雪，途間失地。萬里山門，撥煙霞而進影。百重寒暑，躡霜雨而前踪。誠重勞輕，求深願達。火宅之光焰，共拔迷途。朗愛水之昏波，同臻彼岸。

Inscription: 其昌為增琪兄臨
Translation: Qichang copied (this piece) for Zengqi.

Seal: 伊武心賞 Yiwu xinshang (Treasured by Yiwu); 翫涼珍賞 Wanliang zhenshang (Treasured and appreciated by Wanliang)

Dong Qichang (1555-1636, alternate name 玄宰 Xuanzai, 思翁 Siweng), was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, connoisseur, art theoretician, collector and high official of the late Ming Dynasty. When Dong Qichang first began to study calligraphy, he emulated rubbings from the Tang period (618-907) as well as the calligraphy of Yan Zhenqing (709-785) and Yushinan (558-638). Soon after realizing the superior merits of earlier calligraphers, he turned to the works of Zhong You (151-230) and Wang Xizhi (303-361).

Dong Qichang is famous for his theory of Chinese painting. He divided the artists of the past into two lineages: the Northern school and the Southern school.The Northern school had its beginning in the blue-and green style with dependence on years of training, and included artist Li Sixun (651-716). The Southern school emphasized intuitive understanding and inborn talent, beginning with Wang Wei and being developed by Dong Yuan and the Four Yuan Masters. Dong Qichang's ideas on art have influenced Chinese painting profoundly.

The calligraphy on the decorated fan is executed in running script. The entire piece presents a fluidity of brushwork. The artist chose to write six characters in a line and then changed it to two characters in a line. Although this writing composition does not follow the punctuation, it creates a balance and rhythm that adapts to the fan shape. The text in this work is selected phrases from "Datang Sanzang Shengjiao xu" 大唐三藏聖教序. The "Datang Sanzang Shengjiao xu" is a preface of the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra was translated by Xuanzang (玄奘, ca. 602-664) from Sanskrit to Chinese. The preface was composed by the Tang Emperor Taizong (598-649) in honor of Xuanzang's achievement in studying and teaching Buddhism. The Tang calligrapher, Chu Suiliang (褚遂良, 597-658), wrote the Emperor's text and it was then transcribed to a stele. Because of the widespread admiration for the earlier calligrapher Wang Xizhi during the Taizong reign, the monk Huairen 懷仁 (active late 7th century) collected characters from Wang Xizhi's writings over a period of two decades and pieced them together. As a result, a stele of Taizong's preface with Wang Xizhi's writing was created. It was often studied by later scholars. Since Dong Qichang spent great effort in studying Wang Xizhi's work, this piece may well be modeled after the version in Wang Xizhi's hand.