Chapter 1861 The Holy Book of Round Pen Calligraphy
The rubbings of the Stone Drum Inscriptions existed in the Tang Dynasty, but they have not been handed down.
The Shigu Song rubbings collected by Song Anguo were sold by Qin Wenjin in the Republic of China to the Neon Tokyo Kawaii Tsuenglu Family.
In addition, there are three early rubbings circulated in the society, including "Pioneer", "Zhongquan" and "Hunting Jin" in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Among them, the 422-character copy from the Northern Song Dynasty collected in Tianyi Pavilion is the best.
However, the original rubbings have been lost, and now we can only see the photos of these three rubbings collected by Mr. Guo in Neon in the 1930s.
The Song rubbings "Pioneer" collected by Anguo, photocopied by the Old Commercial Press and Cultural Relics Publishing House, are included in the book "Research on Stone Drum Inscriptions" written by Mr. Guo.
There is a photocopy of "Zhong Quan" in the Neon Stork Hall of Dahai Art Garden.
There is a photocopy of "End Power" in the "Famous Calligraphy Series" published by Zhonghua Book Company and Neon Erxuanshe.
The third issue of "Calligraphy" of Dahai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House in 1984 also published a photocopy of Song rubbings of Shiguwen.
However, Chen Wenzhe knew that the words on the ten stone drums he saw should not come from these rubbings.
Not to mention other things, just say that the tenth stone drum was damaged, and the words on it are incomplete in some rubbings.
And what he sees now? It's the complete version, not just four lines, nor is it a missing word version.
This is enough to show that these stone drums are either from rubbings before the Song Dynasty or from the rubbings of Xiang Chuanshi mentioned before.
Of course, if Chen Wenzhe said this, there would definitely be controversy.
Because if his views were recognized by others, these ten stone drums would not be left here to endure the weather.
No matter what it is, as long as time goes by, there will be controversy, and these ten stone drums are no exception.
The age of stone drum carving has never been determined. Wei Yingwu and Han Yu's "Song of Stone Drum" believe that it was carved during the period of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty.
Ouyang Xiu's "Shigu Postscript" is also believed to be written by Shi Zhou during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty.
Luo Zhenyu's "Explanation of Stone Drum Inscriptions" believes that it is from the time of Duke Wen of Qin.
Another theory is that it was the Southern and Northern Dynasties in the 6th century AD.
Mr. Guo thought it was from the time of Duke Xiang of Qin, but Tang Lan determined it to be inscribed in the eleventh year of Duke Xiang of Qin (374 BC).
Ma Heng, the former director of the Palace Museum, determined in the "Text on Stone Drum Wen Qin Carvings" that the stone drums were carved in the pre-Qin period, but there are different opinions on the specific age.
In addition to the dispute over the origin, there is also a dispute over the order.
The 10 large stones should be arranged in order, and the 10 long poems engraved on the stone drums naturally also have an order.
Unfortunately, when the stone drum was discovered in the wilderness, no one paid attention to this detail. Later, it moved several times, making it even more difficult to verify.
However, scholars of all ages still named it based on the first two characters based on the writing on the stone drum.
That is, Qianmian drum, Laigong drum, Tianche drum, Luanche drum, Lingyu drum, Zuoyuan drum, Ershi drum, Majian drum, Wushui drum and Wuren drum.
Subsequently, epigraphers made various versions of their ordering, but none of them convinced the world.
In fact, these are not important. The most important thing is what kind of writing it is, how to read it, and whether it is in the same vein as the writing we use now.
There is definitely no problem in passing it down from generation to generation, but interpretation seems to have not been successful so far.
The reason why the Shiguwen is called the "Heavenly Book" is that it is very mysterious and very difficult to decipher.
On the other hand, there are still many unsolved mysteries so far.
The first is where the stone of the stone drum came from and what is its parent body.
What can be determined now is that the font of the stone drum inscriptions is based on the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the small seal script of the Qin Dynasty.
From the calligraphy point of view, the stone drum inscriptions are inherited from the "Qin Gong Gui", a bronze vessel from the mid-Spring and Autumn Period.
The inscription has ten lines on the cover and five lines on the vessel, totaling 121 characters.
His calligraphy is Shigu, the forerunner of the Qin seal script, and the characters are square and generous.
Where the pen is folded horizontally and vertically, there is a square in the circle. The vertical painting at the turning point is inward and gradually stretches downward when going down.
Its momentum is rugged and graceful, and it indeed has the powerful and overbearing aura of the Qin Dynasty.
However, it tends to be more square and rich. The beginning and end of the strokes are all sharp, round and vigorous, the structure is lengthened and shortened, and it is well-proportioned and moderate.
It can be said that the ancient majestic beauty is the best in ancient and modern times.
Shiguwen is the collection of large seal scripts and the first of small seal scripts. It plays a role in the history of calligraphy as a link between the past and the future.
It is a transitional font that evolves from large seal script to small seal script but has not yet been finalized.
Shiguwen has been regarded as an important model for the practice of seal script by calligraphers of all dynasties, so it is known as "the first rule of calligraphers".
The influence of Shiguwen on the calligraphy world was greatest in the Qing Dynasty. Famous seal calligraphers such as Yang Yisun and Wu Changshuo formed their own styles mainly due to Shiguwen.
The most famous rubbings of Shigu inscriptions circulated include the "Pioneer", "Zhongquan", "Hunting Jin" and other Northern Song Dynasty rubbings collected by Anguo in the Ming Dynasty.
As for the stone drums in front of Chen Wenzhe, the words on them must have been written by Xiang Chuanshi, which are rubbings from the Northern Song Dynasty.
These words come from the rubbings of Taishi Shigu inscriptions, which were originally related to Shigu.
This rubbing is relatively complete even in the Song Dynasty.
Because when Master Xiang Chuan was comparing other stone drum rubbings in his hand, he unexpectedly discovered that this rubbing actually retained the words "Making the original stone drum".
The stone drums he later discovered, especially the lost stone drum, only had four lines of text on the lower half.
Later, Xiang Chuanshi received many awards from the court for his meritorious service in searching for stone drums, and also received a set of rubbings of stone drum texts.
However, at that time, all ten stone drums were damaged and were no longer complete.
Therefore, the rubbings that are most widely circulated are Taishi Shiguwen rubbings.
As long as it is the complete copy, no matter when the rubbings were copied, they will be very precious.
It was also because of this that Chen Wenzhe couldn't walk when he saw these ten stone drums.
You must know that these "Stone Drum Inscriptions" are the earliest existing stone inscriptions in my country.
They are also the most respected sacred texts of "round pen calligraphy" by calligraphers of ancient and modern times.
How lucky is such a treasure to be able to see the scene of the period of victory?
You must know that even now, the characters on the ten stone drums have not been restored much.
In 2009, Xiong Guoying, a paleophilology scholar, calligrapher and painter, carefully repaired the incomplete text in "Shiguwen" (ancient calligraphy) with his broad vision, profound artistic accomplishment and precise modeling ability.
He repaired more than 100 remaining characters and filled in 113 missing blank characters, increasing the number of complete characters in the ancient rubbings from 272 to nearly 500.
The original "ink and color book" technique was used to fill in the gold word for word, finally reappearing the long-lost imperial atmosphere of the Stone Drum Inscriptions, allowing us to finally see the glory of the Song Dynasty in the "Shigu Inscriptions".
The profound historical significance of this restoration goes far beyond the scope of the art of calligraphy!
However, even if it is restored to this extent, it will never be able to completely restore the full appearance of the stone drum from the Song Dynasty.
And what about the stone drums that Chen Wenzhe saw in front of him? Apart from the lack of gold, the handwriting on them was all round and lovely, making them look like calligraphy masterpieces.