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The Development of Chinese Calligraphy in Relation to Buddhism and Politics During the Early Tang Era

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The Development of Chinese Calligraphy in Relation to Buddhism and Politics During the Early Tang Era THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY IN RELATION TO BUDDHISM AND POLITICS DURING THE EARLY TANG ERA By RUTH SHENG A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Ruth Sheng 2 To my husband and my son 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For nearly all of my life, I have been nourished by the joy of studying and practicing Chinese calligraphy. My desire to pursue an advanced study of Chinese calligraphy became a reality the moment the School of Art and Art History at the University of Florida accepted me into their doctoral program and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures offered me a position to teach Chinese calligraphy. I am grateful to these departments for supporting my endeavor. The subject of this dissertation, Chinese calligraphy in relation to Buddhism and politics during the Tang era, was formulated during the semester I took Mario Poceski‘s class on Chinese Buddhism. I am most grateful to Professor Poceski, who inspired and encouraged me to take up this challenging and interesting topic. I would like to express my earnest gratitude to professors Guolong Lai, Cynthia Chennault, Mario Poceski, and Victoria Rovine, who provided me advice and guidance throughout my research and writing of this dissertation. They patiently read through my drafts and offered countless invaluable suggestions that finally shaped my dissertation. I owe special thanks to Professor Cynthia Chennault. Not only did she teach me how to translate classical Chinese profoundly, but her extraordinary patience and attention to my writing and the details of my work vastly improved the quality of this dissertation. I have benefited in various ways from many professors throughout the course of this project, especially Robin Poynor, Eric Segal, Melissa Hyde, Richard Wang, and Mary Watt. I am also grateful to Professors Amy McNair, Bai Qianshen, Dorothy Wong, Stephen Goldberg, and Peter Sturman, whose recommendations and insights stimulated my thinking during the process of completing this project. 4 My research is inevitably relied on the resources and staff of many libraries. David Hickey, Hikaru Nakano, Thomas Caswell, Tisha Mauney, and Janice Kahler, from the UF library, as well as my friend I-ping Wei, the head of technical service at the Gest Research Library in Princeton University, helped me gather all the materials needed at various stages of my research. I would like to thank them for their support. My sincere gratitude also goes to my friends Bess de Farber and Stephanie Haas, who supported me in times of frustration as I completed my first draft, and to Lesley Gamble, who not only read and helped me edit the last version of this dissertation, but also encouraged me to finish the project in times of exhaustion. Without their help this dissertation would not have come to fruition, nor would it have been finished on time. I am deeply indebted to my husband, Peter, and my son, David, whose encouragement, confidence, and endless love have sustained me throughout this long and difficult journey. To them, I dedicate this dissertation. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 8 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 11 2 RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL USES OF CALLIGRAPHY FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE SIX DYNASTIES ......................................................................... 16 Oracle Bone Inscription and Bronze Inscription ...................................................... 16 Myths about the Invention of Writing ....................................................................... 22 Developments during the Han Dynasty .................................................................. 28 Developments in the Six Dynasties: Daoist and Buddhist Elements in Calligraphy ........................................................................................................... 34 3 TANG COURT SPONSORSHIP ON CALLIGRAPHY............................................. 47 Emperor Taizong‘s Promotion of Wang Xizhi‘s Style .............................................. 48 The Ideological Formation of Tang Court Culture ................................................... 51 Yu Shinan and Chu Suiliang ................................................................................... 59 Tang kai—Standard Script of the Tang Dynasty ..................................................... 67 Reproductions ......................................................................................................... 78 4 BUDDHIST STELES IN THE EARLY TANG DYNASTY ......................................... 83 Buddhist Adaption of Chinese Steles ...................................................................... 83 Steles of the Da Tang Sanzang Shengjiao Xu and the Da Tang Sanzang Shengjiao Xu Ji .................................................................................................... 86 Taizong‘s Preface and Gaozong‘s Notes to the Preface .................................. 90 Stele of Ji Wang Xizhi Shengjiao Xu Bing Ji..................................................... 95 Steles of Yanta Shengjiao Xu Bing Ji ............................................................. 103 Steles of Tongzhou Shengjiao Xu and Yanshi Shengjiao Xu ......................... 113 Stele of Tongzhou shengjiao xu ............................................................... 114 Stele of Yanshi shengjiao xu .................................................................... 118 5 BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES AND DUNHUANG MANUSCRIPTS .......................... 122 Historical Development of Buddhist Scriptures ..................................................... 123 Early Development of Translation and the Transcription of Buddhist Scriptures .................................................................................................... 123 6 Development during the Sui and Tang Dynasties .......................................... 127 Dunhuang Manuscripts ......................................................................................... 133 Dunhuang—Important Buddhist Site .............................................................. 133 Dunhuang Manuscripts Collections ................................................................ 134 Selected Examples ......................................................................................... 136 Early examples ........................................................................................ 137 Examples from the Sui dynasty ................................................................ 139 Examples from the Tang dynasty ............................................................. 141 6 BUDDHIST SUTRA COPYISTS AND SUTRA COPYING STYLE ........................ 158 Sutra Copyists ...................................................................................................... 158 Buddhist Monks as Sutra Copyists ................................................................. 159 Independent Sutra Copyists ........................................................................... 161 Calligraphy training of the jingsheng ........................................................ 161 Collaboration between monasteries and Tang court ................................ 163 Jingsheng Wang Siqian and his copy of the Lotus Sutra ......................... 164 Jingsheng‘s compensation ....................................................................... 167 Court Employed Clerk Calligraphers .............................................................. 168 Government affiliations ............................................................................ 170 Official sanction of copied sutras ............................................................. 172 The Standard Format of Copied Sutras ................................................................ 175 Tang Court‘s Sponsorship of Sutra Production and Distribution ........................... 176 Sutra Copying Style .............................................................................................. 180 General Attribution, Variations, and Special Characteristics .......................... 180 Stylistic Comparison: Copyists in Debt to the Elite Masters ........................... 184 Possible Influence of Copyists on Elite Masters ............................................. 188 Sutra Copying/Reproducing and Merit Making ..................................................... 189 Buddhist Dissemination vs. Daoist Isolation ......................................................... 194 7 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 196 APPENDIX A LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................... 198 B TABLE OF CANONICAL BUDDHIST TEXTS CITED IN THE DISSERTATION ... 202 C ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF THE PREFACE TO THE HOLY TEACHINGS OF THE TRIPIṬAKA OF THE GREAT TANG, COMPOSED BY TANG TAIZONG ..................................................................................................
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