2/28/2001 8:46 AM
The Written
Word in Chinese Culture
Humanities 596 A, HSTAS 490,
SISEA 490B, Art History 511
Thursday, 1:30-3:20, ART 312
Instructors: Jerome Silbergeld, Art History
302
Art jesi@u.washington.edu
office
hours M 11:30-1:00
Patricia Ebrey, History and JSIS
203-C Thomson ebrey@u.washington.edu
office hours W 10-12
This
course will examine Chinese calligraphy in its artistic and historical
context. It is offered this term
to take advantage of the exhibition at the Seattle Asian Art Museum on
"The Embodied Image: Chinese
Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection,” on display from March 1 to
May 27 at Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. This exhibition includes 55 pieces of calligraphy, many of
them long handscrolls, ranging in date from about 200 to 1900 CE. Students thus will have the
opportunity to examine closely original pieces of calligraphy while discussing
in class the central role of writing in Chinese culture. The seminar will tack back and forth
between all the ways in which writing functions in Chinese culture and specific
examples of writing preserved as aesthetic objects.
Books
to Purchase:
The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B.
Elliott Collection
Character and Context in
Chinese Calligraphy
* Assigned reading items
below marked by an asterisk will be available in a reading packet, which should
be purchased at Ram's Copy Center, on University Way near 42nd
Avenue.
Most of the required and
recommended reading items, together with an additional variety of valuable
publications, will be found on reserve in the Art Library or the East Asia
Library. Where reproductions of
art objects are concerned, you will find it useful to refer to original
publications, rather than to reading packet reproductions, for clarity and
greater aesthetic accuracy.
Assignments:
Students
are expected to attend regularly and to have done the required reading before
coming to class. Each of you will
write one short and one long paper.
The short paper (4-6 pages, due May 3) will be either: a) a review of some of the literature
on calligraphy, either a book review or a review of two or more related
articles, preferably ones listed below under “Recommended further reading”; or
b) an analysis of a work in the exhibition, with attention to the elements of
style, stylistic reference, context and content, as appropriate. A brief (5 minute) report will be made,
during the relevant class session in the case of the former option or as
scheduled in the case of the latter option.
Students
will be given considerable leeway on the longer paper (target length 12-20
pages), due May 31 for those presenting in class on May 24 (all Ebrey students
and some Silbergeld students) and June 4 for those presenting in class on May
31. This paper can range from a
study of one object or one artist represented in the exhibition to a research
paper on a social or cultural history topic related to writing or
calligraphy. Some of the topics
that would make good papers include calligraphy and the art of the book;
calligraphy as an element in painting and painting style; calligraphy as a
signifier of social expectations and moral values; the publishing of
calligraphy and letter-writing as a social and artistic act; comparisons
between calligraphy and painting as commodities; comparisons between the social
functions of calligraphy in China and the Islamic world or China and Japan; and
calligraphy in the modern world and as a medium of political and/or artistic
dissent. These are just
examples. Students are encouraged
to be creative and come up with distinctly different topics for papers.
Grading:
Short
paper 25%
Long
paper 50%
Class
participation 25%
Course Schedule
Week
One: March 29 Introduction.
An introduction to the different script types and
their history. Discussion of the
central role of writing in Chinese culture.
Week
Two: April 5 The
Magic Power of Words.
The early history of writing in China. The use of written words in divination,
magic, and scripture. Daoist
elements in calligraphy.
Assignments:
Visit
museum for an overview of the exhibition
Read: Michael Nylan, "Calligraphy, the Sacred Text, and
the Test of Culture," in Cary
Liu, Dora Ching, and Judith Smith, eds., Character
and Context in Chinese Calligraphy, pp. 16-77.
*William Boltz, "Early Chinese Writing," World Archaeology 17 (1986), 420-36.
*Lothar Ledderose, “Some
Daoist Elements in the Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties Calligraphy,” T'oung Pao 70 (1984), 246-78.
*Tseng Yu-ho, A History of Chinese Calligraphy, pp. 75-96.
Recommended
further reading:
Tseng
Yu-ho, A History of Chinese Calligraphy, scan
remaining chapters.
Amy McNair, “Texts of Taoism and Buddhism and the
Power of Calligraphic
Style,” in Robert Harrist and Wen Fong, eds., The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B.
Elliott Collection, pp. 224-39.
William
Boltz. The Origin and Development of the Chinese Writing System.
David
Keightley, Sources of Shang History
Week
Three: April 12 Calligraphy,
Amateur Art, and Individual Expression
Chinese theory of calligraphy as an art. Issues of individualism and personal
style. The case of the Six
Dynasties and Tang periods.
Comparison with other cultures.
Assignments:
Read:
*John Hay, “The Human Body as a Microcosmic Source of Macrocosmic
Values in Calligraphy,” in Susan Bush and Christian
Murck, eds., Theories of the Arts in China,
pp. 74-102.
*Liu Xie, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons,
pp. 154-74 (chapters on spiritual thought, style and nature, wind and bone,
flexible adaptability, choice of style)
Robert Harrist, “Reading
Chinese Calligraphy,” in The Embodied
Image, pp. 2-27.
Wen C. Fong, “Chinese Calligraphy: Theory and History,” in The Embodied Image, 28-84.
Recommended further reading:
Shen C. Y. Fu, Traces
of the Brush: Studies in Chinese Calligraphy.
Shen C. Y. Fu, “Huang
T’ien-chien’s Cursive Script and its Influence,” in Alfreda Murck and Wen Fong,
eds., Words and Images: Chinese Poetry, Painting and
Calligraphy,, pp. 107-22.
Robert E. Harrist, “A Letter from Wang Hsi-chih and
the Culture of Chinese
Calligraphy,” in The Embodied Image, pp. 240-59.
Jay Xu, “Opposite Paths to Originality: Huang T’ing-chien and Mi Fu,” in The
Embodied Image, pp. 260-79.
Week
Four: April 19 Whose
Writing is Worth Treasuring?
The social and political processes shaping artistic
preference. Taste as a disputed
matter: court versus literati
taste. The case of the Song and
Yuan periods.
Guest Speaker: Amy
McNair, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Kansas
Assignments:
Revisit exhibition, with
special attention to the calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, Huang
Tingjian, Mi Fu, and Zhao Mengfu.
Attend
Saturday April 21 symposium at Seattle Asian Art Museum.
Read: *Ronald Egan, “Ou-yang Hsiu and Su Shih
on Calligraphy,” Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 49 (1989), 365-419.
*Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s
Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics, chapters 1, 2, 4, 7.
*Richard Barnhart, review of
Amy McNair, The Upright Brush, CAA Reviews [online].
Eugene Wang, "The Taming of the Shrew: Wang Hsi-chih (303-361) and Calligraphic Gentrification in the Seventh Century," in Character and Context, 132-73.
Recommended further reading:
Peter Sturman, Mi
Fu: Style and the Art of
Calligraphy in Northern Song China.
Lothar Ledderose, Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy.
Amy McNair, The
Upright Brush (remaining chapters).
Stephen J. Goldberg, “Court Calligraphy of the Early
T’ang Dynasty,” Artibus
Asiae
49 (1988-89), 189-237.
Week
Five: April 24 Calligraphy
and the Literati Arts (Session on TUESDAY)
Literati as calligraphers, connoisseurs, and
collectors. Access issues: Who gets to see what forms of
calligraphy? The market for
calligraphy. Calligraphy compared
to painting as a literati art form.
Book arts and the impact of printing on calligraphy. The case of the
Ming period.
Guest Speaker:
Qianshen Bai, Assistant Professor of Art History, Boston
University. Talk on Late Ming Cultural Life and
Calligraphy: Handscroll/Album in
Assorted Scripts
Assignments:
Revisit exhibit, paying
particular attention to the Ming dynasty calligraphy
Read: *Qianshen
Bai, "Calligraphy for Negotiating Everyday Life: The Case of Fu Shan (1607-1684)," Asia Major, 12 (1999), 67-125.
Chuan-hsing Ho, “Ming
Dynasty Soochow and the Golden Age of Literati Culture,” in The Embodied Image, pp. 320-41.
*Dorothy
Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chamber,
pp. 31-41.
*Jerome Silbergeld, Chinese Painting Style, pp. 11-15.
Recommended further reading:
*Shane McCausland, “Private
Lives, Relics of Callligraphy by Zhao Mengfu, Guan Daosheng, and their
Children,” Oriental Art 46 (2000),
38-47.
Week
Six: May 3 Review and synthesis
Short
papers due.
Proposals
for long papers due.
Week
Seven: May 10 The
Visual Culture of Inscription
The history of making words a part of the landscape
by erecting inscribed stelea at historic spots, temples, and other sites. The political uses of imperial
calligraphy. Inscribing paintings, ceramics, books, and other valued objects.
Guest
Speaker: Robert Harrist,
Associate Professor of Art History, Columbia
University.
Assignments:
Read: *Robert Harrist, "Reading Chinese
Mountains: Landscape and
Calligraphy in China," Orientations,
December 2000, 64-9.
*Robert Harrist, “Record of
the Eulogy on Mt. Tai and Imperial Autographic Monuments of the Tang Dynasty,” Oriental Art 46.2 (2000), 68-79.
*“Qin Stone Inscriptions and Han Steles,” and “Stone
Inscriptions of the Six
Dynasties,” in Yujiro
Nakata, ed. Chinese Calligraphy,
pp. 111-15, 119-
122.
*Lothar Ledderose, “Calligraphy at the Close of the Chinese Empire,” in Art at the Close of China’s Empire, ed. Ju-hsi Chou. pp. 189-208.
Recommended further reading:
Zhixin Sun, “A Quest for the Imperishable: Chao Meng-fu’s Calligraphy for
Stele Inscriptions,” in The Embodied Image, pp. 302-319.
Cary Y. Liu, “Calligraphic Couplets as
Manifestations of Deities and Markers of
Buildings,” in The Embodied Image, pp. 360-379.
Patricia Ebrey, “Later Han
Stone Inscriptions,” Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies, 49 (1980), 325-53.
“Copybook and Stele Studies
of the Qing Dynasty,” in Yujiro Nakata, ed. Chinese Calligraphy, pp. 150-58.
Martin Kern, The Stele Inscriptions of Ch'in Shih-huang.
.
Week
Eight: May 17 Calligraphy
Today
An examination of all the themes covered in the
course in the context of contemporary Chinese culture in both the PRC and
Taiwan. Calligraphy as an art form
today. Calligraphy and political
dissent.
Assignments:
Read:
*Richard Kraus, Brushes with
Power, chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
*Leo Ou-fan Lee,
"Across Trans-Chinese Landscapes:
Reflections on Contempoary Chinese Cultures," in Inside Out: New Chinese Art, pp. 41-49.
*Wu Hung, "Ruins,
Fragmentation, and the Chinese Modern/Postmodern," in Inside Out: New Chinese
Art, pp. 59-66.
*Zhang Yiguo, Brushed Voices: Calligraphy in Contemporary China, "The New Culture
of Calligraphy," 1-25, and catalog entries for Bai Di, 29-32, Han
Tianheng, 33-5, Liu Tianwei, 45-7, Luo Qi, 55-8, Shao Yan, 61-5, Wang dongling,
84-90.
Recommended further reading:
Richard Kraus, Brushes
with Power (remaining chapters).
Xue Yongnian, “Chinese
Calligraphy in the Modern Era,” in
Julia Andrews, A Century in
Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in
the Art of Twentieth-Century China, pp. 132-45.
Zhang
Yiguo, Brushed Voices, remaining
catalog entries.
Week
Nine: May 24 Student presentations (all Ebrey
students; some Silbergeld students)
Week
Ten: May 31 Student presentations (Silbergeld
students)