Chen Chun and Wang Chong in the History of Chinese Calligraphy: The Illuminative Case of the Thousand-Character Essay in the Bei Shan Tang Collection, with Professor Harold Mok (in Cantonese)

陳淳與王寵的書史地位 – 從北山堂所藏兩件《千字文》說起

陳淳與王寵是明代中葉吳中的著名書家，書風各具特色，但在書法史上的地位，卻略有差異，反映出書家品評的傳統觀念。香港北山堂藏有兩件《千字文》墨蹟，分別由陳淳和王寵所書，前者為冊頁，後者為手卷，皆為難得的傳世墨蹟。兩件書蹟內容一致，正好用作比較，以領略陳、王的書風。此講座將介紹這兩件《千字文》，並結合文獻資料，申論陳淳與王寵的書史地位，從而探討傳統書評的一些現象。

In classical China, the artist's adherence to traditional values featured prominently in the evaluation of an artist's art. This partly explains why Chen Chun and Wang Chong, both active in the mid-Ming in Suzhou, have been viewed disparagingly in the history of Chinese calligraphy despite their comparable yet distinctive artistic accomplishments. This lecture will make use of two pieces of the Thousand-Character Essay, the same text – one written by Chen Chun as an album, and the other by Wang Chong as a handscroll – both of which are in the Bei Shan Tang Collection. We will compare and contrast the calligraphic style of the two masters, discuss their relative importance in the history of Chinese calligraphy as described in Ming and later texts, and examine certain phenomena in traditional calligraphic evaluation.

Speaker
Professor Harold Mok (莫家良教授) was educated at The University of Hong Kong, and received his D.Phil. degree from the University of Oxford. Since 1989, he has taught Chinese art history, particularly Chinese painting and calligraphy in the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is at present Professor and Chairman in the Department. He has carried out several research projects on Hong Kong calligraphy, Model-calligraphies at the Chunhua Archive, and calligraphy of private secretariats. He is also editor of several issues of the Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook, the exhibition catalogue Double Beauty II: Qing Couplets from the Lechangzai Xuan Collection, and a number of books on Chinese art history, including Chronology of Hong Kong Calligraphy (1901-1950).