Fǎshū kǎo 法書考
Investigations on Calligraphic Models by 盛熙明 (Shèng Xīmíng, fl. 1330–1349, 元, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
The companion volume to Shèng Xīmíng’s KR3h0039 Túhuà kǎo, focused on calligraphy. In eight juàn, the work is systematically topical rather than chronological: juàn 1 Shūpǔ 書譜 (the roster of calligraphers, graded shàngzhōngxià pǐn — upper, middle, lower — from Cāng Jié through the Táng), with the integrated Jípíng 集評 (gathered critical judgements from previous critics); subsequent juàn on the technical doctrine of script-types, methods, materials, transmission, and connoisseurship. The work was presented to the Yuán court.
Tiyao
Abstract
Shèng Xīmíng’s Fǎshū kǎo is the most systematic Yuán reference work on calligraphy and is the calligraphic counterpart to his KR3h0039 Túhuà kǎo. The work’s topical organisation — rather than the chronological zhuàn form of Chén Sī’s KR3h0034 Shū xiǎoshǐ — sets it apart in the medieval Chinese calligraphic reference tradition: this is the first systematic Chinese topical compendium designed as a manual for a working office (the Yuán imperial Jiànshū establishment). The work depends heavily on Zhāng Huáiguàn’s Shūduàn KR3h0006 for the rank-judgements, and on the broader corpus gathered in Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s KR3h0008 Fǎshū yàolù and Chén Sī’s KR3h0033 Shūyuàn jīnghuá. Shèng’s Central Asian background (he was a Qiūcí 龜茲 man, fluent in six languages) and his court career at the Kuízhānggé 奎章閣 are precisely the credentials that enabled him to produce this synthetic imperial reference work. The two paired books circulate in separate editions: the Túhuà kǎo survives in SBCK only, the Fǎshū kǎo in both SBCK and WYG.
Translations and research
- McNair, Amy. “Public Values in Calligraphy and Orthography in the Yuan Dynasty.” Monumenta Serica 43 (1995): 263–278.
- McCausland, Shane. Zhao Mengfu: Calligraphy and Painting for Khubilai’s China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011 (uses Shèng).
- Allsen, Thomas T. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (Central Asian connection).
- Yú Jiànhuá 俞劍華 (ed.). Zhōngguó gǔdài shū-lùn lèibiān. Beijing: Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1957 (collated text).
Other points of interest
The Fǎshū kǎo and Túhuà kǎo are the earliest visual-arts reference compendia of the Chinese tradition written by an author of non-Hàn Central Asian background — a unique witness to the cosmopolitan character of late-Yuán imperial cultural production.