Hánshān zhǒután 寒山帚談
Hánshān’s Broom-Talks by 趙宧光 (Zhào Yíguāng, 1559–1625, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A late-Míng treatise on calligraphy by the celebrated Sūzhōu recluse Zhào Yíguāng (zì Fánfū 凡夫, hidden at Hánshān 寒山 — hence the Hánshānzǐ sobriquet — south of Sūzhōu). Originally extracted from Zhào’s Shuōwén chángjiān 說文長箋, it circulates separately as the Hánshān zhǒután. The work is in two juàn and eight piān, with a Shíyí appendix and the Hánshān jīnshílín jiǎyǐ biǎo / jīnshílín xùlùn. Upper juàn: (1) Quányú 權輿 — on the fifteen script-types (six seal-script forms, fēnlì and túlì each one, zhēnshū, zhèngshū, kǎishū, shǔshū, xíngshū, cǎoshū, kuángcǎo — fifteen kinds); (2) Gédiào 格調 — combining brush-method and structure; (3) Lìxué 力學 — combining character-skill and method; (4) Línfǎng 臨放 — analytical extension. Lower juàn: (5) Yòngcái 用材 — implements; (6) Píngjiàn 評鑒 — connoisseurship; (7) Fǎshū 法書 — evaluations of past masters; (8) Liǎoyì 了義 — secret essentials. The title alludes to “everyone treasures the broken broom in their own house” (家有敝帚享之千金) — Zhào’s self-deprecating gesture.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Hánshān zhǒután in two juàn, with appended Shíyí and tables in one juàn, by Zhào Yíguāng of the Míng. Yíguāng, zì Fánfū 凡夫, a man of Wúxiàn; hidden on the south of Hánshān, thence taking the hào. This compilation was originally in his Shuōwén chángjiān, split off to circulate separately. The Chángjiān is hole-poking, mis-citation and confusion in points of evidence — mocked by the xiǎoxué jiā (philologists). But the seal-script brush-method is rather strong, and so this compilation is especially valued by later men. Upper juàn four headings: Quányú on the fifteen script-types; Gédiào on brush-method and structure; Lìxué on character-skill and calligraphic method; Línfǎng extending from Lìxué. Lower juàn four headings: Yòngcái on brush, ink, inkstone, paper and operation; Píngjiàn on the depth-and-shallowness of discrimination; Fǎshū on ancient fǎtiè; Liǎoyì on the secret deepest essentials. The Shíyí gives points not fully developed, with each entry annotated bǔmǒupiān (supplementing X piān). The Hánshān jīnshílín jiǎyǐ biǎo and xùlùn close. The title Zhǒután — taking the meaning of “the family’s broken broom is enjoyed at the price of a thousand pieces of gold.” Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 42 (1777), fifth month.
Abstract
Zhào Yíguāng 趙宧光 (1559–1625, zì Fánfū 凡夫; descended from the Sòng imperial clan), the leading Sūzhōu antiquarian and zhuàn-script calligrapher of the late Míng, lived as a recluse at Hánshān 寒山 south of Sūzhōu with his cultivated wife Lù Qīngzī 陸卿子. He was a leading shuōwén scholar and seal-script practitioner; his cǎozhuàn 草篆 (cursive seal-script) is widely cited. The Hánshān zhǒután — extracted from his larger but unreliable Shuōwén chángjiān — is his most systematic calligraphic doctrine. The work’s eight-piān organisation by aesthetic categories has affinities to Jiāng Kuí’s KR3h0031 Xù shūpǔ (organised by aesthetic category) and to Xiàng Mù’s KR3h0050 Shūfǎ yǎyán. Zhào’s intellectual partnership with his wife Lù Qīngzī and his establishment of an antiquarian residential community at Hánshān make him one of the most distinctive figures of late-Míng literati culture.
Translations and research
- Bai, Qianshen. Fu Shan’s World: The Transformation of Chinese Calligraphy in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003 (uses Zhào Yíguāng).
- Ko, Dorothy. Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994 (Lù Qīngzī).
- Carlitz, Katherine. The Rhetoric of Chastity in Seventeenth-Century China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991 (Hánshān cultural community).
- Brokaw, Cynthia. Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007 (Zhào’s publishing).
Other points of interest
Zhào Yíguāng’s cultivation of the cǎozhuàn (cursive seal-script) form makes him the principal late-Míng innovator in seal-script practice, and the Hánshān zhǒután is the doctrinal counterpart of that innovation.