Qi Xiaochun, O Gishi ronko (A Study of Wang Xizhi).(Book Review)

China Review International, September, 2002 by Bai, Qianshen

Osaka: Toho Shuppan, 2001. 457 pp. [yen] 8,400, ISBN 4-88591-720-4.

The graceful art of Wang Xizhi (ca. 303-ca. 361) has been accepted as the foremost example of Chinese calligraphic style for more than thirteen hundred years. Since his output was codified in the Tang dynasty (618-907), not only has Wang been deemed--in China, Japan, and Korea--as the Sage (shusheng) of Calligraphers, but the classical tradition of calligraphy (the "model-book" school of calligraphy, or tiexue) was based and centered on his elegant art. From the Tang onward, the Asian scholastic tradition has produced endless catalogues of Wang's calligraphic canon and discussions of his art.

Modern scholarship on Wang Xizhi in East Asia and the West has also been fruitful. In Japan,...

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