Inheritance and Discontinuation of Zhuanli Wenti in the History of Miscellaneous Scripts

Abstract

  Zhuanli wenti, compiled by Xiao Ziliang of Southern Qi, is an important work on miscellaneous scripts. The manuscript currently preserved in Bishamondo Temple in Kyoto is known as the only existing manuscript. This paper clarifies the issues surrounding the Bishamondo Temple manuscript, evaluates its merits and drawbacks as an existing manuscript, and further discusses which aspects of the Zhuanli wenti have been inherited and which have been discontinued between the Zhuanli wenti and the related works in its genealogy.

  Among the contents of the Bishamondo Temple manuscript, the text describing miscellaneous scripts can be found inherited in Gujin wenzi zan by Wei Yi of the Tang dynasty and the Eighteen-style Calligraphy Script Stele by Mengying of Northern Song and other later works on miscellaneous scripts.

  This indicates that the understanding of miscellaneous scripts, as conveyed through texts, has been consistently shared since the compilation of Zhuanli wenti. On the other hand, while the miscellaneous scripts shown as graphic images have many design similarities between the Bishamondo Temple manuscript and Gujin wenzi zan, there are noticeably differences in design between the Bishamondo Temple manuscript and the Eighteen-style Calligraphy Script Stele, with only partial stylistic similarities. As a reasonable interpretation of this, this paper assumes that the Bishamondo Temple manuscript and Gujin wenzi zan have preserved the appearance of Tang dynasty miscellaneous scripts, and concludes that the differences in the design of many of the calligraphic styles in the Eighteen-style Calligraphy Script Stele are due to the loss of the original forms during the process of transmission. Miscellaneous scripts from the Song dynasty onward share many design features with the Eighteen-style Calligraphy Script Stele, suggesting that the Eighteen-style Calligraphy Script Stele can be said to be positioned at a turning point in the history of miscellaneous scripts.