Zeng Xi 曾熙 (1861-1930) and Li RuiQing 李瑞清 (1867-1920), who were two outstanding calligraphers of the late Qing dynasty and the early days of the Republic of China, are recognized as being leaders in the fields of culture and art in Shanghai during the early stage of the Republic of China in particular. The two had a mutual close friendship and many students. Because of their unconventionality, however, their works have received negative reviews from some critics. As a result, they have been appreciated in earnest only recently.
  In April this year, an epoch-making exhibition was held that dramatically promoted anew studies on Zeng and Li: a retrospective titled "The Mentors of Chang DaiChien -- Painting and Calligraphy of Zeng Xi and Li RuiQing" organized by the National Museum of History in Taiwan. At the exhibition, catalogues of their works including pictorial records as well as discussions by leading experts in the field were published. The content of these catalogs was so substantial that it more compensated for the lack of effort made until then to produce a compilation of their works. This landmark exhibition was held to commemorate the 80th and 90th anniversaries of the deaths of Zeng and Li, respectively, who also had been mentors of Chang Dai-Chien, another great calligrapher, and to whom the museum has paid special attention in past exhibitions.
  The objective of this article is to give an outline of the exhibition, which has been acclaimed as a daring attempt among the studies made of Zeng and Li. It also aims to present an overview of preceding studies that affected the exhibition, along with recent major individual studies focusing on Zeng and Li. Based on this overview, the article also summarizes future study themes and offers the author's personal view on some of them.

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In this article I trace changes in Dong Qichang's 董其昌 perceptions of the reception of old techniques on the basis of his dated writings dealing with calligraphic and painting theory up until his mid-fifties. 1 confirm (1) changes in his perception of a change from the faithful transmission of old techniques to innovations in old techniques, and I then ascertain when (2) his viewpoint of differences according to historical periods and (3) his differentiation of the relative merits of early calligraphers appeared in his perception of innovations in old techniques. Further, with respect to the theory of Northern and Southern schools of painting, said to have been put forward by Dong Qichang, I suggest when he may have proposed this theory and ascertain that it does not conflict with my conjectural results regarding the above changes in his view of innovations in old techniques. I also take up for consideration passages in his writings that show evidence of his theory about the distinctive character of the calligraphy of particular periods, verifying their reliability in light of the circumstances regarding the above changes in his perceptions, and I further examine the question of whether he regarded the calligraphy of the Tang 唐 or the Song 宋 as superior, a question about which there has been no consensus in the past.
   The results of my investigations were as follows. It is to be surmised that the changes concerning (1) occurred between the ages of 37 and 44 with regard to calligraphy and at the age of 42-43 with regard to painting. I was able to confirm that the emergence of his viewpoint regarding (2) occurred at the age of 48 or later in the case of calligraphy and at the age of 51 in the case of painting. The differentiation of (3) can be seen at the age of 48 for both calligraphy and painting and would seem to have been discussed from this time onwards. Changes in his view of innovations in old techniques occurred at roughly the same time in his theories about both calligraphy and painting, and this would suggest that his views of calligraphy and painting were inseparable. As regards his proposal of a theory of Northern and Southern schools of painting, I surmise that this took place in the third month of his 45th year. This is not inconsistent with changes in his above view of innovations in old techniques and may be considered to guarantee the validity of my conjectures regarding both. With regard to his theory about the distinctive character of the calligraphy of particular periods, having ascertained in light of their dates and content that the writings in question are indeed by Dong Qichang, I take the view that, at least when he proposed this theory, he rated the calligraphy of the Tang dynasty more highly than that of the Song dynasty.

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In this article I focus on the provenance of Deng Shiru's 〓石如 calligraphy in regular script (kaishu 楷書), a question that has hitherto been viewed as problematic by many scholars, and I examine the issues with reference both to his works as a whole and to individual characters.
  With regard to his works as a whole, I examine with reference to the background to their execution the provenance of Deng Shiru's fourteen works in regular script that have been identified to date. It became clear that elements from primarily inscriptions of the Liang 梁 of the Six Dynasties were incorporated in earlier works and elements from the Northern Dynasties in later works, and that his circumstances, travels, and friendships played a very important part in the background to these works.
  Next, with regard to individual characters, I deal with 1,791 characters in the above fourteen works and undertake an examination of Deng Shiru's preferences regarding characters and his attitudes towards them on the basis of characters from classic works in regular script other than those from inscriptions of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and inscriptions of the Tang 唐 period pointed out by previous scholars (and which I refer to as "alternative characters").
  These alternative characters, which account for approximately twenty percent of the total number of characters, can be broadly divided into characters in the seal and clerical scripts, alternative characters, and customized characters. I focus on the seal and clerical scripts, and I was able to ascertain that characters in the seal script were incorporated to a conspicuous degree in the Chuci jiuge 楚辞九歌, written at the age of 40 when he was living with the family of Mei Liu 梅鏐 (with whom he lived from the age of 38 to 44), and that characters in the clerical script were incorporated in subsequent works (with characters in the seal script no longer being used). This tallies with the account in Bao Shichen's 包世臣 biography of Deng Shiru ("Wanbai Shanren zhuan" 完白山人伝) and provides some interesting material for corroborating the background to Deng Shiru's study of calligraphy, which has been discussed solely on the basis of his biography since he did not write an account of his own life.
  Further, through an examination of alternative characters it has been possible to show that Deng Shiru transcended the barriers between different kinds of scripts and consciously used alternative characters, and that he did not lack in learning and may have deliberately introduced such alternative characters into his works on the basis of precise knowledge.
  Tasks for the future will be an elucidation of Deng Shiru's aesthetic sense as he turned his attention to the calligraphy of the Six Dynasties and Northern Wei 魏, an examination of all styles of calligraphy (seal, clerical, regular, semi-cursive, and cursive scripts) in his Ïuvre, and an investigation into his attitude towards written characters.

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Among the albums of paintings by Tanomura Chikuden 田能村竹田 (1777-1835), Matamata ichiraku cho 亦復一楽帖 is especially renowned as a masterpiece, and all thirteen paintings bear inscriptions. In this article I explore the format in which these inscriptions are written, that is, the manner in which the calligraphy and painting are placed and arranged on the same page, and I clarify a characteristic of the page composition to be seen in Chikuden's album paintings.
  Among the inscriptions found in Chikuden's albums produced in his later years, there are some like that in painting no. 4 of Matamata ichiraku cho which follow a traditional (or "square") method of writing, making much use of regular script and aligning the top and bottom of adjacent lines, while others, taking into account the position of the painting, are "hook-shaped" or else "interlocked," the latter of which have line breaks that appear to be irregular but have been deliberately inserted. The format to be seen in painting no. 13, in which line breaks have been inserted in the inscription so that it encircles the plum and narcissuses depicted in the centre of the page, has no precedent in Japanese literati paintings, and marked similarities can be seen with works by the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou 揚州 and with the Jieziyuan huazhuan 芥子園画伝 (pt. 1, vol. 5). Chinese painting manuals such as the Jieziyuan huazhuan were being used at the time for the self-study of painting without a teacher, and Chikuden paid attention not only to the distinctive formats of inscriptions in these works, but also to the new calligraphic style of using a semi-dry brash with fine, straight lines, and clearly incorporated these into his own works.
  In light of the above, it is to be surmised that, in addition to the general function of recording an explanation of the painting or the painter's sentiments, Chikuden also assigned to inscriptions a role as a structurally quite important element in making up the page when combining painting and calligraphy in the same work. It could be said, in other words, that he created a form of page composition that was incomplete without an inscription that was in keeping with the painting. Matamata ichiraku cho could be described as a synoptic album that covers all possible formats for writing and placing inscriptions, including "square," "hook-shaped," and "interlocked" types.

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Kusakabe Meikaku 日下部鳴鶴 (1838-1922) and his achievements occupy an important position when studying the history of calligraphy in modem Japan, and he has been taken up and studied in various ways by many researchers. Likewise, much research has been conducted on calligraphers belonging to his school of calligraphy. But most of this research could be said to have been rather limited in scope insofar that it has focused only on contemporary calligraphic exchange within Japan or with China.
  Along with China and Korea, Taiwan too can be regarded as a region that lies in East Asia, like Japan, and possesses a culture of calligraphy. As is well-known, Taiwan was under Japanese rule for approximately fifty years from the time when it was ceded by Qing 清 China to Japan as a result of the Sino-Japanese War (1894) until the end of World War II (1945).
  In recent years, research and exhibitions dealing with calligraphy of the period of Japanese rule have been taking place in various forms in Taiwan. But to the best of my knowledge there has been no research on the achievements and calligraphy-related activities of Kusakabe Meikaku and his pupils that cites actual source materials and is grounded in a systematic and scientific viewpoint.
  Accordingly, in order to fill this gap, in this article I review the actual facts regarding the concrete activities and achievements of Kusakabe Meikaku and his pupils during the period of Japanese rule and examine the influence that their activities had on contemporary calligraphic circles in Taiwan. I also shed light on what sort of significance and role their activities and achievements during their sojourns in Taiwan had in calligraphic exchange between Japan and Taiwan at the time.

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This article discusses the art of Chen Hongshou 陳鴻寿, a calligrapher who lived during the Qianlong 乾隆 and Jiaqing 嘉慶 eras of the Qing 清. Noting first that there were scholars who studied ancient inscriptions on bronze and stone, which constituted one of the fields of higher textual criticism, from the perspective of the fine arts, I then describe the historical background, that is, how Ruan Yuan 阮元, who became, so to speak, the patron saint of these scholars, wrote two treatises entitled "Nanbei shupai lun" 南北書派論 (On the Northern and Southern schools of calligraphy) and "Peibei nantie lun" 北碑南帖論 (On inscriptions of the Northern Dynasties and model calligraphy of the Southern Dynasties), how his ideas were clearly different from hitherto theories, which had treated dynasties as single units, and elucidated the overall current of the history of calligraphy in a structural manner, and how many scholars and literati emerged from his salon.
  Next, I present a summary of the life of Chen Hongshou, who lived in this cultural milieu, dividing his life into a formative period, a period of exaltation, and a period of growth, and in order to elucidate the characteristics of his art I adopt the method of contrasting "classical calligraphy" with "popular calligraphy," a new perspective on the history of calligraphy proposed by Bai Qianshen 白謙慎 and others. I demonstrate that while Chen Hongshou's calligraphy was grounded in "classical calligraphy," he also boldly incorporated "popular calligraphy," and I show that the Mansheng 曼生 teapots also resulted from the incorporation of popular forms of beauty.
  Outstanding works of art have two contradictory aspects. One is refined technique aspiring to perfection, and the other is the artist's fancy. According to the Molin jinhua 墨林今話, Chen Hongshou stated that in works of poetry, prose, painting and calligraphy it is not necessary to become an expert in minute techniques, and it suffices if a work has a natural appeal that accords with the artist's fancy at the time. On the basis of this view of art, which placed greater emphasis on "fancy," I analyze the distinctive features of Chen Hongshou's works from an artistic perspective, and with this as the warp and the historical background to his life as viewed from the perspective of cultural history as the woof, I interweave the two to trace the course of Chen Hongshou's life and examine his art.

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