When Writing Becomes Calligraphy: An Alternative History of Chinese Script Based on Medieval Inscribed Landscapes and their Modern Reception – ALTERGRAPHY

The first aim of this project is to contextualize the epigraphy of Daoist poet Zheng Daozhao (455-516 CE; 4 sites; c. 40 inscriptions) and Buddhist calligrapher Seng’An Daoyi (fl. 562-580 CE; 12 sites; c. 120 inscriptions), who were ignored by the classical tradition of calligraphy established in the 7th century, when formulating an aesthetic discourse aimed at the cohesion of the literati elite. Even within the critique of the classical tradition in the 18th century, these engraved monumental texts on bare, unpolished cliffs, have only been discussed in formal terms and under the shape of rubbings, that is, divorced from their physical and socio-religious context. The last thirty years of field archaeology have provided supplementary evidence to build upon, to contextualise the two figures. This project selected these case studies for their subversive potential in the redefinition of calligraphy, beyond the aesthetic values serving the agenda of the literati elite, and towards an understanding of the strategic choices negotiated by individuals and their local communities between material constraints, the vernacular use of writing and medieval religions.

The object of enquiry (and the contextualization required) is twofold: the epigraphic inscription itself, replaced in its original context, and the reception of this same inscription through rubbings in ink on paper. Indeed, it is essential to acknowledge that the way we approach epigraphy and calligraphy is filtered by early modern approaches and the second life of inscriptions through rubbings.

The second aim of this project is thus to investigate the reception of medieval epigraphy through rubbings, and to determine how these works have impacted both the history of calligraphy and modern calligraphic production. The decontextualization operated by rubbings on epigraphy simultaneously creates opportunities for the inscription to be integrated in different corpora and, in this second life, to construct the intellectual networks who reformulated the history of calligraphy and reconsidered the very notion of calligraphic style or variation. We will analyze the quality and format of rubbings—in particular albums—as well as their circulation, sometimes retraceable through the seals and colophons present on the mounting or binding.

The data (c. 1500 photographs of the site, c. 1000 ancient and modern rubbings) was collected by the PI in mountainous sites today being radically altered in a rapid process of heritagization, where a double expertise in the fields of archaeology/art history and calligraphic practice as welll as rubbing techniques was necessary.

The photographic survey data and scans of the collected rubbings, yet unpublished, will be stored in the open access repository Nakala and will be interrelated with the “Database of Medieval Chinese Texts” of Ghent University (DMCT; database-of-medieval-chinese-texts.be) and the georeferenced “Buddhist Stone Sutras in China” by the Academy of Sciences/University of Heidelberg (Stonesutras.org).

Such collaborative interpretation of epigraphic data addresses the management of digital corpora on a global scale.

While calligraphy has long been central in Chinese culture—where it is synonymous with national identity, in a powerful combination of orthodoxy and orthography —, this project voices a marginalised epigraphic tradition in medieval China, including its modern reception, which still await to be integrated in the history of calligraphy. Our alternative history of Chinese calligraphy integrates both the medieval context corresponding to the moment of formulation of the classical standard and the early modern critical apparatus, which was the first to challenge this standard, to propose a diachronic definition of calligraphic style, in a contextual approach to graphic variation.

The first aim of this project is to contextualize the epigraphy of Daoist poet Zheng Daozhao (455-516 CE; 4 sites; c. 40 inscriptions) and Buddhist calligrapher Seng’An Daoyi (fl. 562-580 CE; 12 sites; c. 120 inscriptions), who were ignored by the classical tradition of calligraphy established in the 7th century, when formulating an aesthetic discourse aimed at the cohesion of the literati elite. Even within the critique of the classical tradition in the 18th century, these engraved monumental texts on bare, unpolished cliffs, have only been discussed in formal terms and under the shape of rubbings, that is, divorced from their physical and socio-religious context. The last thirty years of field archaeology have provided supplementary evidence to build upon, to contextualise the two figures. This project selected these case studies for their subversive potential in the redefinition of calligraphy, beyond the aesthetic values serving the agenda of the literati elite, and towards an understanding of the strategic choices negotiated by individuals and their local communities between material constraints, the vernacular use of writing and medieval religions.

The object of enquiry (and the contextualization required) is twofold: the epigraphic inscription itself, replaced in its original context, and the reception of this same inscription through rubbings in ink on paper. Indeed, it is essential to acknowledge that the way we approach epigraphy and calligraphy is filtered by early modern approaches and the second life of inscriptions through rubbings.

The second aim of this project is thus to investigate the reception of medieval epigraphy through rubbings, and to determine how these works have impacted both the history of calligraphy and modern calligraphic production. The decontextualization operated by rubbings on epigraphy simultaneously creates opportunities for the inscription to be integrated in different corpora and, in this second life, to construct the intellectual networks who reformulated the history of calligraphy and reconsidered the very notion of calligraphic style or variation. We will analyze the quality and format of rubbings—in particular albums—as well as their circulation, sometimes retraceable through the seals and colophons present on the mounting or binding.

The data (c. 1500 photographs of the site, c. 1000 ancient and modern rubbings) was collected by the PI in mountainous sites today being radically altered in a rapid process of heritagization, where a double expertise in the fields of archaeology/art history and calligraphic practice as welll as rubbing techniques was necessary. The photographic survey data and scans of the collected rubbings, yet unpublished, will be stored in the open access repository Nakala and will be interrelated with the “Database of Medieval Chinese Texts” of Ghent University (DMCT; database-of-medieval-chinese-texts.be) and the georeferenced “Buddhist Stone Sutras in China” by the Academy of Sciences/University of Heidelberg (Stonesutras.org). Such collaborative interpretation of epigraphic data addresses the management of digital corpora on a global scale.