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 MONUMENTA SERICA MONOGRAPH SERIES
LXXII

Editor: ZBIGNIEW WESOŁOWSKI, S.V.D.

Sankt Augustin

PIETRO DE LAURENTIS

Protecting the Dharma through Calligraphy in Tang China

A Study of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu 集王聖教序
The Preface to the Buddhist Scriptures Engraved on Stone
in Wang Xizhi’s Collated Characters
Calligraphy by the author
 MONUMENTA SERICA MONOGRAPH SERIES
_________________________________
LXXII________________________________

Pietro De Laurentis

Protecting the Dharma through

Calligraphy in Tang China
A Study of the
Ji Wang shengjiao xu 集王聖教序
The Preface to the Buddhist Scriptures
Engraved on Stone in Wang Xizhi’s
Collated Characters

Institut Monumenta Serica • Sankt Augustin

 Sumptibus Societatis Verbi Divini (S.V.D.)

Copy editors: BARBARA HOSTER, DIRK KUHLMANN, ZBIGNIEW WESOŁOWSKI

Cover and layout: JOZEF BIŠTUŤ

Arnold-Janssen-Str. 20
53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany
Fax: +49-2241-237486
E-mail: institut@monumenta-serica.de
www.monumenta-serica.de

First published 2021

by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2021 Monumenta Serica Institute

The right of Pietro De Laurentis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him
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ISSN 0179-261X
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ................................................................................. xi
Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xiii
Conventions ....................................................................................... xv
Map: Tang Dynasty Chang’an ................................................................ xvii

INTRODUCTION
1. Buddhist Faith, Imperial Patronage, and Calligraphic Beauty
Captured in One Monument ............................................................. 1
2. The Historical Significance of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ................................ 5
3. Present Location and Physical Dimensions of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ............. 8
4. The Sources on the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ............................................... 11
5. The Buddhist Context of the Early Tang ................................................. 18
6. Originals, Copies, and Forgeries in Wang Xizhi’s Calligraphies ..................... 20
7. The Ji Wang shengjiao xu as a Work of Calligraphic Art ............................ 22
8. The Present Book’s Structure .............................................................. 27

CHAPTER ONE
Buddhism and Calligraphy in Medieval China
1.1 Buddhism and Manuscript Production .................................................. 29
1.2 Buddhism and Stone Inscriptions ........................................................ 35
1.2.1 Buddhism and Ink Rubbings ...................................................... 38
1.3 Overview of Buddhism and Calligraphy in Medieval China ........................ 42
1.3.1 Buddhist Monk-Calligraphers .................................................... 43
1.3.2 Buddhism and the People in Charge of Handwriting ......................... 48
1.4 Buddhist Calligraphy: Buddhism Adapting to Chinese Culture .................... 55

CHAPTER TWO
Wang Xizhi’s Calligraphy and the Semi-cursive Script (Xingshu 行書)
2.1 The Importance of Chinese Calligraphy in East Asian Art and the Principles
of Its Appreciation ...................................................................... 59
2.2 Wang Xizhi and the Chinese Calligraphic Tradition ................................. 62
2.3 Origin and Definition of the Semi-cursive Script ..................................... 68
2.4 History of the Semi-cursive Script ...................................................... 69
2.5 Conclusion: Wang Xizhi as the Aesthetic Norm of the Semi-cursive Script ..... 77

CHAPTER THREE
The Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Its Texts
3.1 Where and When the Preface and the Note Were Composed ...................... 79
3.2 Taizong’s Agreement to Compose the Preface and His Understanding
of Buddhism .............................................................................. 82
3.3 Taizong’s Support of Xuanzang and Buddhism ....................................... 88
3.4 The Inclusion of the Preface and the Note into the Buddhist Scriptures .......... 93
3.5 The Preface and the Note Carved in Stone ........................................... 100
3.6 The Other Prefaces Composed after Taizong and the Shift of the Preface
from Buddhism to Calligraphy ....................................................... 103
3.7 The Letters Exchanged between Xuanzang and Taizong,
and Xuanzang and Gaozong .......................................................... 105
vi CONTENTS

3.8 The Xin jing (Heart Sutra) ............................................................... 106

3.9 Conclusion of Chapter Three ........................................................... 116

CHAPTER FOUR
The Context of the Erection of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
4.1 Devising the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ................................................... 117
4.2 Daoism during Gaozong’s and Empress Wu Zetian’s Reigns (649–690) ...... 123
4.3 Buddhism under the Threat of Gaozong’s and Empress Wu Zetian’s
Pro-Daoist Policies ................................................................. 128
4.4 The Consolidation of the Chinese Identity of Buddhism through the
Appropriation of Wang Xizhi’s Calligraphic Style ............................. 132
4.5 The Ji Wang shengjiao xu as a Monument Claiming Imperial Patronage
and Public Recognition ............................................................. 134
4.6 Protecting and Spreading the Dharma through Calligraphy: The Intended
Outcomes of the Erection of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ....................... 137
4.7 Conclusion of Chapter Four ............................................................ 140

CHAPTER FIVE
A History of the Location of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
5.1 The Hongfu si and Its History (632/634–845) ....................................... 145
5.2 The Hongfu si and Its Monks .......................................................... 148
5.3 The So-called Xingfu si banjie bei and Its Relation to the
Ji Wang shengjiao xu ................................................................. 151
5.4 The Location of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu after the Anti-Buddhist
Persecution of 845 and Its Removal to the Confucius Temple ................. 154
5.5 Conclusion of Chapter Five ............................................................. 159

CHAPTER SIX
The Collation of Wang Xizhi’s Characters for the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
6.1 A History of Collated Characters ...................................................... 161
6.2 The Semi-cursive Script and the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ............................ 165
6.3 Wang Xizhi’s Works in the Semi-Cursive ........................................... 168
6.4 The Textual Sources for the Characters Used in the Texts Recorded in the
Ji Wang shengjiao xu ................................................................. 171
6.5 The Authenticity of the Characters Used in the Ji Wang shengjiao xu .......... 174
6.6 How Huairen Produced the Inscription ............................................... 178
6.7 Conclusion of Chapter Six .............................................................. 182

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Carving of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
7.1 Transferring and Engraving: Le 勒 and Ke 刻 ...................................... 183
7.2 The Transfer of Characters onto Stone ............................................... 184
7.3 The Time Required for the Construction of a Stone Inscription .................. 186
7.4 Conclusion: An Inscription’s Faithfulness in the Reproduction of
Original Handwriting ................................................................. 188

CHAPTER EIGHT
The Shape and the Calligraphy of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
8.1 The Importance of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu in the History of Chinese
Calligraphy ............................................................................. 195
 CONTENTS vii

8.2 General Overview of the Stone Inscription and of the Characters of the
Ji Wang shengjiao xu .................................................................. 198
8.3 The Rubbings of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and the Early State
of the Inscription ....................................................................... 201
8.4 The Rubbings of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Their Figures .................... 202
8.4.1 Beilin Ji Wang 1 and Mitsui Ji Wang 1 in Comparison ..................... 206
8.4.2 Zhang Yingzhao Ji Wang and Mitsui Ji Wang 1 in Comparison .......... 211
8.5 The Characters of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and the Reproduction
of Wang Xizhi’s Handwriting ........................................................ 212
8.6 Carving Mistakes in the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ....................................... 218
8.7 The Characters of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Wang Xizhi’s
Calligraphic Art ........................................................................ 219
8.8 The Graphic Adjustment of Characters in the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ............. 222
8.9 The Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Wang Xizhi’s Extant Semi-Cursive Works ..... 230
8.10 Conclusion: Huairen or Wang Xizhi as Calligrapher of the
Ji Wang shengjiao xu? ................................................................. 239

CONCLUSION

1 The Ji Wang shengjiao xu as a Work of Buddhist Art .............................. 241

2 Chinese Calligraphy to the Rescue of the Dharma .................................. 242

APPENDICES

Appendix I:
Transcription and Translation of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
1 Annotated Transcription of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ............................. 243
2 Annotated Translation of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu ................................ 248

Appendix II:
A Survey of Collated Inscriptions in Wang Xizhi’s Characters
1 Collated Inscriptions in Wang Xizhi’s Characters under the Tang .............. 267
2 Collated Inscriptions in Wang Xizhi’s Characters under the Song ............... 272

TABLES
1. Buddhist Scriptures Translated by Xuanzang Recorded in Da Tang Kaiyuan
shijiao guangpin lizhang (H 65.1385) Including the Preface and the Note
Arranged Chronologically ............................................................ 275
2. Dunhuang Manuscripts Including the Preface and the Note Arranged
Chronologically ........................................................................ 277
3. Prefaces and Postfaces to Buddhist Scriptures Composed by Tang Emperors .... 279
4. The Monks of the Hongfu si ............................................................... 283
5. The Figures of Wang Xizhi’s Extant Calligraphies (A–C) ........................... 285
A1. Semi-Cursive Script Calligraphies Arranged in Alphabetical Order
(Tracing Copies) .............................................................. 285
A2. Semi-Cursive Calligraphies in Copy-Model Books Arranged According
to the Chronological Order of Calligraphy Copy-Model Books
(Rubbings of Inscriptions) ................................................... 286
B1. Cursive Script Calligraphies (Tracing Copies) ............................... 289
viii CONTENTS

B2. Cursive Script Calligraphies Arranged According to the Chronological

Order of Calligraphy Copy-Model Books (Free-Hand Copies)
(Plus Kuaixue shiqing tie in the Semi-cursive) .......................... 290
B3. Cursive Script Calligraphies Arranged According to the Chronological
Order of Calligraphy Copy-Model Books (Rubbings of Inscriptions) 291
C1. Standard Script Calligraphies Arranged in Alphabetical Order
(Free-Hand Copies) .......................................................... 292
C2. Standard Script Calligraphies Arranged in Alphabetical Order
(Rubbings of Inscriptions of Free-Hand Copies) ......................... 292
6. List of Characters in the Ji Wang shengjiao xu Arranged by the Radicals
of the Hanyu dazidian ................................................................. 293
7. List of Characters Common to the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and to the Lanting xu . 341
8. List of Characters Common to the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and to Wang Xizhi’s
Semi-Cursive Calligraphies Other Than the Lanting xu ......................... 353
9. Chronology of Chinese Dynasties ........................................................ 361
10. Chronological List of Rulers Mentioned ............................................... 363
11. Alphabetical List of Reign Periods Mentioned with Emperors under Whose
Rulership They Were Proclaimed ................................................... 365
12. The Sexagenary Cycle ..................................................................... 369

FACSIMILE

Complete Reproduction of Mitsui Ji Wang 1 (Folios 1-36) ............................... 371

BIBLIOGRAPHY, GLOSSARY, AND INDEX

Bibliography ..................................................................................... 409

Glossary of Calligraphic Terms .............................................................. 435
General Index .................................................................................... 439

ILLUSTRATIONS

Cover image taken from the author’s personal ink rubbing of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
and Mitsui Ji Wang 1
Frontispiece: Calligraphy by the author ......................................................... ii

Introduction:
Plate 1: Ji Wang shengjiao xu, recto of the inscription (from Xi’an Beilin bowuguan) 9
Plate 2: Character shu 書 in the zhuan, clerical, standard, semi-cursive, and cursive
scripts (from Zhongguo beike quanji, vol. 1, Tang Ouyang Xun shu Jiuchenggong
liquan ming, Mitsui Ji Wang 1, and Zhongguo fashu quanji, vol. 3) ................ 23
Chapter Two:
Plate 3: Title and incipit of Shenwu fu (from Zhongguo fashu quanji, vol. 1) .......... 63
Plate 4: Columns 1–2 of Sangluan tie (from Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 4) ........ 65
Plate 5: Character zhi 之 in the standard script of Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, and
Liu Gongquan (from Tang Ouyang Xun shu Jiuchenggong liquan ming
and Zhongguo beike quanji, vol. 5 and vol. 6) .......................................... 66
Plate 6: Rubbing detail of Gu Lang bei (from the author’s personal ink rubbing) ..... 74
Plate 7: Columns 4-5 of Yimu tie (from Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 3) ............. 76
 CONTENTS ix

Chapter Three:
Plate 8: Ink rubbing detail of Xinji Jingang jing (832) (from Wang Xizhi shufa
leibian, vol. 7) .............................................................................. 115
Chapter Four:
Plate 9: Ink rubbing detail of Li Ji bei (677) (from Zhu Guantian 1999a) ............. 136
Chapter Five:
Plate 10: Ink rubbing of Xingfu si banjie bei (721) (from Xi’an Beilin bowuguan) .. 151
Plate 11: Character tang 唐 from Xingfu si banjie bei (721) and Ji Wang shengjiao
xu (from the author’s personal ink rubbing of Xingfu si banjie bei and
Mitsui Ji Wang 1) ........................................................................... 154
Plate 12: Ink rubbing of Beilin Ji Wang 2 (from Jindai zhengzhi ta Ji Wang
shengjiao xu) ................................................................................ 158
Chapter Six:
Plate 13: Characters from other Wang Xizhi’s semi-cursive calligraphies similar to
Ji Wang shengjiao xu (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and Wang Xizhi shufa leibian,
vol. 3 and vol. 5) ........................................................................... 177
Chapter Seven:
Plate 14: Transferring and engraving of a replica of Yanshi jiamiao bei for the Forest
of Tablets of the Yamanashi 山梨 Prefecture stone inscription (from
Sumi supesharu) ............................................................................. 184
Plate 15: Comparison of the characters gou wu zhi bang 勾吳之邦 from the ink
rubbing and the draft on paper of Xuanmiao guan chongxiu sanmen ji (from
Beijing tushuguan jinshizu 1989–1991, vol. 50 and Huang Dun 2002a) .......... 190
Plate 16: Comparison of the characters wang 王, xi 羲, and zhi 之 from Yimu tie
and the ink rubbing of its inscribed copy from Zhenshangzhai tie (from
Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 3, and Zhongguo fatie quanji, vol. 13) ............ 192
Plate 17: Comparison of the character ren 人 from Chuyue tie and the ink rubbing
of its inscribed copy from Zhenshangzhai tie (from Wang Xizhi shufa leibian,
vol. 3, and Zhongguo fatie quanji, vol. 13) ............................................ 193
Chapter Eight:
Plate 18: The seven Buddhas from Ji Wang shengjiao xu (from the author’s personal
ink rubbing) .................................................................................. 199
Plate 19: Characters she 舍, li 利, and zi 子 from Ji Wang shengjiao xu
(from Mitsui Ji Wang 1) ................................................................... 207
Plate 20: Character shan 善 from Li Nu muzhi (photo by the author) .................. 208
Plate 21: Characters di 帝 and you 有 from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and the author’s
personal rubbing ............................................................................ 210
Plate 22: Characters wen 文, jie 揭, and jing 京 from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and Beilin
Ji Wang 1 .................................................................................... 211
Plate 23: Character kong 空 from Ji Wang shengjiao xu and character dang 當
from Sangluan tie (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and from Wang Xizhi shufa
leibian, vol. 4) .............................................................................. 214
Plate 24 a-b: Details of Boyuan tie and Mengdian tie (from Liu Tao 2002, and
Zhu Guantian 1999b) ....................................................................... 216
x CONTENTS

Plate 25: Character tian 天 from Zhang Yingzhao Ji Wang and Mitsui Ji Wang 1
(from Jizi shengjiao xu [Zhang Yingzhao ben] and Mitsui Ji Wang 1) ............ 219
Plate 26: Character zao 早 from Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Zhao Mengfu’s copy
(from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and Zhao Mengfu lin Shengjiao xu) ........................ 221
Plate 27: Character xi 羲 from Deshi tie, Heru tie, Kongshizhong tie, Youxuan tie,
and Ji Wang shengjiao xu (from Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 3, vol. 4, vol. 5,
and Mitsui Ji Wang 1) ..................................................................... 225
Plate 28: Character jiao 教 from Ji Wang shengjiao xu (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1) ... 227
Plate 29: Character zhi 知 from Ji Wang shengjiao xu (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1) .... 228
Plate 30: Characters in both Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Lanting xu (similar to Zhang
Jinjienu Lanting) (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and Wang Xizhi shufa leibian,
vol. 10) (part one) ........................................................................... 233
Plate 31: Characters in both Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Lanting xu (similar to
Shenlong Lanting) (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and Wang Xizhi shufa leibian,
vol. 10) ....................................................................................... 234
Plate 32: Broken-strokes characters in Ji Wang shengjiao xu and their relevant
configurations in Shenlong Lanting and Zhang Jinjienu Lanting (from Mitsui
Ji Wang 1, Beilin Ji Wang 1 and Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 10) ............. 236
Plate 33: Characters both in Ji Wang shengjiao xu and Lanting xu (similar to Zhang
Jinjienu Lanting) (from Mitsui Ji Wang 1 and Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 10)
(part two) .................................................................................... 237
Plate 34: Character yi 亦 from Xinji Jingang jing, Ji Wang shengjiao xu, Shenlong
Lanting, Zhang Jinjienu Lanting (from Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 7,
Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 10 and Mitsui Ji Wang 1) ........................... 238
Appendix II:
Plate 35: Character he 和 from Xinji Jingang jing, Shenlong Lanting, and Zhang
Jinjienu Lanting (from Wang Xizhi shufa leibian, vol. 7 and Wang Xizhi shufa
leibian, vol. 10) ............................................................................ 271
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have framed and uncovered the ideas and facts discussed in this book through a
gradual process of constant interchange with teachers and friends, both in China
and in Europe. In fact, it is thanks to these people’s direct and indirect help that I
have been able to point my questions in the right direction, and to make my
thoughts clear. To name all of them would take too much space, so I will only
mention here those who have concretely made possible my writing of this book.
First of all, my thanks goes out to Mr. Wang Chengxiong 王承雄, who has
given me the theoretical and practical tools for the study of Chinese calligraphy;
Professor Zhang Naizhu 張乃翥 from the Research Institute of the Longmen
Grottoes, who has shown me the subtleties of Chinese stone inscriptions and their
relation to Chinese civilization; Professor Zhang Tiangong 張天弓 from
Huazhong Normal University, who has constantly and passionately provided help
and inspiration for my study of Chinese calligraphic culture; Professor Liu Tao
劉濤 from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, who has expertly and pa-
tiently discussed almost any subject on the history of Chinese calligraphy that I
have asked his guidance for; Professor Shi Rui 史睿 from Peking University, who
has provided me with extensive information and data on Chinese sources; Mr. Ma
Ji 馬驥 from the Xi’an Beilin Museum, who introduced me to the Xi’an Beilin
Museum’s wonderful collection of steles and still offers his precious advice on
epigraphy; Professor Yao Yuliang 姚宇亮 from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine
Arts, who has allowed me to see the philosophical extent of Chinese brushwork;
Professor Liu Zhen 劉震 from Fudan University, who has helped me with the
translation of several Sanskrit and Chinese Buddhist terms. A special word goes to
my dear friend Ms. Chin-ching Soo 史今晶, who has decisively contributed to
this book’s clarity of thought and wording, and to Mr. John Geddes who proof-
read the final draft and corrected several errors and typos.
My deepest gratitude also goes to the Mitsui Memorial Museum (Mitsui kinen
bijutsukan 三井記念美術館) for permission to publish one of their ink rubbings
of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu (called Mitsui Ji Wang 1 throughout this book), as
well as to the Italian School of East Asian Studies (ISEAS), Kyoto, and Professor
Silvio Vita for the support in contacting the Museum.
Many themes discussed in this book took shape in 2017 during my visiting fel-
lowship at the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization (ICSCC) at
Fudan University. Some results of my research have been already published in
Chinese in a book issued by the Sichuan People’s Publishing House in the spring
of 2020, and earlier in the journals Tang yanjiu 唐研究, Shufa yanjiu 書法研究,
and Zhongguo shufa 中國書法 in mid-2019. In late May 2019, I also had the
unique privilege of participating in the Shaoxing Forum (Shaoxing luntan
紹興論壇) organized by the Chinese Calligraphers’ Association (Zhongguo shu-
fajia xiehui 中國書法家協會). Besides the symposium on the calligraphic tradi-
tion of the calligraphers Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (303–361) and his son Wang Xianzhi
xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

王獻之 (344–386) (usually referred to as the “Two Wangs”), the Forum has also
been the occasion for the official establishment of the discipline of the “Two
Wangs Studies” (Er Wangxue 二王學) through the foundation of the Two Wangs
Studies Research Center (Er Wangxue yanjiu zhongxin 二王學研究中心) based in
Shaoxing. I have the honor of being one of its consultants.
This book would not have seen the light of day without the editorial support of
the Monumenta Serica Institute. My heartfelt thanks go to Jozef Bištuť S.V.D.,
Anna Clart (freelance language editor), Dr. Barbara Hoster, Dr. Anthony Hu, Dr.
Dirk Kuhlmann, and Prof. Dr. Zbigniew Wesołowski S.V.D. for their painstaking
work and constant advice. Of course, only the author is responsible for any errors
and inaccuracies.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Tian Shusheng 田樹生
(1934–2016).

Pietro De Laurentis
Ostuni, Italy

May 21st, 2021

 ABBREVIATIONS

B Dazangjing bubian
BD Chinese documents from Dunhuang in the National Library of
China, Beijing
Beilin Ji Wang 1 Songta Ji Wang Xizhi shengjiao xu
Beilin Ji Wang 2 Jindai zhengzhi ta Ji Wang shengjiao xu
FSZ Da Tang Da Ci’en si Sanzang fashi zhuan
FTQJ Zhongguo fatie quanji
H Zhonghua Dazangjing
JS Jinshu
JWSJX Ji Wang shengjiao xu
L.A.II.ii., CP Loulan documents on paper from the Stockholm Ethnographic
Museum discovered by Sven Hedin and edited by August
Conrady
L.A.II.ii., CW Loulan documents on wooden slips from the Stockholm Eth-
nographic Museum discovered by Sven Hedin and edited by
August Conrady
LTX Lanting xu
Nakata Nakata Yūjirō 1974
Mitsui Ji Wang 1 Genshoku hōjō sen 39
Mitsui Ji Wang 2 Tang Huairen jizi shengjiao xu
Note Sanzang sheng ji
Or Oriental collections of the British Library
P Chinese documents from Dunhuang in the Pelliot Collection,
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Preface Da Tang sanzang shengjiao xu
S Chinese documents from Dunhuang in the Stein Collection,
British Library, London
SD Dunhuang manuscripts from the Museum of Calligraphy, To-
kyo
SDZS Shodō zenshū
SH Dunhuang manuscripts from the Shanghai Museum
Short Biography Da Tang gu sanzang Xuanzang fashi xingzhuang
SJ Youjun shuji
SM Youjun shumu
xiv ABBREVIATIONS

SSTK Ō Gishi shoseki taikei

T Taishō shinshū daizōkyō
X Wan xinzuan Xuzangjing
XBSD Chinese documents from Dunhuang in the Northwestern
Normal University, Lanzhou
ZGSHQS Zhongguo shuhua quanshu
Zhang Yingzhao Ji Wang
Jizi shengjiao xu (Zhang Yingzhao ben)
 CONVENTIONS
ann. annotated
b. born
c. century
comp. compiled
compl. completed
d. died
d.u. date(s) unknown
diss. dissertation
ed(s). edited/edition
fl. floruit
i.e. id est
lit. literally
no(s.). number
pl(s.). plate
pt. part
publ. published
rev. revised
Skt. Sanskrit
trans. translated
vol(s). volume
* historical reconstruction
MAP: TANG DYNASTY CHANG’AN

Map by the author

 INTRODUCTION
The object of this book is a Chinese Buddhist stone inscription commonly referred
to as Ji Wang shengjiao xu 集王聖教序 (Preface to the Sacred Teaching [Scrip-
tures Translated by Xuanzang] in Wang [Xizhi’s] Collated [Characters]) (see Plate
1). This stele was erected on January 1st, 673 (Xianheng 3.XII.8), 1 in the Bud-
dhist Hongfu si 弘福寺 (Monastery of the Expansion of Blessings) of Chang’an
長安, present-day Xi’an, at that time the capital of the Tang 唐 (618–907) (see
Map) – still standing now at the Xi’an Beilin (Forest of Tablets) Museum (Xi’an
Beilin bowuguan 西安碑林博物館, hereafter Xi’an Beilin). It is a record of the
Buddhist literary tributes that two Tang emperors, Taizong 太宗 (Li Shimin 李
世民, 599–649, r. 626–649) and his son Gaozong 高宗 (Li Zhi 李治, 628–683,
r. 649–683), had granted the famous monk Xuanzang 玄奘 (d. 664) for his first
Buddhist translations from Sanskrit to Chinese, as well as of Xuanzang’s alleged
translation of the Xin jing 心經 (Heart Sutra, Bore boluomiduo Xin jing 般若波
羅蜜多心經, Skt. Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra, T 8.251), probably the most fa-
mous Buddhist scripture in East Asia. Its peculiarity, however, relies on the fact
that these texts were collated in the semi-cursive characters of the great master of
Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (303–361), and represent the largest
single work with Wang Xizhi’s characters (1,903 in total). 2 Its historical signifi-
cance is therefore enormous. Not only is it the first and most successful collated
inscription in Chinese calligraphy, it is also the first and last attempt to combine
Buddhist authority (Xuanzang), political power (Taizong and Gaozong), and artis-
tic charm (Wang Xizhi) in one single monument. Despite its evident political sig-
nificance, though, it seems that both traditional scholarship and modern historians
have neglected the inscription’s close relationship to the political and religious
background of the time. The present book, therefore, offers an insight into this
exceptional monument.

1. Buddhist Faith, Imperial Patronage, and Calligraphic Beauty Captured in

One Monument
The Ji Wang shengjiao xu is related to four historical figures, who, in different
ways, were decisive for the destiny of the community of Buddhist monks who

1
Although the Xi’an Beilin and all Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars (with the sole
exception of Alexander Mayer) mention the year 672, the actual date of the stele’s erection
falls on the first day of 673.
2
Since the Japanese scholar Nakata Yūjirō in 1957 counted 1,904 characters, the entirety of
scholars has followed this figure. Nevertheless, the author has detected and cut all the char-
acters from the photographic reproduction of Mitsui Ji Wang 1, and has come up with the
result of 1,903 characters, which is the number proposed, to my knowledge, only by the
Japanese scholar Mizushima Akira. SDZS, vol. 8, p. 167; Mizushima Akira 1980, p. 116.
Curiously, the table of columns and their relevant number of characters provided by Luo
Feng gives the total number of 1,899 characters. Luo Feng 2017, p. 10.
2 INTRODUCTION

devised the inscription: the monk Xuanzang, the emperors Taizong and Gaozong,
and the so-called “sage of calligraphy” (shusheng 書聖), Wang Xizhi.
Xuanzang and Taizong were almost coetaneous, Gaozong was nearly thirty
years younger than Xuanzang, whereas Wang Xizhi had lived over three hundred
years earlier. Nevertheless, in the early 670s, by which time both Xuanzang and
Taizong had already died and Gaozong was in power, Wang Xizhi was “brought
to life” again by the monk Huairen 懷仁 (d.u.), who collated his characters in
order to transcribe the Preface (xu 序) and the Note ( ji 記) that, respectively,
Taizong and Gaozong – at that time heir apparent – had written in 648 for
Xuanzang’s Buddhist translations, along with the Xin jing. 3 Huairen and the
community of Buddhist monks of the capital are thus the active agents of this sig-
nificant endeavor.
Xuanzang’s personal name was Chen Hui 陳褘. He was born in Goushi 緱氏
(present-day Yanshi 偃師, east of Luoyang), but his year of birth is not clear, and
it is alternatively given as 600 or 602. 4 What is almost certain, though, is that he
set off for India in 627, leaving Chang’an (see Appendix I, note 52), to which he
did not return until February 8th, 645 (Zhenguan 19.I.7), and died in the Yuhua si
玉華寺 (Monastery of the Yuhua [Summer Palace]) near Chang’an on March 7th,
664 (Linde 1.II.5). 5 Xuanzang is the most famous of all Chinese pilgrims, and
also one of the few Chinese who deeply understood foreign cultures (not to men-
tion his perfect mastery of Sanskrit), as he composed the detailed geographical
account Xiyu ji 西域記 (Records of the Western Regions, completed in 646).
However, what really mattered for the Buddhists who devised the Ji Wang
shengjiao xu was Xuanzang as a promoter of Buddhism in China. Besides him
founding the East Asian adaptation of the Yogācāra School (Yujia 瑜伽), which
declined after only a few decades, his numerous translations of Buddhist scrip-
tures made him one of the most popular of Chinese translators, with 77 texts
translated in 19 years. Perhaps his greatest achievement, though, was that he was

3
Texts recorded in Xuanzang’s biography, Da Tang Daci’en si sanzang fashi zhuan 大唐大
慈恩寺三藏法師傳 (hereafter FSZ) (Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Mon-
astery of Compassion of the Great Tang), T 50.2053, and translated into English in Li
Rongxi 1995. My reference is the second edition published by Zhonghua shuju in 2000,
which originally appeared in 1983, edited by Sun Yutang and Xie Fang. FSZ 6.142f, 7.146f;
Quan Tangwen 10.119b–120b, 15.178. English translations in Li Rongxi 1995, pp. 196–
199, pp. 203–206. There is a German translation project on Xuanzang’s biographies in Chi-
nese and Old Turkic in several volumes entitled Xuanzangs Leben und Werk, edited by
Alexander Mayer and Klaus Röhrborn for the Societas Uralo-Altaica. Regarding the Chi-
nese biography, to this day only the introductory volume and the translations of juan 6, 7,
and 8 have already been published (as volumes 1, 6, 2, and 4 of the whole series). See
Mayer 1992, 2001, and 1991; Frankenhauser 1995.
4
Xiong 2009, p. 596. Twitchett – Fairbank 1979, p. 219, Mayer 1992, p. 1, and Li Rongxi
1995, p. 1, all consider 600 as the year of birth, but it is more likely that he was born in
602, as shown by Yoshimura Makoto 2015.
5
FSZ 1.11, 10.222.
 INTRODUCTION 3

the first in Chinese history to succeed in persuading an emperor to compose a

preface for the translation of Buddhist texts – Taizong’s Preface.
If Tang China rose to power and the Silk Road prospered during the seventh
century, much credit goes to Taizong, whose image as a strong and wise emperor
has been a constant refrain in Chinese history.6 He was, in some way, the true
founder of China’s greatest dynasty, inasmuch as he consolidated his father
Gaozu’s 高祖 (Li Yuan 李淵, 566–635, r. 618–626) endeavor through military
power (wu 武), first by sedating the internal revolts that burst out at the end of
the Sui dynasty, and secondly by pacifying the menacing Eastern Turks, who rec-
ognized him as “Heavenly Qaghan” (tian kehan 天可汗), giving Tang China al-
most complete control over Central Asia. However, especially during the first part
of his reign, he had consolidated his power not through repression or authoritari-
anism but through civil order (wen 文). 7 His collaborative and consultative ap-
proach with his close ministers has remained an authoritative standard for the ef-
fectiveness of government throughout the ages, the so-called “good government of
the Zhenguan Reign Period [627–649]” (Zhenguan zhi zhi 貞觀之治).8
Being the sovereign of the Chinese empire as well as the recognized ruler of
many neighboring kingdoms, Taizong was the epitome of power, governing “all
under Heaven” (tianxia 天下). He was thus a key figure for the Buddhist com-
munity’s efforts to effectively propagate Buddhism. Once returned to China,
Xuanzang tried untiringly to gain the emperor’s support. The monk eventually
reached his goal, so Taizong turned to Buddhism during the last year of his life.
The Preface the emperor composed for Xuanzang was not a perfunctory act in-
tended to ingratiate himself with the Buddhist church, but rather a genuine mani-
festation of his belief in Buddhism.
If the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi became the undisputed epitome of calli-
graphic art, this also happened during the early Tang, and was mainly thanks to
Taizong’s admiration for his calligraphy. Taizong revered Wang Xizhi to the ex-
tent that he even gave one of his daughters, the Princess Linchuan 臨川 (624–
682), the same courtesy name as Wang Xizhi’s daughter, Mengjiang 孟姜 (d.u.),
on the basis that both were good at calligraphy. 9

6
As explained by Howard Wechsler, Taizong inspired foreign rulers such as the Mongol
sovereign Qubilai (Hubilie 忽必烈, Emperor Shizu 世祖, 1215–1294, r. 1260–1294) and
the Japanese shōgun 將 軍 Tokugawa Ieyasu 德 川 家 康 (1543–1616, r. 1600–1616).
Twitchett – Fairbank 1979, p. 191.
7
Shortly after his death, besides the temple name Taizong, he was in fact bestowed the title
of “August Emperor of Civil Order” (wen huangdi 文皇帝), and in 674 he was also be-
stowed the title “Sagacious August Emperor of Civil Order and Military Power” (wenwu
sheng huangdi 文武聖皇帝). Jiu Tangshu 3.62f.
8
Twitchett – Fairbank 1979, p. 191.
9
The Zhaoling 昭陵 Museum in Xianyang 咸陽 stores the entombed funerary inscription
(muzhiming 墓誌銘) of Li Mengjiang (entombed on January 27th, 683, Yongchun 永淳
1.XII.25), in which Taizong’s words are quoted: “I have heard that the courtesy name of
Wang Xizhi’s daughter was Mengjiang, who was particularly skilled at the art of calligra-
4 INTRODUCTION

No wonder that it was Taizong who collected the bulk of Wang Xizhi’s callig-
raphies as we know them today, and that he also wrote a postscript to Wang’s
official biography in the Jinshu 晉書 (Book of the Jin, completed in 646) prais-
ing his calligraphy as “absolutely perfect” ( jin shan jin mei 盡善盡美). 10 Wang
Xizhi’s calligraphy then became the paramount standard for all the centuries to
come; thanks to its graceful and vigorous style, it was to also exert a great influ-
ence in Korea and Japan. Along with other important calligraphers from the same
period, such as Xie An 謝安 (320–385) and especially his seventh son Wang
Xianzhi 王獻之 (344–386), Wang Xizhi became the aesthetic ideal for the rest of
Chinese art history. Although far fewer of his works have been preserved through
the centuries, he and his father have been called the “Two Wangs” (Er Wang 二
王), a term often used as synonym for the Chinese calligraphic tradition.
Wang Xizhi lived in the fourth century under the Eastern Jin 晉 dynasty
(317–420), which ruled from the capital Jiankang 建康 (modern-day Nanjing)
over southern China, from present day northern Jiangsu down to Guangdong.
These were the troubled times when China was divided between the north, under
barbarian rule, and the south, where the aristocracy from the north had fled, and
to which Wang Xizhi belonged.11 Wang Xizhi served as an official with different
posts from 324 to 354, residing in several places such as the capital and the re-
gions corresponding to present-day Hubei, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. He is most fa-
mous for his title “General of the Right Army” ( youjun jiangjun 右軍將軍),
which he received in 347 (although he was never involved in warfare). He is thus
very often mentioned as “Wang Youjun” 王右軍 or, simply, “Youjun” 右軍. In
the same year, he moved to Kuaiji 會稽 (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang) and
there served as administrator (neishi 內史). In 354, though, he resigned from
office pleading poor health, and from that moment he devoted himself completely
to Daoist practices.
When the Ji Wang shengjiao xu was devised and erected, Gaozong was the
emperor in power, but during the first seventeen years of his father Taizong’s
reign (626–643) he had been very unlikely to become heir apparent at all. In fact,
as soon as Taizong became emperor, Li Chengqian 李承乾 (d. 645) was appoint-
ed heir apparent, but due to his extravagant and scandalous behavior (he preferred
Turkic customs to Chinese customs and was engaged in a homosexual relation-
ship), he was finally demoted in 643.12 Taizong was first inclined towards Li Tai

phy. In admiration of her I have given the [same] courtesy name [to my daughter], hoping
that [my daughter’s achievements] will stand close [to hers]” (朕聞王羲之女字孟姜，頗工
書藝。慕之為字，庶可齊踨). Text recorded in Zhou – Zhao 2001, pp. 260f. The personal
names of Wang Xizhi’s and Taizong’s daughters are unknown. On Wang Xizhi’s seven sons
and one daughter, see Qi Xiaochun 2007, pp. 393–398.
10
Jinshu 80.2107f.
11
On Wang Xizhi’s life, I follow the chronological biography in Qi Xiaochun 2007, pp. 659–
680.
12
Jiu Tangshu 76.2648f.
 INTRODUCTION 5

李泰 (618–652) as the new heir apparent, but due to the complaints of some im-
portant ministers such as Zhangsun Wuji 長孫無忌 (d. 659) and Chu Suiliang 褚
遂良 (598–658) who favored Gaozong, he unwillingly changed his mind, very
conscious that he was not making the right choice.13 As a matter of fact, Gaozong
had a weak temperament and suffered from illnesses throughout his life. But his
biggest mistake, at least from the Tang imperial family’s point of view, was to
admit into his harem a concubine who once belonged to his father, Wu Zhao 武
曌 (625–705, known posthumously by the title Zetian 則天, r. 690–705, hereaf-
ter Empress Wu Zetian). She eventually became empress in 655 despite the oppo-
sition of the ministers who had once favored Gaozong as heir apparent, and de
facto ruled the Tang several years prior to Gaozong’s death in 683, before finally
proclaiming herself as empress of the Zhou 周 dynasty (690–705), which tempo-
rarily interrupted the dynastic rule of the Tang imperial family.
Unlike his father, Gaozong had no interest in Buddhism and had composed the
Note only because he was ordered to do so. After Taizong’s death, he overtly fa-
vored Daoism over Buddhism, and this dramatically changed the Buddhist com-
munity of Chang’an’s perception of imperial favor.
Gaozong was also an accomplished calligrapher who left several stone tablets
personally composed and handwritten by him in a semi-cursive style modelled
after that of Wang Xizhi. Thanks to the calligraphies that his father had collected
when he was in his teens, in fact, he had the opportunity to practice from high-
quality calligraphic specimens. It was, then, to Gaozong that the Ji Wang
shengjiao xu was directed.
Nothing is known about the monk Huairen of the Hongfu si who materially
collated Wang Xizhi’s characters for the Ji Wang shengjiao xu. What is certain,
though, is that he must have been an extremely skilled calligrapher and also a
very good manager. In fact, he did not operate in isolation but was the leader of a
team of fellow monks, which very likely also included some Buddhist lay devotees,
two of whom were perhaps the unknown artisans who took care of the carving of
the characters on stone, Zhuge Shenli 諸葛神力 (d.u.) and Zhu Jingcang 朱靜藏
(d.u.). In addition, the Hongfu si as a religious institution is significant for our
comprehension of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu, as the inscription was installed in that
monastery.

2. The Historical Significance of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu

The Ji Wang shengjiao xu was the fourth and last stone inscription to be erected
with Taizong’s Preface and Gaozong’s Note. In 654, these two texts had already
been carved on a double-stone inscription installed at the feet of the pagoda that
Xuanzang requested to be built in the Daci’en si 大慈恩寺 (Great Monastery of
Compassion), where it is still located today. Later, in 658, these two texts were
again engraved at the Zhaoti si 招提寺 (Monastery of the Four Quarters) in

13
Twitchett – Fairbank 1979, pp. 236–239.
6 INTRODUCTION

Yanshi, near Luoyang, and then one more time in 663 in Tongzhou 同州, north-
east of Chang’an.
Besides these two texts, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu records the replies by Tai-
zong and Gaozong to Xuanzang’s letters of gratitude, plus the famous Buddhist
scripture Xin jing, and the names of the officials who were in charge of reviewing
the literary content of Xuanzang’s translations.
What makes this inscription so extraordinary is the fact that its characters had
been carefully and painstakingly selected from the semi-cursive calligraphies of
China’s greatest calligrapher and were then collated and outlined by Huairen in
order to create the final layout of the stele.
Wang Xizhi lived in the period of the Xuanxue 玄學 (Dark Learning), an in-
tellectual trend that was heavily influenced by a renewed interest in the Daoist
classics. The literati of this period then engaged in lively conversations about met-
aphysics with Daoists followers and Buddhist monks, in a mood of refusing the
vicissitudes of the common world, and enjoying a carefree immersion within na-
ture. Perhaps the best example of this ideal of life is Wang Xizhi’s Lanting xu 蘭
亭序 (Preface to [Poems Composed at] the Orchid Pavilion), which describes the
happy gathering of 41 men at the Lanting in Kuaiji, enjoying the beauty of nature
and pondering the essence of life. These 41 people included the Buddhist monk
Zhidun 支遁 (314–366), who befriended both Wang Xizhi and preeminent minis-
ters such as Xie An. Despite his friendship with Zhidun, though, Wang Xizhi re-
mained mainly a Daoist follower, and was much fond of collecting longevity
herbs used in Daoist practices, together with personages such as Xu Mai 許邁
(d.u.). 14
The fact that the monks who devised the Ji Wang shengjiao xu used a Daoist
figure like Wang Xizhi in order to copy out Buddhist texts is also a crucial issue.
The very nature of the texts recorded in the Ji Wang shengjiao xu makes it not
just a calligraphic inscription, but rather a “Buddhist calligraphic inscription,” and
this is, I argue, what makes it truly unique.
From a pure calligraphic viewpoint, it should be noted that not only is the Ji
Wang shengjiao xu the single work with the largest number of Wang Xizhi’s char-
acters ever known, it is also the most refined of all the inscribed reproductions of
Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy – hence, it holds enormous value for the study of callig-
raphy. To begin with, the bulk of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphic works, in fact, con-
sists of brief letters of only a few dozen characters,15 usually referred to as tie

14
On Wang Xizhi and Daoism, see Qi Xiaochun 2007, pp. 505–584.
15
The Fengju tie 奉橘帖 (Fengju Letter) has 12 characters; the Youmu tie 遊目帖 (Youmu
Letter) has 102. Some calligraphic works are named after the main topic, whereas in other
cases the letter is named after the first two characters of the calligraphies. Given the fact
that the literary content of all these tracing copies (moben 摹本) as well as of the free-hand
copies (linben 臨本) of these tracing copies has been edited considerably, deleting, for in-
stance, redundant information such as dates along with those characters not clearly visible,
their titles are to be considered merely conventional. Throughout this book, the author has
 INTRODUCTION 7

帖, 16 that he sent to friends and relatives. The Ji Wang shengjiao xu has 1,903
total characters in 30 columns, but the texts recorded therein are actually made of
755 effective characters (one of which is the iteration mark 々), which evidently
occur more than once and which we will call “individual characters” (danzi 單
字). 17
As handwritten characters are never the mechanical repetition of a given
graphic structure, the same character may look very different in different calligra-
phies or even within the same work. We will call “configurations” (zixing 字形)
these different renditions of the same character, which in handwriting specimens
obviously correspond to the total amount of characters. Huairen took advantage of
the different configurations in Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies, and so he not only
chose 755 individual characters but also several other configurations of them. Fur-
thermore, whenever a character in the inscription occurred more than once, Huai-
ren did not simply insert different configurations of the same character, but also
adjusted the contour of the original character, creating, artificially, new configura-
tions of the same character. In this case we will call the original configuration
“master copy” and the new configurations “adjustments.” Consequently, the
1,903 total characters also do not correspond to the number of original configura-
tions, whose effective figure is 1,396.
The result of this collation work is that the Ji Wang shengjiao xu contains a
much higher number of characters not only than any single work of Wang Xizhi’s,
but also of all his extant semi-cursive works put together. As a matter of fact,
Wang Xizhi’s most famous calligraphy – and also the most celebrated artwork in
East Asia, the Lanting xu – has 324 configurations for 205 individual characters. 18

therefore preferred not to translate them. See Qi Xiaochun 2007, p. 174. For the figures of
Wang Xizhi’s extant calligraphies, see Table Five.
16
The character tie appears in the titles of many other calligraphic works, but this does not
necessarily mean that these specimens are proper letters – it should thus rather be rendered
as “autograph,” or, more generally, “calligraphic work.” In fact, the compound beitie 碑帖
refers to the ink rubbings of calligraphies taken from inscriptions, including both steles and
calligraphy model-books ( fatie 法帖). Hanyu dazidian, vol. 1, p. 844; Hanyu dacidian, vol.
7, p. 1058.
17
The character huo 或 appears twice (5/25 and 6/71), but 5/25 is actually a loan for 惑,
although the full configuration 惑 is found as 4/1.
18
There are several versions of the Lanting xu, which have been transmitted as tracing copies,
free-hand copies, and engraved copies (ketie 刻帖). The Chinese scholar Wang Lianqi has
listed seven copies on paper plus nine inscribed versions, but only two of these truly repre-
sent Wang Xizhi’s style, and they are the so-called “Shenlong” 神龍 Lanting and the so-
called “Zhang Jinjienu” 張金界奴 Lanting, both at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The
former is thus named because of the seal “Shenlong,” now only partially visible, that was
stamped at the beginning of the scroll and refers to the Shenlong reign period [705–706]); it
is believed to be the product of tracing copyists of the seventh century. The latter has been
regarded as a free-hand copy made by Yu Shinan 虞世南 (558–638), and is generally less
popular than the former. However, I believe that both versions are tracing copies and repre-
sent two different interpretations of Wang Xizhi’s original manuscript that were produced
8 INTRODUCTION

By adding the characters from Wang Xizhi’s other reliable 19 semi-cursive callig-
raphies that are now extant, we reach the overall number of 946 characters, and
by considering some semi-cursive configurations in Wang Xizhi’s cursive works,
we may even arrive at the figure of ca. 1,000 characters. It goes without saying
that, judging on these numbers, although the Ji Wang shengjiao xu was not, strict-
ly speaking, an “original” work of Wang Xizhi, still, thanks to the subtle outline
of its characters and the vividness of its layout, in the centuries to follow it has
become Wang’s most popular calligraphy, no doubt thanks to the availability of its
ink rubbings. It can be fairly regarded as the standard for Wang Xizhi’s calli-
graphic style in the semi-cursive, at least until recently, when photo-reproduction
made all his calligraphies accessible to the greater public.
As the Ji Wang shengjiao xu integrates characters from Wang Xizhi’s originals
or direct copies of originals with characters from later calligraphies inspired by
his style under Huairen’s masterly work of collation, the inscription de facto rep-
resents the canonization of Wang Xizhi’s idealized calligraphic style as perceived
during the early Tang. As Wang Xizhi was the leading figure of the calligraphy
tradition of medieval China, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu can also be regarded as the
summa of the semi-cursive tradition of that period as a whole.

3. Present Location and Physical Dimensions of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu

The Ji Wang shengjiao xu is now located at the Xi’an Beilin, in the second exhibi-
tion hall (see Plate 1). The stele is registered as no. 624 of the museum, and is in-
scribed in the national records of the Chinese State Administration of Cultural Her-
itage (Guojia wenwuju 國家文物局) under the number 6101032180000210004980.
Once serving as the Confucius Temple (Kongmiao 孔廟 or wenmiao 文廟) of
Xi’an 20 as well as the city’s prefectural school ( fuxue 府學) from 1087 onwards,
the Xi’an Beilin has been the most important center for the storage and protection
of calligraphies inscribed on stone. In the twentieth century, its premises were
used as the base of the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, and finally in 1993 the Xi’an
Beilin was recognized as a separate museum that represents one of the great his-
torical and tourist attractions of the city.

during the seventh century. As we will see below, judging from the shape of the characters
in the Ji Wang shengjiao xu, the Zhang Jinjienu Lanting is closer to the calligraphic works
that were consulted by Huairen. Shanghai bowuguan 2011, pp. 1–58. On the superiority of
the Zhang Jinjienu Lanting over the Shenlong Lanting, see Nishikawa Yasushi 1991, vol. 1,
pp. 263–294.
19
The author has located 50 letters in the semi-cursive in calligraphy model-books from the
late tenth to the early nineteenth century, but these are very likely posthumous forgeries.
The figures of Wang Xizhi’s semi-cursive calligraphies are discussed in detail in Chapters
Six and Eight and are summarized in Tables Five, Six, Seven, and Eight.
20
Abbreviation of Wenxuan wang miao 文宣王廟 (lit.: Temple of the Prince Propagating
Civil Virtue). This title was bestowed on Confucius in 739. Jiu Tangshu 9. 211.
 INTRODUCTION 9

In the present day, the Xi’an Beilin stores more than 3,000 stone inscrip-
tions, 21 several of which are registered as “national treasures” (guobao 國寶).
For some of them the Chinese State Administration of Cultural Heritage prohibits
the taking of rubbings, not even for research purposes, and the Ji Wang shengjiao
xu was one of the first steles for which it declared this prohibition.

Plate 1: Ji Wang shengjiao xu, recto of the inscription (from Xi’an Beilin bowuguan)

21
Especially famous in the West for keeping the so-called Nestorian Stele (Da Qin jingjiao
liuxing Zhongguo bei 大秦景教流行中國碑, lit.: Stele of the Spread of the Luminous
Teaching of Da Qin in China) dated 781, the museum collects most of China’s great calli-
graphic inscriptions. On the Xi’an Beilin, see Xi’an Beilin shufa yishu and Lu Yuan 1998.
10 INTRODUCTION

The inscription is made up of three different parts, namely the heading, the body,
and the pedestal, which altogether measure 399 cm x 127 cm. The inscription’s
text is included in the body, which measures 235 cm x 98 cm at the top and 114
cm at the bottom. 22
The pedestal is decorated with carvings on its four sides, whereas the main
body is carved with the engraved characters only on its recto, on top of which
there are seven small engravings of Buddhas, and some decorative images on its
two lateral sides. The heading is carved with two mythical creatures symmetrical-
ly arranged both on the recto and the verso in the style of traditional Chinese ste-
les. The heading also has a space for the inscription’s title, but this was left blank,
very likely because the available characters were not as large as those required for
a stele’s heading. The recto of the main body shows no marks of carving, which
has even caused considerable debate on the stele’s authenticity, because Wei Shu’s
韋述 (d. 757) Liangjing xinji 兩京新記 (New Records of the Two [Tang] Capi-
tals) completed in 722 states that the Ji Wang shengjiao xu was carved on the ver-
so of one stele of the Jingang jing 金剛經 (Diamond Sutra, Skt. Vajracchedikā-
prajñāpāramitā-sūtra), copied by Helan Minzhi 賀蘭敏之 (643–671) in 665. 23
The Ji Wang shengjiao xu has experienced the constant taking of ink rubbings
at least since the early eleventh century. In the long run, this has proved to be too
invasive for the characters carved on the surface of the inscriptions; by the thir-
teenth century, those characters were already less distinct and then severely dam-
aged by the seventeenth century. Moreover, the inscription broke into two parts
some time between the mid-twelfth and the late fifteenth century due to an earth-
quake that worsened the internal longitudinal crack that was already present in the
stone in the twelfth century. Although the stone was restored after the earthquake,
the two halves were not perfectly aligned, as the upper part was placed slightly
leftwards.
If the constant practice of taking ink rubbings did indeed damage the surface of
the inscriptions, it must be said, though, that at the same time this preserved the
shape of its characters despite the artificial and natural decay of the stone itself. It
is in fact by means of ink rubbings that not only can we appreciate the beauty of
the characters but we are also able to read the text almost in its entirety, as many
parts of the present stone surface are no longer legible. To my knowledge, only ca.
30 early ink rubbings of the inscription exist, and they date from different periods
spanning from the late tenth to the early thirteenth century. Therefore, they were
taken more than three hundred years after the time of its original carving. Still,
especially through four of these ink rubbings, it is possible to admire the vividness
and grace conveyed by the subtle carving of the characters, and hence to get a
glimpse of what the inscription looked like at the time it was erected. Through

22
The stele’s measurements are given according to Luo Feng 2018.
23
Liangjing xinji 3.30. I suggest that the inscription on the verso of Helan Minzhi’s Jingang
jing described by Wei Shu may have been only an experimental trial in the process of the
construction of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu. See De Laurentis 2020b, pp. 59–61. On Helan
Minzhi, see also Chapter Four, note 31.
 INTRODUCTION 11

examining the various published reproductions of ink rubbings, I suggest that the
most representative ink rubbing is one of the several Ji Wang shengjiao xu rub-
bings kept in the Mitsui Memorial Museum (Mitsui kinen bijutsukan 三井記念美
術館) in Tokyo, hereafter Mitsui Ji Wang 1. 24 Therefore, unless otherwise stated,
throughout this book the images of the characters of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu are
taken from the Mitsui Ji Wang 1. When quoting a specific character from the Ji
Wang shengjiao xu or any other from Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies, I will refer to it
with the ordinal number of the column, a slash /, and the ordinal number of the
character in that column (i.e., da 大 1/1).

4. The Sources on the Ji Wang shengjiao xu

The earliest mention of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu is found in Xuanzang’s biog-
raphy Da Tang Daci’en si Sanzang fashi zhuan 大唐大慈恩寺三藏法師傳 (Bi-
ography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Monastery of Compassion of the
Great Tang, hereafter FSZ). As we know from the preface dated April 20th, 688
(Chuigong 4.III.15), 25 written by the monk Yancong 彥悰 ( fl. 650) of the
Hongfu si, 26 the FSZ was written in five juan by Xuanzang’s disciple Huili 慧立
(b. 615 – died after January 677) of the Weiguoxi si 魏國西寺 (Western Monas-
tery of the State of Wei) of the capital around 665 (a few months after Xuanzang’s
death), 27 but did not circulate during Huili’s life. Moreover, according to Yan-
cong himself, 28 different sections of FSZ were kept by different people and had to
be recovered through purchases in the following years. Finally, more than twenty
years after its initial composition, Yancong was then asked to re-edit the text, to
which he also added another five juan covering Xuanzang’s life after he returned

24
Reproduced in Watanabe Takao 1991.
25
Curiously, although the Chinese modern critical edition in its introductory note mentions
688 as the year when Yancong completed his editing and expanding of Huili’s text, it does
not include the date of the completion of Yancong’s preface, which is found in the Taishō
edition of Xuanzang’s biography. FSZ pp. ii, 1. Li Rongxi’s translation follows the Taishō
text.
26
Biography in Zanning’s 贊寧 (919–1001) Song gaoseng zhuan 宋高僧傳 (Biographies of
Eminent Monks [Compiled During the] Song Dynasty) completed in 988, Song gaoseng
zhuan 4.74. Although there he is mentioned as a disciple of Xuanzang from the Daci’en si,
all other sources associate him to the Hongfu si, where he was in the year 661 (Da Tang
neidian lu 大唐內典錄, p. 283b, p. 333a), and where it is credited to have been during the
compilation of FSZ in the 680s (Kaiyuan shijiao lu, p. 564c).
27
Here I follow the dates given in Forte 2005, p. 163. Song gaoseng zhuan clearly states that
Huili arrived in the capital at the end of the Zhenguan reign period (that finished on Febru-
ary 6th, 650), and sought to study with Xuanzang at the Daci’en si. Song gaoseng zhuan
4.74. The Weiguo xi si from 687 to 690 was the official name of the Chongfu si 崇福寺
(Monastery of the Exaltation of Blessings).
28
FSZ, p. iii, Liu Shufen 2009, pp. 9f.
12 INTRODUCTION

to China from Central Asia. 29 When Xuanzang’s biography was completed, the
stele had already been erected for more than fifteen years. However, this is the
very first mention of the stele in any Chinese source.
Xuanzang’s other biographical accounts do not mention the Ji Wang shengjiao
xu, although they reference the Preface and the Note. These are the biographical
sketches included in Daoxuan’s 道宣 (596–667) Xu Gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳
(Sequel to the Biographies of Eminent Monks) (which also records the two texts),
Xuanzang’s “short biography” (xingzhuang 行狀, hereafter Short Biography),
written by Mingxiang 冥詳 (d.u.) before 683, and Xuanzang’s funerary inscrip-
tion, the Da Tang sanzang da bianjue fashi taming 大唐三藏大遍覺法師塔銘
(Inscription of the Stūpa for the Great Dharma Master of Perfect Enlightenment
Tripiṭaka of the Great Tang), composed by Liu Ke 劉軻 (d.u.) and carved on
June 30th, 839 (Kaicheng 4.V.16). 30 In particular, the inscription of 839 was
handwritten by the monk Jianchu 建初 (d.u.) of the Anguo si 安國寺 (Monas-
tery of [the Prince of]) An) in Chang’an, and is clearly similar to the calligraphic
style of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu. 31
The other Tang sources on the inscription are two brief notes recorded, respec-
tively, in Wei Shu’s above-mentioned Liangjing xinji and Zhang Yanyuan’s 張彥
遠 (ca. 817 – ca. 875) famous Lidai minghua ji 歷代名畫記 (Records of Fa-
mous Painters from All Dynasties,) completed in 847.
All the other information we have about the Ji Wang shengjiao xu dates from
the eleventh century onwards, and consists of texts on the history of calligraphy
and collection of colophons, epigraphical catalogs, and geographical works.
Particularly important is one colophon on an ink rubbing of the Ji Wang
shengjiao xu by the court official and calligraphy connoisseur Huang Bosi 黃伯思
(1079–1118), dated May 30th, 1114 (Zhenghe 4.IV.24), and included in his post-
humous collection Dongguan yulun 東觀餘論 (Scattered Records of the Palace
Library Assistant). Not only is Huang Bosi’s comment one of the first on the in-
scription that we are aware of, but it also contains an earlier reference to the
words of the calligraphy expert Zhou Yue 周越 ( fl. 1030), which are thus to be
considered the earliest judgement on the calligraphy of the Ji Wang shengjiao
xu. 32

29
Huili’s first intent was to recount Xuanzang’s travels to India in search of Buddhist scrip-
tures, as is clearly attested in his biography in Song gaoseng zhuan 17.413. From this attes-
tation, scholars have inferred that Yancong added the other five juan relating to Xuanzang’s
life from his return to China in 645 until his death in 664. FSZ, pp. ii–iii.
30
Xu Gaoseng zhuan, T 50.2060, pp. 456a–457b; Da Tang gu sanzang Xuanzang fashi
xingzhuang 大唐故三藏玄奘法師行狀 (Short Biography of the Late Dharma Master Tri-
piṭaka Xuanzang of the Great Tang), T 50.2052, p. 218a; Zhou – Zhao 1992, pp. 2184–
2187.
31
Rubbing reproduced with the title Xuanzang taming 玄 奘 塔 銘 (Stūpa Inscription of
Xuanzang) in Beijing tushuguan jinshi zu 1989–1991, vol. 31, p. 43.
32
Dongguan yulun, in ZGSHQS, vol. 1, p. 878.
 INTRODUCTION 13

The earliest mention of the stone itself in epigraphical sources is found in Zhao
Mingcheng’s 趙明誠 (1081–1129) Jinshi lu 金石錄 (Records on Metal and
Stone Inscriptions), whereas the most complete account on the inscription is Wang
Chang’s 王昶 (1724–1806) Jinshi cuibian 金石萃編 (Selected Collection of
Metal and Stone Inscriptions) of 1805, which also records other relevant epigraph-
ical sources. 33
Another key source is Luo Tianxiang’s 駱天驤 (ca. 1223 – ca. 1300) Leibian
Chang’an zhi 類編長安志 (Arranged Edition of the Gazetteer of Chang’an),
completed in 1296. This geographical work also contains a section on stone in-
scriptions, where we find the earliest mention of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu being
placed at the Confucius Temple, in the premises of what is now the Xi’an Beilin.
Finally, from the viewpoint of calligraphy connoisseurship and rubbing ap-
praisal, the main traditional source is Wang Shu 王澍 (1668–1743), who viewed
110 ink rubbings of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu datable to the Song dynasty during
his several years in Beijing.
As to modern studies, an important reference is Nakata Yūjirō’s discussion in
his 1970 collection of essays on calligraphy.34 Zhang Yansheng’s Shanben beitie
lu 善本碑帖錄 (Records of Refined Ink rubbings of Stone Inscriptions and Cal-
ligraphy Model-Books) published in 1984 is a seminal work for the appraisal of
stone inscriptions, 35 but unfortunately does not take into account ink rubbings in
Japanese collections. A more detailed study is that published by the Japanese
scholar Itō Shigeru in 1998 and then published by the official journal of the Xi’an
Beilin, Beilin jikan 碑林集刊 (Collected Publications of the Beilin Museum), in
2000. 36 A thorough study of the inscription’s decorative engravings as well as of
the stone’s present condition is found in a recent article by the director of the
Ningxia Archaeological Bureau, Luo Feng, who presented his first draft to the
workshop on Buddhism, calligraphy, and politics in medieval China that the pre-
sent author organized at Fudan University in June 2017. 37 Another recent study
on the calligraphy of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu is that published by the Japanese
scholar Endo Masahiro in 2016.
With regard to Western studies, Taizong, Gaozong, and Xuanzang are well-
known figures, 38 and perhaps it can be said that Xuanzang is even popular to the
general public. 39 However, despite the immense credit the calligrapher Wang

33
Jinshi cuibian 49.13a–23a.
34
Nakata Yūjirō 1970, pp. 267–277.
35
Zhang Yansheng 1984, pp. 113f.
36
Itō Shigeru 1998 and 2000.
37
Luo Feng 2018.
38
On Taizong, see, for instance, Fitzgerald 1933; Chen, Jack 2010. On Gaozong, see Twitch-
ett – Fairbank 1979, pp. 236–289.
39
On Xuanzang, see Julien 1853; Waley 1952; Wriggins 2004. Xuanzang’s personage was
also made popular through the Monkey, Arthur Waley’s abridged translation of the Ming
novel Xiyouji 西遊記 (Journey to the West).
14 INTRODUCTION

Xizhi is still given in China and Japan, Western Sinology has expressed very little
interest in his calligraphy. As early as 1933, the Finnish-born Swedish scholar of
Chinese art Osvald Sirén (1879–1966) claimed that “[n]o artist in China has, as a
matter of fact, become the object of a more universal admiration than Wang
Xizhi.” 40 Given his importance, one would expect Western scholarship to treat
Wang Xizhi with some interest. If we consider that the Song literatus, artist, and
connoisseur Mi Fu 米芾 (1051–1107) has no less than five monographs devoted
to him, 41 the Tang calligrapher Sun Guoting 孫過庭 (ca. 647 – ca. 690) has
three, 42 and other Tang calligraphers such as Zhang Xu 張旭 (ca. 675–759),
Huaisu 懷素 (b. 737), and Yan Zhenqing 顏真卿 (709–785) have one each, 43 it
is bewildering that, as of 2020, no book in any Western language has been devot-
ed to Wang Xizhi. The only exception is Friedrich Bischoff’s idiosyncratic study
of Wang Xizhi’s most famous work, the Lanting xu 44 and its relevant poems, the
Lanting shiji 蘭亭詩集 (Collection of the Poems [Composed at the] Orchid Pa-
vilion), although Bischoff’s study focuses only on its literary content and not on
its calligraphic value. 45
To my knowledge, the earliest reference to Wang Xizhi in a Western language
is James Summers’s (1828–1891) A Handbook of the Chinese Language (1863), in
which, however, he is not mentioned for his calligraphic skill, but for being the
author of the Qianziwen 千字文 (Thousand Character Text). 46 The first refer-
ence to Wang Xizhi as a calligrapher is found in Alexander Wylie’s (1815–1887)
Notes on Chinese Literature (1867), 47 whereas his first biographical sketch, albeit
extremely short, is found in William Mayers’s (1831–1878) A Chinese Reader’s
Manual (1874), 48 which was shortly afterwards followed by Angelo Zottoli’s
(1826–1902) biographic outline of Wang Xizhi in Latin. 49 Herbert Giles’s (1845–
1935) A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (1898) has a slightly longer introduction
to Wang Xizhi’s life. 50

40
Sirén 1933, p. 3.
41
Van Gulik 1938; Vandier-Nicolas 1963 and 1964; Ledderose 1979; Sturman 1997.
42
Goepper 1974; Chang – Frankel 1995; De Laurentis 2011b.
43
Hsiung Ping-ming 1984; Schlombs 1998; McNair 1998.
44
Preface first translated into Latin by Angelo Zottoli (1826–1902) under the title “Ad or-
chideae absidem conventus proemium.” Zottoli 1879–1882, vol. 4, pp. 295–297.
45
Bischoff 1985. Bischoff considered the gathering at the Orchid Pavilion as a homosexual
orgy and read the poems accordingly. See Christoph Harbsmeier’s criticism in Harbsmeier
1995, p. 326, note 127.
46
Summers 1863, p. 9.
47
Wylie 1867, p. 108.
48
Mayers 1874, p. 240.
49
Zottoli 1879–1882, vol. 4, p. xi.
50
Giles 1898, pp. 821–822.
 INTRODUCTION 15

The earliest specific mention of Wang Xizhi as a calligrapher is found in John

Chalmers’s (1825–1899) article entitled “Chinese Running Hand” (1879). 51 In
addition, Stanislas Millot’s ( fl. 1900) dictionary of the Chinese cursive script,
Dictionnaire des formes cursives des caractères chinois (1909), refers to Wang
Xizhi as the most authoritative guide for the study of that script. 52
Some decades later, in the 1930s, despite the first histories on Chinese callig-
raphy in English and French being published, 53 Wang Xizhi was still treated
briefly without any insight into the calligraphy or the man. 54
A considerable move forward in the study of Wang Xizhi in the West was
made when the German scholar Roger Goepper published a biography of Wang
Xizhi in German (1972). 55 In 1979, another German scholar, Lothar Ledderose,
produced an introduction to Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy, albeit based mainly on the
contributions of Chinese and Japanese scholars, in his book on Mi Fu,56 and in
1984 he published a scholarly article on Daoism and calligraphy during the period
of the Six Dynasties (220–589), in which he also treated the figure of Wang
Xizhi. 57
More books on Chinese calligraphy have been published from the late 1980s
onwards, 58 and since the late 1990s more detailed articles on Wang Xizhi have
also begun to appear in journals and collection of essays. 59 However, despite
some of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies being the object of scholarly articles, none of
them has addressed the calligraphic quality of these works.
American scholarship has often focused on one single work attributed to Wang
Xizhi, the Xingrang tie 行穰帖 (usually translated as “Letter on Ritual to Pray
for Good Harvest”), now in the collection of the Princeton University Art Muse-
um, and as a consequence this calligraphy has been often used as a cover for
American publications on Chinese calligraphy.60 This work has been generally

51
Chalmers 1879, p. 303.
52
Millot 1909, p. 7.
53
Driscoll – Toda 1935; Yang Yu-hsun 1937; Yee, Chiang 1938.
54
Perhaps the only feature worth a mention is that Yang Yu-hsun’s work reproduces for the
first time in the western world the tracing copy of one of Wang Xizhi’s masterpieces, the
Sangluan tie 喪亂帖 (Sangluan Letter). Yang wrongly places it in the Beijing National Pal-
ace Museum rather than in the imperial collection of Japan. See Yang Yu-hsun 1937, p. 66,
pl. x no. 25 ter.
55
Goepper 1972.
56
Ledderose 1979.
57
Ledderose 1984.
58
Billeter 1989; Tseng Yuho 1993; Escande 2003.
59
E. Wang 1999; Harrist 1999 and 2001; Lauer 2012; Kern 2015; Lu Hui-wen 2017.
60
Fu Shen 1977; Liu – Ching – Smith 1999; Ouyang – Fong 2008. Reproduction on the offi-
cial webpage of the Princeton University Art Museum: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/
collections/objects/35203 (accessed January 11, 2021).
16 INTRODUCTION

regarded as an authentic work by Wang Xizhi,61 although other scholars have

expressed more skeptical views about its calligraphic style. 62
Recently, another calligraphy only partly representative of Wang Xizhi’s calli-
graphic style, the Kuaixue shiqing tie 快雪時晴帖 (Kuaixue shiqing letter, Taipei
National Palace Museum), 63 has been the object of a publication by Birgitta Au-
gustin. 64 Yet despite very detailed coverage of the history of this calligraphic
piece, including its later reception, the article does not address any issues con-
cerning brushwork.
In addition, it should be said that the French scholar Yolaine Escande has pub-
lished the French translation of three texts attributed to Wang Xizhi (only the first
of which is authentic), which perhaps should have been equipped with more philo-
logical and interpretative annotations. 65
Despite these articles’ lack of insight into brushwork, however, Western Si-
nology has produced more results from the perspective of literary studies, such as
Antje Richter’s research on epistolary culture, which is useful for understanding
the language and cultural milieu of Wang Xizhi’s times. 66 Another valuable con-
tribution of traditional Sinology is the biographical and bibliographic outline by
David Knechtges, which, along with other recent scholarly articles, 67 gives the
Western reader reliable information on aspects of Wang Xizhi’s life.
With regard to the central theme of the present book, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu,
however, we find almost no trace in Western scholarship, with the exception of
very few cases. Lothar Ledderose mentions this inscription in his book on Mi Fu
and the classical tradition of Chinese calligraphy without quoting any primary
sources, apparently relying exclusively on Japanese sources. 68 Kenneth Starr
eventually reprised Ledderose’s words. 69
Furthermore, Eugene Y. Wang in his essay entitled “The Taming of the Shrew:
Wang Hsi-chih (303–361) and Calligraphic Gentrification in the Seventh Centu-
ry” 70 discusses the canonization of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy during the seventh
century. In an article of this kind, the reader would expect Eugene Y. Wang to
have analyzed in detail the most evident of all cases of canonization of Wang

61
SDZS, vol. 4, p. 168; Fu Shen 1977, pp. 5–8; Nishikawa Yasushi 1991, vol. 1, p. 224; Liu
Tao 1997b, p. 360.
62
Nakata Yūjirō 1974, p. 221; De Laurentis 2019c, pp. 176f.
63
Both the configurations of characters and the modulations in brushwork are much less subtle
and varied than in other tracing copies of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies. Liu Tao 1997b, p.
357.
64
Augustin 2017.
65
Escande 2003, pp. 157–175.
66
Richter 2010; Richter – Chace 2017.
67
Knechtges – Chang 2010–2014, vol. 2, pp. 1257–1262; Kieser 2011; Swartz 2012.
68
Ledderose 1979, p. 14.
69
Starr 2008, pp. 22–24.
70
E. Wang 1999.
 INTRODUCTION 17

Xizhi’s calligraphy – the Ji Wang shengjiao xu. Quite surprisingly, though, Eu-
gene Y. Wang does not mention this stele, albeit he discusses the inscription on
two stones onto which Chu Suiliang copied the texts of the Preface and the Note. 71
After the present book was completed, the author was made aware that Ruth
Sheng at the University of Florida had defended a doctoral thesis on a similar sub-
ject in 2011. 72 The thesis is entitled “The Development of Chinese Calligraphy in
Relation to Buddhism and Politics during the Early Tang Era,” and consists of
seven chapters for a total of 233 pages. It covers a great range of topics, including
chapters such as “Religious and Political Uses of Calligraphy from Antiquity
through the Six Dynasties,” “Buddhist Steles in the Early Tang Dynasty,” “Bud-
dhist Scriptures and Dunhuang Manuscripts,” “Buddhist Sutra Copyists and Sutra
Copying Style,” and finally an English translation of Taizong’s Preface. Despite
this breadth of topics, Sheng’s examination relies basically on secondary sources
and provides only a general picture of a much more articulated scenario, which
would have required a more thorough implementation of primary sources.
Recently, a book in English by the Chinese scholar Xue Lei 薛磊 has tried to
shed light on the Daoist inscription Yihe ming 瘞鶴銘 (Eulogy for Burying a
Crane), 73 a long-debated calligraphic work dating from the early sixth century.
Xue’s study is stimulating in advancing new interpretations of the rather obscure
content and context of this inscription; but given the arduous goal of examining an
inscription whose exact historical background and physical data are almost impos-
sible to reconstruct, Xue’s book avoids any enquiry into the archeological and
paleographic issues involved with inscription itself, taking for granted the tradi-
tional scholarship that has so far provided the basic framework in which any in-
terpretation of the inscription is made. Despite considerable insight in literary and
religious sources, Xue’s book pays little attention to calligraphic technique per se,
and only briefly discusses the inscription’s artistic features. Therefore, it is clearly
not intended as a traditional work on the history of calligraphy, but as an investi-
gation of calligraphic culture within the milieu of Chinese literati.
As the present book was entering the final editing phase, I was informed that
the Taiwanese scholar Tsui Chung-hui 崔中慧 had published a monograph on
Chinese calligraphy and early Buddhist manuscripts.74 The main theme of Tsui’s
book is the influence that foreign monk-scribes working in westernmost China
during the third and fourth centuries exerted on the development of the standard
script in the so-called “Northern Liang 涼 (397–439) calligraphic style” and its
alleged dissemination eastwards. Tsui’s thesis, though, should have been corrobo-
rated with more evidence, not to mention relevant primary and secondary sources
that should have been examined in more detail. Nevertheless, Tsui’s monograph
provides considerable philological documentation as well as several images of

71
E. Wang 1999, pp. 163–165.
72
R. Sheng 2011.
73
L. Xue 2019.
74
Tsui Chung-hui 2020.
18 INTRODUCTION

Buddhist manuscripts and stone inscriptions from western China not easily
available elsewhere, hence it proves a useful tool for research on early Buddhist
manuscript culture in China.
This book aims at carrying on the line of research of previous studies by deep-
ening our insight of the interrelations between calligraphy, Buddhism, and politi-
cal power in medieval China from the privileged perspective of the Ji Wang
shengjiao xu. In order to do so, it examines in detail the facts about the stele, and
places them into the wider context of the calligraphic, religious, and political mi-
lieu of Taizong’s and Gaozong’s reigns (626–683) in particular, and of medieval
China in general. It thus intends to achieve this goal not just by describing callig-
raphy in its technical terms, but, at the same time, by investigating on a deeper
level its political and religious functions at the apogee of medieval China.

5. The Buddhist Context of the Early Tang

In order to fully appreciate the historical and artistic value of the Ji Wang
shengjiao xu, a few words must be said about the spread of Buddhism during the
Tang. The Tang ruling house explicitly claimed to descend from the mythical
founder of Daoism, Laozi 老子 (Li Er 李耳, 6th c. BCE), on the ground that
they shared the surname Li. However, during the nearly three centuries of Tang
rule, in terms of the number of clergy and adherents, Daoism was much weaker
than Buddhism, both in the capital and in other parts of the empire. During the
Tang dynasty, Chang’an held almost five times more Buddhist monasteries than
Daoist abbeys (guan 觀), 193 vs. 48; in 739, we know that Buddhist monasteries
outnumbered Daoist abbeys by more than three to one across the empire as a
whole (5,358 vs. 1,687). 75 In 845, the fervent Daoist Emperor Wuzong 武宗 (Li
Yan 李炎, 814–846, r. 840–846) launched a drastic anti-Buddhist campaign. As a
consequence, the two capitals Chang’an and Luoyang 洛陽 retained only four
monasteries, whereas the upper prefectures (shangzhou 上州), i.e., the prefec-
tures with a population of over 30,000 people,76 were allowed to keep only one
monastery each. As many as 4,600 monasteries were closed, with 260,500 monks
and nuns being compelled to renounce their vows. 77 The following year, the new
Emperor Xuānzong 宣宗 (Li Chen 李忱, 797–859, r. 846–859) rehabilitated
Buddhism because of its popularity in the empire. Yet the religion could not re-
cover the splendor of the past. 78
A very significant fact is that monasteries spread even more strongly in times
of war, and the ratio between the population and number of monasteries during
Taizong’s reign falling much higher than during the early seventh or eighth centu-
ries. At the end of the Sui dynasty (i.e., late 610s), according to Daoxuan’s Shijia

75
Xiong 2000, pp. 297–320; Tang liudian 4.125.
76
In some cases, smaller prefectures were granted the grade of upper prefectures. Tang liu-
dian 3.73.
77
Jiu Tangshu 18a.604–606.
78
Jiu Tangshu 18b.615. See also Ch’en 1964, pp. 229–233.
 INTRODUCTION 19

fangzhi 釋 迦 方 誌 (Accounts on the Buddhist Regions) of 650, there were

236,200 monks and nuns in China, with a total of 3,985 monasteries (including
nunneries). On the basis of the modern survey Zhongguo renkoushi 中國人口史
(The History of China’s Population), the Chinese population in the year 610 was
46,019,516, but it eventually decreased dramatically during the early Tang, and in
639 it was only 12,351,681. It rose again in the following decades and in 705 it
reached 37,140,000 people, peaking in the years before the so-called An Lushan
安祿山 Rebellion (755–763) with 52,919,309 people. These numbers mean that
during the 610s there was one monastery/nunnery for every 11,548 people, but
this ratio must have been much higher during the 620s, 630s, and 640s. In fact,
due to war campaigns and famine in the first years of the Tang dynasty, the popu-
lation decreased by nearly one third, and even if we speculate that by 649 the
population reached as many as 20 million (from ca. 12 million in 639), the num-
ber of monasteries does not seem to have been severely affected by the population
loss (46 million/20 million people vs. 3,985/3,716 monasteries). In the late 640s,
there was one monastery for every 5,382 people, which is more than double the
ratio of the 610s. The Tang liudian 唐六典 (Six Codes of the Tang) compiled in
739 during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 (Li Longji 李隆基, 685–762, r.
713–756) records a total of 5,358 Buddhist monasteries (vs. 1,687 Daoist abbeys),
but unfortunately says nothing about the total number of monks and nuns. The
population in 740 was 48,134,609, meaning one monastery for every 8,983 peo-
ple. 79
These piecemeal records allow us to infer that Buddhism was more popular in
the troubled times of Taizong’s war campaigns than during the late Sui or
Xuanzong’s time. When Xuanzang returned from India in 645 and started working
on his translation project with Taizong’s support, Tang China was deeply imbued
with Buddhist ideas.
Buddhism greatly favored the manuscript culture of China. Alongside admin-
istration records and Chinese literary texts, from the late fourth century, Buddhist
manuscripts became very popular in China and were de facto the most copied of
all the texts. Historical sources and archaeological evidence alike attest this im-
mense popularity; it was due, needless to say, to the deep impact that Buddhism
had made on Chinese culture, making it, within a few centuries of its arrival, the
most widespread religion in China. 80 The main reason behind the extensive pro-
duction of Buddhist manuscripts in China was that copying Buddhist scriptures, as
well as reciting and reading them, produced merit (gongde 功德, Skt. guṇa) for
Mahāyāna Buddhists and led to a better quality of life in the present and future

79
FSZ 7.153; Li Rongxi 1995, p. 215; Shijia fangzhi 2.122; Tang liudian 4.125; Zhongguo
renkoushi, vol. 2, pp. 130–134.
80
As Kenneth Ch’en points out, after the difficult times of the early third century when Bud-
dhism was very weak in China, in the first half of the sixth century Buddhism flourished
across the empire, and especially in the north, where historical records mention the impres-
sive number of two million monks and nuns. Ch’en 1964, pp. 203f.
20 INTRODUCTION

lives. Merits are positive imprints left on the mind by virtuous actions, which ac-
cording to Buddhist belief can cause happiness that will lead to enlightenment.
This was the primary religious background in which the Ji Wang shengjiao xu
took root and is of the utmost importance for our understanding of the causes of
the construction of the inscription.

6. Originals, Copies, and Forgeries in Wang Xizhi’s Calligraphies

Although Wang Xizhi has long since been the most revered of all calligraphers in
East Asia, no original work in his hand remains. The natural perishability of pa-
per, worsened by accidental fires and wars, as well as the dearth of stone inscrip-
tions from the area where Wang Xizhi lived, have resulted in only a few originals
of his calligraphic works being available during the Tang period. Although the
imperial collection of the Sui 隋 (581–618) dynasty, too, held a considerable
number of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies, it is very likely that the majority were
tracing copies (see Section 1.3.2). As a matter of fact, most of the calligraphies
Taizong purchased in the 620s–640s consisted of copies. It goes without saying
that in any manuscript tradition the preservation of written documents depends on
their reproduction. Medieval China relied heavily on copies, and in fact Robert
Harrist has even claimed that Chinese calligraphy “is copies, all the way down.” 81
Copies were of two kinds: duplicative tracing copies (moben 摹本) and imita-
tive free-hand copies (linben 臨本). A tracing copy is the exact drawing over the
contours of the original’s characters, implemented on a superimposed piece of
transparent paper, and the quality of the copy depended mainly on the quality of
the materials used and on the accuracy of the person(s) involved in the work. By
contrast, free-hand copies are the result of the calligrapher’s personal skill in con-
sciously imitating the original, and although the result can be extremely close, it
will never be an exact copy.
Since these two types of copies’ faithfulness to their originals could vary con-
siderably, either because of inaccuracies in the reproducing process or because the
original sources could be spurious, Taizong tasked Chu Suiliang with putting the
imperial collection in order and assessing the authenticity of these calligraphic
works, and his Youjun shumu 右軍書目 (List of [Wang] Youjun’s Calligraphies)
is a partial outcome of his inspection. 82 It should be stressed, though, that tracing
copies are not necessarily a serious demeaning of the aesthetic quality of the orig-
inals. We know from Yu He’s 虞龢 ( fl. 470) Lunshu biao 論書表 (Memorial on
Calligraphy) that the imperial collection of calligraphies of the Liu-Song dynasty
comprised tracing copies, which were produced by painstakingly outlining the
contour of brushstrokes with extremely fine brushes on specially-treated paper, so
that the copies could preserve even the most subtle shapes of the characters. 83 The
Tang bureaucratic systems even had tracing copyists (tashu shou 搨書手) who

81
Harrist 2001, p. 179.
82
Nakata Yūjirō 1974, pp. 187–191.
83
See Lunshu biao, in Fashu yaolu 2.39.
 INTRODUCTION 21

worked in various agencies, and it is thanks to some of them that many calligraph-
ic works of the Six Dynasties have been preserved to our day.84 However, tracing
copies do not always equal a complete replication of the original. As Yu He ex-
plains, during the process of tracing “incomplete characters (baizi) were restored,
without losing their [original] style, and the vividness of the ink was even clear-
er.” 85 If tracing copies guarantee a high degree of resemblance with the original,
free-hand copies pose more problems of faithfulness and authenticity, as they may
be the result of an attempt to reproduce the original work or simply of acquiring
its style by imitation. This means that there may be considerable degrees of dif-
ference between the originals and the imitative copies, depending on the calligra-
pher’s skills. For instance, Chinese sources even state that there were indeed sev-
eral people capable of producing “perfect imitations” (luanzhen 亂真, lit.: [copies
able to be] confused with the originals).
At the same time, though, these copies may also be the result of the conscious
will of re-interpreting the original work according to the so-called practice of
“conceptual imitation” ( yilin 意臨), regardless of the calligrapher’s skills. Given
these diverse conditions, it goes without saying that it is extremely difficult to
draw a sharp line between what is “authentic” and what is “spurious” in the re-
ceived tradition of calligraphic works on paper. What is certain, however, is that
conscious attempts at forging autographs were popular as early as the first part of
the fifth century. 86 In addition, the Chinese scholar Zhang Tiangong has pointed
out the fact that the Emperor Wudi 武帝 (Xiao Yan 蕭衍 (464–549, r. 502–549)
of the Liang 梁 dynasty (502–557) believed that some of the calligraphies that
Wang Xizhi produced in the “declining years of his life” (monian 末年), which
he stored in his collection, were not written by the great master himself but were
produced by someone whom Wang Xizhi entrusted with writing in his name, per-
haps because his health had worsened. In one letter to the Daoist hermit and con-
noisseur of calligraphy Tao Hongjing 陶弘景 (456–536), Emperor Wudi did
mention the name of this kind of “ghost calligrapher,” but unfortunately only
Tao’s reply has been recorded. Apparently, due to the poor quality of these callig-
raphies the people of the early sixth century disregarded Wang Xizhi’s calligraph-
ic art in the final years of his life, and so Tao Hongjing explains that Wang Xizhi
is not to be blamed at all for these calligraphies, as they were not his own crea-
tions. 87 Considering this piecemeal but very significant evidence, it is perfectly
clear that a great deal of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies cannot be considered the

84
See De Laurentis 2014b.
85
今搨書皆用大厚紙，泯若一體同度，翦截皆齊，又補接敗字，體勢不失，墨色更明.
Lunshu biao, in Fashu yaolu 2.39.
86
This is the case for Liu Yizong 劉義宗 (d. 444), whose collection of calligraphic works
was filled with fakes fabricated with malicious intent by imitating the style (moxue 摹學) of
famous calligraphers. Lunshu biao, in Fashu yaolu 2.37.
87
Zhang Tiangong 2009, p. 316; Tao yinju you qi 陶隱居又啟 (Further Memorial by the
Hermit Tao), in Fashu yaolu 2.54.
22 INTRODUCTION

product of the great master’s calligraphic hand. Therefore, we should keep in

mind that forgeries and imitation were quite common in medieval China, also
considering the profit that could be made by selling works attributed to Wang
Xizhi. Accordingly, the majority of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphies collected during
the Liang were lost in 555; 88 it is hence very likely that a considerable number of
works that Huairen consulted were copied, either by tracing or as free-hand copies,
and that many of them were even forgeries.
Huairen’s collated characters thus bear different degrees of resemblance with
Wang Xizhi’s original calligraphic style: first of all, because the sources from
which he collated the characters were not necessarily originals, strictly speaking;
secondly, because Huiren did process, at least to some degree, the contour of
Wang Xizhi’s characters, either because the originals were damaged or because
the monk consciously adapted some characters for the sake of stylistic consistency
and aesthetic efficacy.

7. The Ji Wang shengjiao xu as a Work of Calligraphic Art

Any Chinese character needs to be written out in one of the scripts that constitute
the Chinese writing system in order to be properly visualized. These scripts are
commonly regarded as five: 89 the zhuan 篆 (usually translated as “seal” but bet-
ter left untranslated), a general term that comprises all pictographic scripts in use
between the fourteenth and third century BCE, as well as the official script of the
Qin 秦 dynasty (221–206 BCE), the “lesser zhuan” (xiaozhuan 小篆); the cleri-
cal (lishu 隸書), the official script of the Han 漢 dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE),
arisen in the third century BCE; the standard (kaishu 楷書), the dominant form of
script since the fourth century, emerging at the end of the Han period, which was
used to design typographic fonts from the tenth century onwards; the semi-cursive,
which is almost contemporary to the standard script and has been the favorite
script in everyday written communication; the cursive (caoshu 草書), which ap-
peared in the first century BCE and is a very synthetical form of the clerical and
standard scripts.90

88
Emperor Wudi’s son, Emperor Yuandi 元帝 (Xiao Yi 蕭繹, 508–555, r. 552–555),
burned his collection of 140,000 juan of books along with calligraphic works of the Two
Wangs, just before being captured and killed by the Western Wei 魏 (535–557) troops in
the capital Jingzhou 荊州 in 555. Er Wang deng shulu, in Fashu yaolu, 4.147.
89
The most comprehensive dictionaries of the shapes of Chinese characters are the volumes
published by the Wenwu 文物 (Cultural Relics) publishing house, arranged according to
the five scripts, namely Zhuan zi bian 篆字編 (Collection of Characters in the zhuan
Script), Li zi bian 隸字編 (Collection of Characters in the Clerical Script), Kai zi bian 楷
字編 (Collection of Characters in the Standard Script), Xing zi bian 行字編 (Collection of
Characters in the Semi-Cursive Script), and Cao zi bian 草字編 (Collection of Characters
in the Cursive Script). A condensed version of these volumes called Wuti Hanzi leibian 五
體漢字類編 (Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters in the Five Scripts) was al-
so published.
90
For a general view of the transformation of the Chinese writing scripts, see Qiu Xigui 2000.
 INTRODUCTION 23

Each of the five scripts of the Chinese writing system differ in the way the
shape of characters is configured, with the standard and the semi-cursive being the
most readable and popular ones (see Plate 2). These scripts have come out in dif-
ferent epochs and follow a diachronic development that goes from the zhuan to the
standard, covering a period of at least one and a half millennia. Scholar divide
them into two groups: the zhuan script and the other archaic scripts belong to the
ancient stage of the Chinese writing system, whereas the clerical, standard, cur-
sive, and semi-cursive scripts belong to the modern stage. At the same time, tradi-
tional Chinese literati have also used the five scripts synchronically, often combin-
ing more than one script in the same handwriting specimen. 91 Men of letters in
China have thus long since dedicated extreme care to the graphic outlook of their
handwritten texts. Nowadays, however, most of these scripts are used only for
calligraphic purposes.

Plate 2: Character shu 書 in the zhuan, clerical, standard, semi-cursive, and cursive scripts
(from Zhongguo beike quanji, vol. 1, Tang Ouyang Xun shu Jiuchenggong liquan ming, Mitsui
Ji Wang 1, and Zhongguo fashu quanji, vol. 3)

A popular saying recorded in Yan Zhitui’s 顏之推 (531 – ca. 590) Yanshi jiaxun
顏氏家訓 (Family Instructions of Mr. Yan) states that “a letter (chidu) or a me-
morial is like the face and eyes [of the sender] shown from a distance of a thou-
sand miles.”92 This reflects medieval China’s belief that handwriting had a strong
visual impact on the eyes of any learned man who pictured in his mind the face of
the person whose handwriting was in front of him. The adage can be also seen as
the forerunner of the popular modern saying “[handwritten] characters look like
the person [who wrote them]” (zi ru qi ren 字如其人). Using Wang Xizhi’s char-
acters to create a brand-new work, as in the case of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu, did
in fact imply that Wang Xizhi manifested himself, and not just his calligraphy, in
the inscription.
The fact that over three hundred years after Wang Xizhi’s death people had the
idea of using his characters to compile a brand-new text is in itself astonishing. If
we extend our perspective to Western art, the comparisons are even more startling.
Let us hypothesize that parts of the sculptures created by the great Greek sculptor

91
Typical is the case of the heading of stone inscriptions written in the zhuan script and the
text of the inscription either in the clerical or the standard, or, as seen in Plate 3 in Chapter
Two, the heading in the clerical and the text in the cursive.
92
尺牘書疏，千里面目也. Yanshi jiaxun jijie 7.567. Slightly different translation in Teng
Ssu-yü 1968, p. 198.
24 INTRODUCTION

Phidias (ca. 490 – ca. 430 BCE) were used to assemble a new sculpture, or that
portions of Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) paintings were re-adapted for a new
painting; or even that different motifs from Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685–1750)
music were mingled together into a new composition. I venture that these enter-
prises would hardly be regarded as works of art, but in all likelihood would count
as artistic divertissements at best. What a group of Chinese monks did in the sec-
ond half of the seventh century with Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy, though, was exact-
ly a conscious endeavor to create a new work of art with “pieces” belonging to
different compositions dating from different phases of Wang Xizhi’s life, but also
presumably including posthumous forgeries. Theirs was not at all a calligraphic
divertissement, but a pioneering and refined work of art, which eventually became
one of the most popular calligraphic works of all time.
As a matter of fact, the only cases of successful “assemblage” in Western art
are the sculptures restored during in the eighteenth century by Italian artists such
as Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716–1799), Pietro Pacilli (1720–1772), Carlo Albacini
(ca. 1734 – ca. 1813), and others. 93 This amalgamation of different unrelated or
loosely related elements is called pasticcio (French, pastiche), but it is more
common in music than in other art forms.94 However, two very famous cases are
two Roman copies of Greek statues, the Townley Discobolus, held at the British
Museum since 1805, and the Barberini Venus, sold for nearly 8 million British
pounds at Christie’s in London in 2002 to Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali
Al Thani of Qatar (1966–2014). The former statue was a headless torso of the 2nd
century restored by Albacini in Rome after it was purchased by Charles Townley
(1737–1805) in 1792 and then sent to London in 1794. Although Albacini found
another head that was extremely similar to the original in terms of marble quality,
he applied it to the body in the wrong direction (it does not face the disc). Very
likely because his work was so subtle and precise, the British Museum denied this
addition until 1861. 95 The Barberini Venus represents an even more serious case
of manipulation, for it involves the addition of several parts, but especially of a
head that had to be severely reworked to suit the Roman goddess. 96
In Western art history, the conscious attempt at producing a brand-new art-
work from collected elements starts only with the technique of collage, which was
first devised in the early twentieth century European avant-garde. It consisted of a
patchwork from a variety of sources and materials, whose different provenance
appeared very explicitly, and the same overtly different combination of elements
is indeed shared by ransom notes collated with single letters from newspapers and

93
Rossi Pinelli 1981.
94
Enciclopedia italiana, vol. 26, pp. 478–479; Arnau 1961, pp. 51f; Lucie-Smith 1984, p.
141.
95
Jones 1990, pp. 141f. Photograph and other resources accessible online on the website:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-43 (accessed April 22,
2021).
96
Description available online on the website: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-
highly-important-roman-marble-statue-of-3928868-details.aspx (accessed April 22, 2021).
 INTRODUCTION 25

magazines clippings. The intended effect is in fact to look as un-uniform as possi-

ble, so that no one is able to trace the source of the note by detecting a coherent
recognizable style. The aim of the Ji Wang shengjiao xu and other collated in-
scriptions in China is exactly the opposite. Since Huairen, Chinese collators cared
about recreating as realistically as possible the personal style of the calligrapher
(in most cases Wang Xizhi’s semi-cursive), so that the implemented work could
look like a new natural manifestation of that style.
So how could a collated work fully function as a successful work of art in
China, whereas this would have been highly unacceptable in Western art? How is
it possible that some 1,300 years prior to the European avant-garde movement of
the early twentieth century, the Chinese ventured to create a brand-new calligra-
phy out of extant works, thus bringing Wang Xizhi to life again?
This distinctive phenomenon can only be explained through the structural es-
sence of the artistic object in question, in this case Chinese calligraphy, that does
allow such an endeavor. The key factor is that the basic unit of calligraphic ex-
pression, the Chinese character, is much more elemental than any other form of
art in the world. At the same time, though, any single character equally bears the
complete general style of the work, despite the length of the calligraphy’s text. As
a matter of fact, any masterpiece of Chinese calligraphy can be easily identified
by looking at just one of its characters. Not that works from other forms of art
cannot be detected from their parts or details. One would easily recognize Leo-
nardo’s Mona Lisa by simply looking at the eyes in the portrait, but this would not
be possible by looking at other less distinctive details, such as a particular spot in
the background or parts of her dress. By contrast, in calligraphy each character is
equally a bearer of the complete style of a work, be it the first or the last charac-
ter.
The author has claimed that on the basis of semiotic analysis, Chinese calligra-
phy at its best is a system of non-articulated visual signs, which means that any
well-made calligraphic work cannot be reduced to a set of elementary units which,
combined all together, assemble in successive order brushstrokes, characters, and
columns in a final coherent work. 97 Rather, a well-made work of Chinese callig-
raphy is the result of the balance of visual richness and overall uniformity that
takes place in an unbroken and dynamic flow from the very beginning of the first
stroke composing the starting character of the initial column. Such dynamic flow
is achieved by the “lifting and raising of the tip of the brush” (qifu 起伏), which
produces extremely varied and vivid modulations of brushstrokes. By contrast,
Chinese characters in their typographic realization are regarded as signs made up

97
A brushstroke refers to any constitutive element of a handwritten character in any of the
scripts of the Chinese writing system. The most famous set of elementary units refers to the
eight brush types of the modern form of Chinese characters, as summarized in the so-called
“eight methods of the character yong” ( yong zi bafa 永字八法). The author has addressed
the question of the relationship between strokes and characters, as well as the relationship
between characters and the entire work, in three specific articles (De Laurentis 2010, 2014a,
and 2017).
26 INTRODUCTION

of a small set of only five elementary brushstrokes. 98 This means that calligraphy
is just the opposite of Chinese typographic fonts, in which similar strokes or com-
ponents can be interchanged at will without breaking the original structure of
characters. In exquisite works of calligraphy, brushstrokes and constituent parts
cannot be interchanged without breaking the character structure, although brush-
strokes or radicals in a given character may appear similar to those in others.
This assumption obviously calls into question the legitimacy of Huairen’s col-
lated characters as works of art, on the ground that he worked with characters that
were not interchangeable. In fact, Huairen’s work was the result of an operation
of “calligraphic surgery,” so to speak – it therefore goes without saying that it
does not appear as natural as a spontaneous, historically occurring calligraphic act.
By comparing, for instance, Wang Xizhi’s tracing copies or other historically at-
tested stone inscriptions with the Ji Wang shengjiao xu, it is clear that Huairen’s
collated inscription is less free-flowing, and that he time and again repeats the
configuration of many characters. Nevertheless, if we look at the traditional
method of duplicating – and thus preserving – Chinese calligraphic works on pa-
per, we learn that slight although conscious modifications were still admissible,
not to mention the cases where engravers unconsciously caused modifications
while transferring written texts from paper onto stone. Therefore, when we look
at Huairen’s collated inscription, what we see is not just the mechanical transfer
of characters from different calligraphies into one new framework. Rather, we see
a conscious attempt at implementing these scattered characters for the creation of
a coherent and well-made new calligraphy. But in order to avoid the inscription
appearing repetitive, Huairen had to minimize the number of times an individual
character was used, and therefore had to find a means of transforming them into
vivid expression of spontaneous handwriting. To this end, Huairen aptly modified
several details in the components of characters, either varying the position of brief
strokes or changing their direction by transforming their shapes. The result is
astonishingly positive, for the same character appears at the same time both dif-
ferent and coherent with the style of the whole inscription.
Such a modus operandi should not be considered simply as a manipulative de-
vice. A few years after the Ji Wang shengjiao xu was erected, Sun Guoting in his
Shupu 書譜 (Manual of Calligraphy) of 687 states that “[a]s for the simultaneous
use of various long strokes, for each of them the shape should be different; when
numerous dot strokes are arranged in succession their figure should be diversi-
fied.” 99 Sun Guoting was of course referring to individual calligraphic works, and
not to collated inscriptions. Yet his statement perfectly describes Huairen’s ap-

98
Contemporary dictionaries arrange strokes in a set of five units (一 heng 橫, 丨 shu 豎,
丿 pie 撇, 乛 zhe 折, and 丶 dian 點, which also comprises the right-falling stroke na
㇏), and consider all the other strokes as mere variants of at least one of these five. Fei Jin-
chang 1996, p. vii.
99
至若數畫並施，其形各異。眾點齊列，為體互乖. Annotated translation in De Laurentis
2011b, p. 59.
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 XV
LA CATHÉDRALE

« L’Église, dit l’un, est le théâtre du peuple. La messe est un

drame musical dont la fable n’intéresse plus, mais qui plaît encore
par les formes architecturales, la musique et les cortèges. Je ne
vois, parmi nos arts réels, que la Revue Militaire qui ait autant de
puissance que la messe ; et je crois que cette nouvelle religion, qui
nous emporte, agit encore plus que l’autre, qui nous retient. Ceux
qui veulent être étrangers à l’une et à l’autre n’ont point d’art solide
qui les dispose selon leurs idées par gymnastique et musique. Nos
théâtres profanes sont légers comme leurs toiles peintes ; ce jeu
d’apparences délasse et disperse ; il ne peut mieux. L’Humanité n’a
point de temples. »
« Il faudrait donc, dit l’autre, un théâtre plus solidement planté ;
des décors de pierre convenables pour tout drame humain, et qui
fassent réellement comme un fond de tableau pour le spectacle de
notre vie. Une architecture qui assemble les formes des abris
naturels et celles de nos toits. De puissants échos qui détournent de
crier, et qui ramènent la parole au chant, et le chant lui-même à la
décence. Un lieu pour la méditation commune, d’où soit bannie la
dangereuse Effervescence, qui traîne Violence à sa suite.
Remarquez que le théâtre profane arrive à apaiser cette agitation
qu’il excite, et cela par les signes partout visibles de la Frivolité. Il y a
un ridicule, dans toutes les scènes d’Opéra, dont le spectateur ne
sent pas tout le prix ; c’est ce ridicule qui détourne de croire
vraiment, d’aimer et de haïr vraiment. Ce que la Comédie met en
pleine lumière, afin de rompre le fanatisme par le rire, se trouve déjà
enfermé dans la Tragédie. Ces arts sont bien dits profanes, car ils
usent la foi. Le théâtre de l’Humanité, au contraire, se doit garder du
mensonge, et donc se relier, sans aucun intermédiaire, à l’art de
l’architecte, qui ne sait pas mentir. De nouveau le théâtre sera
temple, et le temple, théâtre. »
« Maintenant, dit le premier, quelle tragédie en ce solide décor ? Il
n’y a qu’un drame, il me semble ; c’est l’esprit humain à l’épreuve, et
harcelé par la nature inférieure. En chacun c’est le seul drame et
c’est la passion essentielle. Mais ce qui n’est que passion n’est plus
rien du tout ; car il n’importe point à la pierre de rouler ou de
s’arrêter. Il faut donc, pour que le drame s’élève, quelque centre de
résistance, quelque génie intérieur qui dise non aux forces, enfin
quelque dieu insulté. Défaite, d’une certaine manière, parce
qu’aucun homme n’achève rien de ce qu’il veut ; mais victoire en ce
sens que toujours l’Esprit est ressuscité. Toujours le juste est vaincu
par les forces, mais toujours la justice garde valeur. La guerre peut
tout contre la paix, excepté de la rendre moins belle. Que le juste
soit méprisé, renié, mis en croix, et adoré, d’un même mouvement
en tous, et d’un même mouvement en lui-même, tel est le drame
humain, sans aucun dieu extérieur. Comédie et Tragédie ont le
même âge que les dieux homériques ; ici la Fatalité règne seule,
sous l’aspect du mécanisme extérieur. Le drame des temps
nouveaux ne fera qu’un avec le nouveau culte. Mais qui l’écrira ? »
L’œuvre est toujours faite avant qu’on y pense. Et le symbole
signifie bien avant qu’on ait songé à le comprendre. Le dieu de
pierre attend.
 XVI
DOGMATISME

J’ai vu peu de discussions réelles dans les assemblées. Quand

les hommes reconnaissent les signes et s’accordent sur les signes,
comme il arrive à la messe, ils goûtent quelque chose du bonheur de
penser. Ne leur demandez pas à quoi ils pensent, ni sur quoi ils
s’accordent ; il leur suffit de s’accorder. Quand ils se donnent le
plaisir d’écouter des disputeurs, ils aiment encore à s’accorder sur
les signes, et à reconnaître les deux thèses rivales d’après leur
habillement accoutumé, souvent aussi d’après leur parure. Par cette
raison, souvent les disputeurs s’en vont contents et l’auditoire aussi.
Mais celui qui invente une nouvelle manière de soutenir une des
thèses déplaît aux deux et à tous.
Il faut comprendre que l’accord est le plus ancien signe du vrai,
et le premier pour tous. Car, puisqu’il faut d’abord apprendre les
signes, chacun commence par s’accorder aux autres, de tout son
corps, et répéter ce que les autres signifient jusqu’à ce qu’il les imite
bien. Selon la nature, imiter un signe ce n’est autre chose que le
comprendre. Un homme s’abrite sur le côté droit d’une route ; je fais
comme lui ; j’ai compris le signe ; non pas tout à fait puisque je ne
sais peut-être pas pourquoi il s’abrite ; mais j’ai compris ce qui
importe le plus. C’est pourquoi un homme simple trouve une sécurité
et un bonheur plein dans les cérémonies où les signes sont encore
revus et confirmés. Il faut commencer par là. Qui ne s’accorde avec
personne ne peut disputer contre personne, ni instruire personne.
L’Église, par une dogmatique sans faiblesse ni concession, posait la
condition préalable de la pensée universelle. Et, quoique je ne me
range point sous l’autorité de l’Église, néanmoins je trouve toujours
plus d’avantages à m’accorder d’abord, et par préjugé, avec l’auteur
que je lis, qu’à disputer au troisième mot. Bref, je me suis toujours
mieux trouvé de vouloir comprendre que de vouloir contredire.
On se fait communément une étrange idée de ce que c’est
qu’une opinion neuve et hardie. C’est toujours une opinion vieille
comme les rues, mais expliquée. Ce qui sort de l’ordinaire, c’est
d’avoir réellement des opinions ordinaires, j’entends de comprendre
les signes communs. De l’accord, faire pensée ; car la marche
inverse est périlleuse, faute de signes. Ainsi qui comprendrait tous
les mots de sa langue, et selon le commun usage, saurait assez. Et
qui comprendrait seulement tous les signes de la messe, il saurait
déjà beaucoup. Car tout signe est vrai ; mais le difficile est de
comprendre de quoi le signe est signe.
 XVII
JANSÉNISTE ET JÉSUITE

Le Janséniste est un ami rude, qui n’a point pitié, parce qu’il ne
regarde pas à votre faiblesse, mais qui frappe toujours à votre
puissance, ce qui est honorer. Redoutable, parce qu’il exige
justement ce que vous ne pouvez pas refuser, qui est que vous
soyez un homme libre. Sa manière d’aider est de ne point vouloir
aider ; car sa maxime principale est que, si l’on ne s’aide point soi-
même, rien ne va. Je le compare à une coupe qui va déborder de
mépris ; telle est sa manière de réconforter. Comme il est assuré que
les moyens extérieurs, qui sont de police et de contrainte, ne
changent point réellement un homme, mais que l’homme seul peut
se changer lui-même par forte résolution, il observe après le coup de
baguette qui avertit, attendant le miracle. Et il ne veut même point
dire, ni laisser entendre, que le miracle lui fera plaisir, car l’homme
se sauverait peut-être pour lui faire plaisir, et cela ne vaudrait rien.
« Il faut, pense-t-il, que votre salut dépende seulement de vous ; et
ce que votre volonté peut, rien d’autre au monde ne le peut faire, ni
la contrainte, ni la pitié, ni même l’amour. » Si vous voulez apprendre
le latin, la musique, la peinture, ou la sagesse, trouvez quelque
janséniste qui sache ces choses. Vous l’aimerez d’abord sans savoir
pourquoi, et peut-être après vingt ans vous découvrirez que lui seul
vous aimait. Forgeron.
 Le Jésuite est un ami indulgent, qui ne compte pas trop sur vous,
mais aussi qui travaille d’approche, et vous prend dans les liens
ténus de l’habitude, ne vous demandant que de sourire d’abord, et
de vous plaire avec lui ; c’est qu’il a éprouvé la faiblesse humaine et
que c’est là qu’il regarde toujours, se disant que les actions finissent
toujours par entraîner l’homme. Aussi que vous fassiez ce qu’il faut
faire avec ennui, ou pour lui plaire, ou seulement par esprit
d’imitation, il n’y regarde guère, prêtant surtout attention au costume
et aux manières, enfin à la grâce extérieure, faute de laquelle
l’homme le mieux doué trébuche sur le premier obstacle. Celui-là,
vous commencerez par croire qu’il vous aime, et par vous faire
reproche de ne pas l’aimer. Seulement, après vingt ans, quand il
vous aura appris à tirer parti même de votre paresse, vous
découvrirez qu’il vous méprise un peu, comme il méprise tout et lui-
même. Or le Jésuite a raison aussi ; car il n’y a point de vie humaine
bien composée si l’on néglige le côté extérieur et les moyens de
politesse. Ayez donc les deux comme précepteurs si vous pouvez, et
ensuite comme amis. Je dis Jésuite et Janséniste parce que ces
mots font portrait. Mais sachez bien que ces deux espèces
d’hommes sont un peu plus anciennes que les ordres chrétiens, les
hérésies et le drame du Calvaire.
 VIII
L’HOMME DE DIEU

L’homme de dieu vient sans avertir, et s’en va de même ; soit

qu’il parle, soit qu’il revive un moment en ses écrits austères, soit
qu’un rude apôtre nous ramène à la doctrine. Et que dit l’homme de
dieu ? Il dit que nulle puissance de ce monde étalé ne mérite
respect ; il dit qu’un César vaut l’autre, et qu’aucune justice ne naîtra
ni par les triques ni par les piques. Que la perfection est toute dans
ce pouvoir invisible de penser et de vouloir, et enfin de se gouverner
soi-même. Que nous sommes comptables premièrement de cette
paix avec nous-mêmes qui dépend de nous. Que nous sommes rois
chacun de notre petit royaume, et qu’en voilà bien assez pour nous
occuper. Que les choses humaines autour de nous, si mauvaises
qu’elles soient, font assez voir une justice redoutable, par toutes ces
passions que l’on voit prises à leur propre piège et par ces flèches
qui reviennent sur l’archer. Qu’on ne recrute que l’envie contre
l’ambition, que la lâcheté contre l’orgueil et la fureur ; que, s’il fallait
choisir, la condition de l’esclave est encore la meilleure, parce que la
nécessité d’obéir nous conduit naturellement à régner sur nous-
mêmes ; au lieu que le lourd devoir de gouverner nous jette hors de
nous et dans les apparences de la justice. Qu’ainsi chacun doit
rester à sa place ; que chacun doit craindre d’avoir et craindre de
pouvoir. Que de toute façon l’épreuve de la souffrance et de la mort
est commune à tous et imposée, non point par quelque César, ce qui
montre assez que notre travail d’homme n’est pas d’écarter
l’épreuve, mais plutôt de la surmonter par la ressource de l’esprit.
Que c’est la même épreuve pour le soldat et pour tous, et qu’il faut
un aveuglement volontaire, c’est-à-dire la plus grande lâcheté de
l’esprit, pour que nous nous trompions là-dessus. Qu’au reste ce
surcroît de maux, si c’en est un, qui vient des hommes est très
évidemment la suite de leurs erreurs, mensonges et convoitises, et
que nul ne peut se permettre de s’en plaindre s’il ne s’est purifié lui-
même.
L’homme de dieu est importun. Il faut pourtant suivre aussi ces
pensées hivernales, faire retraite et carême. Le paysage dénudé
nous y invite. Quand toutes les feuilles sont tombées, le soleil touche
la terre justement en ses points de fertilité. Mais ce n’est qu’un
moment. L’esprit revient là, mais n’y peut rester. Parce qu’il s’est mis
au monastère, s’appliquant à ne respecter que ce qu’il doit
respecter, par cela même il en doit sortir. Comme ce corps vivant
sait bien rappeler l’esprit qui veut s’exiler, ainsi les pouvoirs
excommuniés par le silence de l’esprit appellent au secours ; car
César aussi est l’homme de dieu, et conspire avec tous contre lui-
même. Tout homme veut respect ; et tout homme s’y connaît. Non
pas cette obéissance séparée ; personne n’en veut. Il n’est point de
riche qui cherche seulement la richesse ; tout ambitieux veut
approbation. Et de même j’ai remarqué que celui qui refuse le mieux
n’est pas celui qui se plaint le plus. Tous ces morts n’irritent en effet
que la partie mortelle, et cela ne va pas loin. Mais un mensonge qui
cherche approbation irrite autrement ; est-ce irriter qu’il faut dire ? Il
réveille la partie haute. On a observé pourtant que révolte ne vient
pas tant de misère ; mais on n’en tire point la conséquence qui est
que la sottise est moins supportée qu’aucun autre mal, peut-être par
cet écho en nous-mêmes. Car ces sottises naissent et renaissent en
chacun, par cette âme de vérité qui en doit sortir ; et l’homme de
dieu ne peut pas nous permettre de laisser l’esprit dans ses langes.
Ce ne sont point les actes, ce sont les discours qui nous appellent.
César veut penser ; César, nous sommes de ta suite. Cette
collaboration ne se refuse point.
 XIX
DESCARTES

Le choix de Descartes doit être considéré attentivement. Car il

n’est pas hors de nos forces de deviner une pensée animale et une
âme dominée par les besoins et les appétits dans la mésange, le rat,
le chien ou le bœuf. Cette parenté une fois reconnue, la nature toute
entière est mythologique. Toutes les bêtes sont des esprits déchus ;
dont il faut croire qu’ils peuvent revenir et qu’ils reviennent, quoique
par longs détours, et durement ramenés en arrière par la nécessité
immédiate. Ainsi Ulysse, pensant seulement qu’il pourrait voir la
fumée monter de sa terre natale, voulait mourir ; mais la faim, le
sommeil et l’amour le retenaient dans sa condition d’esclave ; et il
fallut donc quelque pardon des dieux pour que Calypso le laissât
partir. Schelling certes a parlé beau quand il a dit que la nature est
comme l’Odyssée de l’esprit. Mais le difficile n’est pas d’adorer
l’esprit en toutes ses formes ; c’est idolâtrie à proprement parler. Il
n’est permis d’adorer que l’homme ; tel est le sens de ce décret
cartésien qui refuse toute pensée aux bêtes.
Auguste Comte est de la même lignée, purement Occidental
aussi, mais par détour, et par soumission à la nécessité. Car cette
nature tendre et très peu militaire a beaucoup pensé à la pensée des
bêtes, et principalement des bons serviteurs, comme bœuf et chien,
avec lesquels il veut que nous fassions une sorte de société. Mais,
d’un autre côté, la nécessité de chasse et de défrichement, et la
domination de l’homme lui paraît la condition première de cette
société continue sans laquelle il n’y aurait point du tout de pensée.
Rien ne dit que tels animaux, s’ils avaient dominé sur la terre,
n’auraient point formé société aussi, traditions aussi, bibliothèques
aussi ; rien ne dit que l’homme, réduit à une vie isolée et difficile
comme celle du rat et du lapin, aurait plus de pensée qu’eux. Il faut
donc qu’une espèce triomphe, et l’homme trouve le choix tout fait.
Adorer l’humanité seulement c’est une nécessité dure ; mais il faut
virilement l’accepter. Mon semblable, c’est l’homme ; il n’y a de salut
que de l’homme. La tâche est déjà assez difficile. Quand on examine
les formes de l’histoire, les guerres, les supplices et les dieux, on
reconnaît que l’esprit est revenu d’assez loin, par tant de détours et
tant de fois pris au piège. C’est donc l’histoire qui est l’Odyssée de
l’esprit ; et le même Schelling, devenu vieux, a fini par le dire,
bornant ses ambitions, et terminant cette vaine mythologie, fille
d’Orient. L’occidental est athée au fond. En passant de l’Orient à
l’Occident, l’ancien dieu a pris de plus en plus la forme humaine ; et
la marche même du Christianisme, d’abord mystique, puis politique,
ne fait que réaliser son mythe fondamental. Il fallait resserrer cet
universel amour, afin de lui donner puissance ; il fallait mettre hors
de discussion les droits de l’homme par une sorte de décret romain.
Toute pensée se borne de nécessité, ou bien elle perd forme ; ainsi
l’homme écrase sans façon la fourmi et le rat. Le difficile pour un
homme est de rester bon tout en menant cette guerre ; et notre
civilisation offre ce double aspect à chacun de ses pas. Ce que les
Romains traduisaient en disant que le préteur n’a pas souci des
petites choses. Et si un homme fut jamais préteur en sa pensée,
c’est bien Descartes.
 XX
CARDINAUX

On demande si ces cardinaux, si l’ancien pape, si le nouveau

pape croient selon leurs actions et selon leur pouvoir. Mais tout
homme, il me semble, croit selon ses actions et selon son pouvoir.
Dans le même temps sous les yeux du maréchal Joffre, se
déroulèrent d’autres cérémonies et d’autres cortèges ; et le roi
Sisowath, porté sur une litière d’or par cinquante hommes, ne douta
point du tout qu’il fût roi. Toutes les cérémonies font preuve d’elles-
mêmes, et cette preuve suffit. Nous demandons d’autres preuves,
nous autres, parce que nous sommes hors de la cérémonie ;
semblables au spectateur qui se demande pourquoi les danseurs
trouvent tant de plaisir à danser. Un chasseur à pied, millième d’un
bataillon, croit nécessairement pendant qu’il défile.
On voudrait distinguer dans la masse des croyances, et les
examiner une par une, en vue de retenir celle-ci et d’écarter celle-là :
mais la cérémonie ne se laisse pas couper en morceaux ; et la seule
erreur ici est de rompre le cortège. « Que faites-vous, malheureux ?
C’est à droite qu’il fallait tourner. Ici est votre siège, et non ailleurs. »
La faute serait réparée aussitôt, avec repentir et confusion ; mais ces
cardinaux ne se trompent point d’un pas ni d’une génuflexion. Cette
unité de la procession soutient la doctrine. Dès que vous portez la
chape, vous acceptez toutes les broderies. Douter est comme
découdre. Ainsi les costumes bien cousus font preuve, et la
cérémonie bien cousue fait preuve. Comme dans l’exécution d’un
morceau de musique, l’incertitude fait voir l’ignorance ; et c’est tout
ce qu’un cardinal peut penser d’un incrédule. Nous autres nous
voulons toujours en venir à la preuve ontologique et aux attributs de
Dieu ; ce qui a juste autant de place dans la tête d’un cardinal que
les formules balistiques dans la tête d’un colonel d’artillerie. Un
colonel se croit d’abord, et se croit colonel, et se sait colonel ; c’est
une chose qu’il ne se prouve point à lui-même par mathématique. Il
faut prouver en effet que Dieu est, si l’on n’est point cardinal, ou
conclaviste, ou enfant de chœur, ou bedeau ; mais quand on est
cardinal il faut prouver d’abord que l’on est cardinal, ce qui se fait par
geste, rite et majesté ; les autres idées du cardinal tiennent comme
le fil rouge dans le costume.
La plus ancienne forme de religion, autant qu’on peut savoir,
n’enfermait aucune idée, à proprement parler, en dehors du culte lui-
même ; tout le respect allait à la cérémonie, aux costumes, aux
images, au temple. Ce genre de foi ne manquait jamais de preuve,
car il n’y a point de différence entre aimer la danse et savoir danser.
Selon l’ordre véritable ce n’est point la légende qui fonde la
cérémonie, mais au contraire c’est la cérémonie qui porte la
légende. Quant aux subtilités théologiques, elles sont situées encore
bien plus loin de terre. Ce sont des jeux de paroles qui n’intéressent
et ne touchent que par leur relation à la cérémonie. Cet ordre se
trouve renversé dès que l’on vient à mépriser les costumes et les
cérémonies ; ainsi l’esprit protestant est abstrait, discuteur et
dogmatique en même temps ; c’est construire une tour dans les airs.
Au contraire affirmer le culte et affirmer par le culte, c’est terminer
d’abord de vaines discussions, en rétablissant les plus anciens des
dieux, qui sont le Sérieux et l’Importance.
 XXI
DE L’ÉGALITÉ

Parmi ceux qui travailleront à réformer l’enseignement public, je

ne vois personne, il me semble, qui pense selon l’égalité
démocratique. Descartes, Prince de l’Entendement, a écrit que le
bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée ; ce puissant
esprit ne voulait point voir de différence entre les hommes, si ce
n’est pour la facilité de mémoire et les gentillesses extérieures ; mais
j’ai remarqué plus d’une fois que cette pensée n’est point comprise.
Dès qu’un homme l’emporte par ce qu’il a lu ou retenu, ou par l’art
d’écrire ou de parler, il prend ses distances, s’installe dans l’élite
dirigeante, et cherche des seconds et successeurs parmi les brillants
élèves qui lui ressemblent. Au sujet de la masse, nulle autre pensée
que de lui bien apprendre un métier ; la masse est utilisable et
gouvernable, plus ou moins, selon la prévoyance du législateur. Mais
que tous puissent avoir part, et doivent avoir part, à la vraie science
et à la vraie culture, c’est une idée qui ne se montre point. Un haut
personnage disait récemment qu’il importe de ne laisser sans
doctrine aucun de ceux, fût-il berger, qui sont capables de tenir leur
place dans les rangs de l’élite dirigeante. Voilà leur Démocratie. Un
esprit lent et engourdi, sans facilité et sans grâce, est marqué
d’esclavage ; le savoir technique, qui est de l’œil et de la main, est
assez bon pour lui. Utile instrument dans la main du chef.
 Le monde antique instruisait ses esclaves, si on l’entend ainsi ; il
est hors de doute que le petit animal à forme humaine qui montrait
quelque aptitude à la cuisine ou au jeu de la flûte était mis à l’école
près des habiles ; s’il aimait la lecture, l’écriture et la grammaire, il
n’en avait que plus de prix. S’il s’élevait jusqu’à l’intrigue politique, il
pouvait être affranchi, et avoir part aux grandes affaires. Cette loi de
sélection joue encore parmi nous ; et j’ai connu plus d’un esclave
bien doué qui s’approche maintenant de l’Académie. Il y a un beau
livre à écrire sur nos Affranchis, joueurs de flûte ou grammairiens,
attentifs à plaire.
Il est vrai pourtant que l’école moderne a commencé seulement
avec le catéchisme, quand le prêtre eut le devoir d’enseigner au plus
endormi et au plus arriéré justement ce qu’il savait de plus beau.
Nous développons cette grande idée ; mais il s’en faut qu’elle soit
assez en faveur et en lumière. Toujours instruire les plus aptes ;
toujours faire une exacte revue des petits sauvages, afin d’y trouver
des polytechniciens ; les autres seront instruits par procuration,
retrouvant en leurs maîtres leurs égaux d’hier, et assez contents ;
car de quoi se plaindraient-ils ? Il suffit qu’on n’ait point laissé un seul
génie à garder les moutons. Or ce facile problème est résolu,
comme il fut toujours. Mais l’autre est à peine touché, qui est
d’éveiller tout esprit le plus qu’on peut, par les plus hautes et les plus
précieuses connaissances, et de donner plus de soins à l’esprit le
plus lent ; enfin de régler l’enseignement non sur les mieux doués,
mais sur les moins doués. Car le vrai progrès n’est pas en l’esprit
d’un Thalès, mais en l’esprit de sa servante.
 XXII
LE CATÉCHISME

L’Église en son admirable tentative d’universelle réconciliation, se

fondait sur cette idée que les hommes, si différents qu’ils soient par
l’aspect, la force, les aptitudes, et encore divisés par les passions et
les intérêts, ont en commun l’Esprit, qui est justement ce qu’il y a de
plus éminent en chacun d’eux, et qui soutient et porte tout le reste.
Cette idée de l’Humanité Réelle n’était pas inconnue aux grands
Anciens ; elle est impliquée dans Platon, explicite dans Marc-Aurèle.
Mais enfin c’est l’Église qui a tenté pour la première fois sur cette
Planète d’enseigner la Fraternité selon la Fraternité même, c’est-à-
dire à tous, sans considérer la puissance, la richesse ou les
aptitudes. Le Catéchisme est le premier essai de l’École universelle.
Et quoiqu’elle parlât par figures, la doctrine était émouvante et
persuasive par l’idée qui y était cachée, qui n’est autre que l’idée de
l’Esprit Humain. Nos mœurs sont encore, et heureusement
pénétrées et vivifiées de ce puissant système auquel nous devons la
dignité de la femme, l’esprit chevaleresque, et l’idée d’un Pouvoir
Spirituel au-dessus des rois et des nations.
Mais, comme dit Auguste Comte, ce système, d’inspiration droite,
et qui poussa assez loin l’organisation de l’immense famille
humaine, a manqué par le haut. Il est bon de sentir en soi la
communauté humaine ; mais il faut encore pouvoir l’éprouver par le
doute et l’investigation. Faute d’une doctrine démontrable, l’Église
était menacée de deux côtés ; d’un côté par tous les genres
d’inspirés et d’énergumènes, qui devaient proposer et ont proposé
en effet des croyances tout aussi arbitraires et tout aussi peu
vraisemblables que les détails du dogme, surtout pris à la lettre. Et
d’un autre côté l’élite même des penseurs, des organisateurs, des
instituteurs, dont l’Église ne pouvait se passer, devait frapper,
sonder, éprouver la doctrine, d’après ce sentiment de l’Universel qui
les portait énergiquement à la recherche des preuves. Ainsi la
grande idée de l’Église devait périr faute de contenu.
C’est la Science Positive qui a institué le contenu et la preuve de
l’Idée Catholique. Car il est vrai que les hommes s’accordent par le
dedans, et en quelque sorte en puissance ; mais c’est la
démonstration qui les accorde réellement, par le double moyen de la
théorie et de l’expérience. Et il n’est point nécessaire qu’un homme
sache tout et comprenne tout ; il suffit qu’il sache et comprenne bien
une seule chose pour qu’il se sente en cela le frère et le semblable
de tous ceux qui savent et comprennent. Par exemple, pour une
éclipse, ils peuvent tous suivre, à l’heure fixée, le passage de la lune
sur le soleil ; cette prédiction qui s’accomplit, c’est le miracle de
l’esprit. Mais, sans pénétrer jusqu’aux détails la théorie de l’éclipse,
ils peuvent encore se faire une idée suffisante des raisonnements et
calculs qui permettent de prévoir la durée de l’éclipse, l’heure et le
lieu où elle sera visible. Qu’ils remarquent seulement le tour de la
lune d’Ouest en Est parmi les étoiles ; qu’ils le comparent au tour
que fait le Soleil dans le même sens, mais en un an ; ils
comprendront déjà que la lune rattrape et dépasse le soleil, et
qu’ainsi l’éclipse commence par l’ouest. Comparant aussi les deux
vitesses, qui diffèrent l’une de l’autre en gros comme le mois et
l’année, ils calculeront la durée d’une éclipse sans erreur grossière,
assez pour éprouver en eux-mêmes et éveiller en eux-mêmes cette
puissance de penser qui a déjà effacé de ce monde la terreur, la
fureur et les querelles que l’éclipse traînait dans son ombre, et qui
effacera bien d’autres terreurs, fureurs et querelles, à mesure que
les hommes prendront le goût de penser. Ainsi je suivais l’Idée, en
marchant sur des ombres en forme de faucilles, pendant que les
hommes, les uns à travers un verre noirci, les autres dans le reflet
des eaux, regardaient l’Image. L’Esprit de Platon était avec nous.
 XXIII
LE PHARISIEN

Le Menteur, l’Hypocrite, le Vaniteux, le Glorieux, le Matamore,

tous personnages de comédie, sont dépassés de loin par le
Pharisien. Le Pharisien est esquissé dans l’Évangile, plus d’une fois.
Si par réflexion on réunit ces traits dans un contour plus appuyé, on
fait naître un effrayant personnage, essentiellement tragique.
Tartuffe est bien petit à côté. Le Pharisien est un homme qui croit en
Dieu, et qui croit que Dieu est content de lui.
Les fameux bandits qui ne sont pas près d’être oubliés, ne
croyaient à rien du tout ; encore pourrait-on dire qu’ils croyaient au
courage ; aucun d’eux ne se serait pardonné s’il avait hésité devant
l’action difficile. Et pourtant, selon les principes qu’ils voulaient
affirmer, il n’y a point de courage : il n’y a que des forces ; la fuite et
la peur sont naturelles dès qu’elles se produisent, comme l’audace
et la volonté. Je rappelle ici leurs exploits et leurs écrits pour faire
voir qu’il est rare qu’on ne croie à rien. Et tout homme qui se
compare à un homme idéal, par exemple savant, tempérant,
courageux, juste, se trouve aussitôt bien petit.
Mais le Pharisien fait voir cette union incroyable de la religion
ingénue et de l’admiration de soi. Il se veut savant et il se croit assez
savant ; il honore réellement le courage, et il se croit courageux. Il
découvre réellement, profondément, sa conscience devant un juge
qui, d’après lui, sait tout et devine tout, et il prie ainsi : « Seigneur,
n’es-tu pas content de moi ? Ne suis-je pas ton ministre et ton
interprète ? Ne suis-je pas l’Importance ? Fais donc marcher ton
tonnerre, et pulvérise ces gens de rien, car Mon Importance est la
tienne. » Je ne sais si un tel monstre existe. Quelquefois on est
amené à penser qu’il existe au moins par moments ; les flatteries,
les acclamations ont tant de force. On a souvent mal compris
l’humilité Évangélique ; ce n’est sans doute au fond que la volonté
de n’être jamais ce monstre-là.
Les forces de persécution ne s’expliquent guère par la
méchanceté seule. Jésus en prison n’était pas bien redoutable, ni
Jeanne d’Arc à la Tour. Des politiques auraient oublié. Mais
supposez le Pharisien et son Importance, on comprend la Croix et le
Bûcher. Qui offense le Pharisien offense Dieu. « Seigneur, tu es
juste ; tu connais mon esprit et mon cœur. Tu n’aurais pas éclairé ce
pauvre charpentier et cette pauvre bergère. La lumière morale, c’est
moi qui l’ai ; la lumière politique, c’est moi qui l’ai. Toute perfection
agit par moi, par moi et par toute la hiérarchie, et par tous ceux qui la
reconnaissent. C’est pourquoi je n’ai pas le droit de pardonner. »
Ainsi sera brûlé, jeté au vent, solennellement maudit, effacé de la
terre, tout miracle qui n’aura pas suivi la Voie Hiérarchique. Ainsi
l’âme Bureaucratique s’est élevée deux fois jusqu’au sublime qui lui
est propre ; deux fois les Pharisiens ont cru tout à fait en eux-
mêmes. Dans le train ordinaire de l’histoire, ils n’ont que des
mouvements d’humeur, quelquefois éloquents ; mais leur voix
tremble ; je reconnais mieux l’homme.
 XXIV
LE FIGUIER

Il arriva que Jésus eut soif ; il s’approcha d’un figuier et n’y trouva
point de figues. Aussitôt il maudit l’arbre inutile, et l’arbre sécha sur
pied. Or, dit le livre, ce n’était point la saison des figues. Cette
étonnante remarque ne peut venir ni d’un copiste, ni d’un
commentateur ; ces gens-là ne font que des changements
raisonnables. Aussi je ne suppose point ici d’erreur. Tout au
contraire, en ce terrain pierreux, de telles failles et vitrifications,
d’abord inexplicables, me font dire que l’esprit a frappé là. Scandale,
dit le lecteur pieux ; je ne puis comprendre. Patience. Plus grand
scandale quand vous comprendrez.
Il me plaît d’imaginer la défense du figuier. « Pourquoi maudit ?
Je ne me règle point sur votre soif ; je me règle sur les saisons, et
j’obéis à la nécessité extérieure. Image donc je suis, et utile image,
de cette loi qui irrita les impatients. Aussi je me moque des
impatients. Le même Dieu qui a limité les marées est celui qui a
voulu que j’eusse des figues en un certain temps, comme des fleurs
en un certain temps. Je suis l’Ancienne Loi, la Loi de Toujours. » On
reconnaît le discours du Pharisien. Or les figuiers n’ont point cessé
d’obéir aux saisons, et les Pharisiens parlent plus haut que jamais.
Mettez-vous cent mille en cortège et demandez aux Docteurs de
la Loi d’établir enfin la vraie paix entre les nations. Vous entendrez