Religious Writings

Religious calligraphy continued to be of great importance during the Tang. Until the widespread use of printing in China after the Tang dynasty, religious texts were copied by hand. Buddhist texts in particular were copied in great numbers by monks or by individuals. Copies of the entire Buddhist canon were undertaken by imperial decree, and often the work of many individual calligraphers went into the completion of various sutra texts, which could be quite long. When sutra texts were commissioned, it was common practice to have the most talented calligraphers do the first and last scrolls, with the work parceled out to other scribes in between.

How could making or commissioning a handwritten copy of a Buddhist sutra benefit an individual?

ANSWER: Copying a text by hand, or commissioning a copy to be made, were common ways for an individual to gain karmic merit.

What special requirements do you think the copying of a religious text would demand?

MORE: The most important requirement for a sutra text was that of legibility because of its didactic nature and the ultimate purpose of the text. Copyists in general were anonymous scribes who were strictly examined with regard to penmanship, character construction, and their ability to make rapid, distinct, and firm copies of a given text.

The brush used for sutra copying was different in shape from a regular calligraphy brush, with a much shorter tip.

Do you notice a difference in the overall shape of the characters when compared with the secular writings in this unit? What do you think might account for this difference?

Cao Fashou, with others. Northern Wei sutra copy of the Avatamsaka sutra, detail

SOURCE: Cao Fashou, et al, Huayan Jing in Wang Jingxian, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, shufa zhuanke bian, 2: Weijin nanbei chao shufa (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1986), pl. 110, p. 203. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Beijing.

Decorative refinements, such as the use of specially made papers and gold or silver inks, were employed in the copying of religious texts, but rarely occur in secular examples.

What attitudes toward different types of writings might account for this difference?

Who do you think might have commissioned this sutra copy?

HINT: Try to identify the ultimate function and audience for this kind of text.

Tang dynasty Sutra, in gold ink on blue paper

SOURCE: Yang Renkai, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Shufa juanke bian 3: Sui Tang Wudai shufa (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1986), pl. 100, p. 220 Collection of the Suzhou Art Museum.

Shi Weize, Da zhi zhan shi memorial

(736 AD), detail

SOURCE: Yang Renkai, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Shufa juanke bian 3: Sui Tang Wudai shufa (Beijing: Renming meishu chubanshe, 1986), pl. 55, p. 124 (detail) Collection of the Beijing Library.

Tang dynasty Sutra copy, detail

SOURCE: Yang Renkai, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Shufa juanke pian 3: Sui Tang Wudai shufa (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1986), pl. 100, p. 220 Collection of the Suzhou Art Museum.

Compare the two examples of calligraphy above. The sample on the left is a secular memorial inscription and is executed in the clerical script.

Do you see any similarities in style or shape of characters? If so, what do you think might account for the similarities?

ANSWER: The sutra style makes use of an exaggeration of the breaking wave stroke which is a remnant of the clerical script. The sutra style can be considered a derivation of this earlier script type; sutra texts are also characterized by greater uniformity in the way individual characters are constructed, resulting in highly regularized, orthodox forms for some of the characters.