Comparison of Writing in the Formation of its Purpose

The rubbings of a Buddhist Pagoda on display at the Art Institute of Chicago require much attention in its examination; at first glance, the characters look very neat and sharp, each character with clear strokes and contained within its own space. However, upon closer examination, the alignment, character counterpoise, varied use of exposed tip and hidden tip point to the possibility in the calligrapher’s casual manner of writing. I will analyze the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda in comparison to Chu Suiliang’s Yan Pagoda Prefaces to the Holy Teaching; both works of calligraphy aim to praise those disseminating Buddhist ideas and teachings. In addition, these two works are good for comparison since they had been written during the Tang dynasty .

According to the descriptions in addendum by the Art Institute of Chicago, the long inscription carved into the left side of both slabs states that the family of Jia Heida commissioned this pagoda in honorable devotion to his deceased parents. The work is replete with Buddhist metaphors and allusions to the Buddha’s life, the text opening with a bleak perspective on the physical world and then praising both Buddhist teachings of spiritual redemptions and secular values of Chinese filial devoition. The inscription closes with a prayer extolling Buddhist principles.

A similarity between the two works of calligraphy that stands out are the hints of clerical script in the midst of standard script of the time, the kaishu. Although this does not appear so frequently, the attenuated end tips of strokes appear in characters such as ‘tian 天’ (7th column, 3rd row) and ‘da 大’ (5th column, 12th row). The character ‘da’ also appears in the work of Chu’s (4th column, 1st row). The thickening of the stroke is much more obvious however, and the ending gradually becomes heavier whereas the ‘da’ character in the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda starts much thinner and has a sharp edge at its pivotal point.

The mixed use of exposed tip and hidden tip of the brush appear in both Chu’s work and inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda. However, there is much greater use of the exposed tip in the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda; the characters composing the work are much sharper, have acute angles and the end of the tips bending inward are very sharp as well, which can only be achieved with an exposed tip of the brush. Take the character ‘li’ (6th column, 1st row) in the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda. The very first stroke ends with a sharp, fading edge and as apparent in both vertical strokes, the endings are pointed inwards.

Unlike the imaginary grid-like arrangment of the characters with equal spacing between each character in the work of Chu Suiliang, the characters are all lined up together, without much space in between them. Although the columns are spaced out evenly, the spatial arrangement of each character is rather informal and random. Even the writing along the column on the very right seems (7th column) seems to be slanted to the left as going down. For example, the first four characters of the very last column (‘tian shang tian xia 天上天下’, 7th column, 1st – 4th row) form a continuous flow, almost as if they had been written in one breath. However, at times there are uneven spaces such as a blank spot, almost as if there should have been another character in between ‘shang上’ (3rd column, 8th row) and ‘sheng 圣’ (3rd column, 9th row).

In addition to the irregularity in column and row spacing, there are some characters which look as though they had been written carelessly. Although some characters are perfect in counterpoise, length and thickness of each stroke, characters such as ‘guang 光’ (6th column, 8th row), character of 3rd column, 8th row all have continuous strokes which almost resemble the cursive script. We can also see how these two characters would differ in size if juxtaposed – the character ‘guang’ is much larger than the other character of the 3rd column.

By comparing the repeated characters, we can conclude that the writer has been careless or has been in his intentions to write uncaringly. For example, take the pair of words ‘tian 天’ appearing twice in the same column (7th column 1st row, and 7th column 3rd row). Even within the same column, one character apart, the two characters are very different. The ‘tian’ of 3rd row has much thicker strokes and is bottom heavy whereas the ‘tian’ character of 1st row has much smoother rounder tips of each stroke. Another pair ‘miao 妙’ (5th column 7th row and 5th column 9th row) also look very different. The character of 7th row has much balance to it, where ‘nu女’ (left hand side of the character) and ‘shao少(’ (right) part of each character are of almost the same size, creating a nice balance on each side of the character. Both also have regular modulation of each stroke. However, when comparing this to the ‘miao’ of 9th row, the ‘nu’ is relatively sider with its stroke almost interfering with the space that ‘shao’ is entitled to. The edges of the strokes are also rounder and appear as though they have been written more freely as opposed to the shaper, orderly edges of the ‘miao’ of 7th row.

There are also instances in which the character’s counterpoise has been interrupted or ruined. Consider the character ‘dong動’ of 2nd column, 2nd row. The ‘zhong 重’ portion of the character seems to be well placed, whereas the right hand side portion ‘li 力’ begins lower, about half way down. Although it is questionable whether this had been a mistake on the calligrapher’s part, his carelessness can be seen through his writing.

In my view, the writing composing the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda appears to have been written more casually than that of Chu’s writing due to its purpose. Although both contain praise and admiration of Buddhist teachings and principles, the Buddhist Pagoda was completed for personal reasons, in expressing devotion to Jia Heida’s family. However, Chu’s writing served a political purpose, as an attempt to gain political support of the Buddhist clergy at the time. Thus, the preciseness and neatness observed in Chu’s work fulfills its purpose in satisfying the Buddhist clergy, whereas the relaxed and informal nature of the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda reflect its private purpose.