Christie’s New York, Fi꧒ne Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy, 24 M𓆉arch 1998, Lot 34

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紐約佳士得，中國書畫，1998年3月24日，拍品編號34

The Leshan Tang Collection of Classical Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Leshan Tang, Taipei, July 2006, pp. 74-79, 152

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〈樂山堂藏古代書畫〉(臺北，樂山堂，二〇〇六年七月)，頁74-79、152

There are several versions of Dong Qichang's Thousand Character Classic (Qian zi wen) calligraphy. Wu Yong said in his inscription to other piece, "I've collected three volumes of Dong's Thousand Character Classic calligraphic works." They have been housed in various public and private museums, such as the running script version in Nanjing Museum, the regular script version (wrote in 1609) in National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the running script version in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. And the work in pure regular script is extremely rare. The inscription of this piece says, "It takes seven years for me to finish this work, consuming piles of paper". The Taipei version reads, "It takes four years to finish Thousand Character Classic", indicating that he had spent several years to write Thousand Character Classic in regular script. Dong wrote in his Random Notes in the Meditation Room(Huachanshi suibi), "I am most proud of Xiaokai (regular script in small characters)". He continued, "When I was young, I imitated Yellow Court Classic (Huangting jing) and Ode to the Orient (Dongfang zan) to practise Xiaokai. After I saw the authentic works of the Jin and Tang artists later on, I realized that the charm of the ancients brushwork cannot be conveyed by the rubbing. And, "Xiaokai is extremely difficult to practise. When you imitate the copybook, you can only get its appearance,not its essence, because you haven't seen the authentic works of the ancients and haven't got the chance to obtain the essence. In the Song dynasty, Mi Fu was the only one to grasp old charm, but today, on one can do it." This statement reveals Dong's high taste and profound skill in Xiaokai, as well as his opinion that scholars at his time were difficult to get the flavor of ancient calligraphy because of the distortion of the rubbing. The way Dong Qichang broke the barrier is also the source of his study, such as study resembling Zen meditation, and integrating the theory, practice, evaluation, revision and other processes. On the basis of theory, he produced his paintings, evaluated his own works as if reviewing ancient calligraphy, and finally revising them and drawing the conclusion: "In the past, when I wrote Dakai (regular script in large characters) on the plaque, I would imitate the style of Yellow Court and Yueyi, but it's not that good to view from afar. Then I realized that whe🦹n I write in Xiaokai, the characters sho🧸uld be able to expand as large as ten feet square so as to show its momentum; while writing big characters on the plaque should be like writing the small ones, being free, bold and unrestrained." It means that Xiaokai should expand to show its momentum, and Dakai should be free and unrestrained to obtain the momentum.

This work finished in the Gengshen year (1620) when he wꦉas 66 years old. In the self-inscription, he stated that he spent seven years, from 59 to 66, the critical period for his calligraphy life, to finish this work. Therefore, this work can be seen as the one trying to exp🌠lore and practise his Xiaokai techniques. It echoes the version of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, playing a crucial role in his career as well as his calligraphy theory, which is very rare.

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註：董其昌一生作《千字文》傳世者眾，吳永於他本題跋曾云：「香光書千字文余藏有三卷」，今各大公私博物院亦有館藏，如南京博物院行楷本、台北故宮楷書本(1609年作)、香港中文大學行楷本等。但若論純楷寫成，則極為稀有，本幅題款「此卷先後七年紙成堆墨」，台北本題款「千文凡四載先後作」可知董其昌作楷書千字文多歷經數年心血。董氏於《畫禪室隨筆》中自云：「最得意在小楷書」，又云：「余少時為小楷，刻畫世所傳《黃庭經》、《東方贊》。後見晉唐人真跡，乃知古人用筆之妙，殊非石本所能傳。」及「小楷書乃致難，自臨帖者只在形骸，去之益遠。當由未見古人真跡，自隔神化耳。宋時唯米芾有解，至今如阿閦一見也。」可見董其昌眼光之高，對小楷書著力之深，並論古人刻帖失真致使當時文人學者無法得真傳。而董其昌打破藩籬的方式即為他求學之本源，論求學一如參禪，綜合理論、實踐及批評、改正等流程，以理論下筆，實踐出作品，以審閱古代書法般批評自己作品，並最終改正，得到結論：「往余以《黃庭》、《樂毅》真書為人作榜署書，每懸看轍不得佳。因悟小楷法，使可展為方丈者，乃盡勢也；題榜如細書，亦跌宕自在」，即小楷必須能展大才能盡勢，榜書(大楷)必須能自在跌宕🥀才能得勢。

本幅完成於庚申(1620)，時董其昌已66歲，自題♛先後七年所作，即59至66歲之間，實為董其昌生涯臨🅰書之關鍵時期，故本幅可視為董其昌於小楷中探索實踐的作品之一，與台北故宮本遙相呼應，在董其昌的生涯及書法理論中扮演要角，可謂難得。