Calligraphy by Mr. Hu Ching-San, Title: Wise Words of Mencius in Phagspa Script

I. Author

Mr. Hu Ching-San

Born in 1953 in Changhua County, Taiwan Province, Mr. HU Ching-San entered the Taiwan University after graduating from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School. He received a master’s degree from the Institute of China Border Area Studies, at the Chengchi University. HU served at the Taipei Palace Museum since 1981, and was recently promoted to Deputy Chief Curator of the Department of Rare Books and Documents in 2014.

Greatly enamored with brush writing and painting since childhood, HU learned brush writing with Kai-Ho WANG and Meng-Hung SHIH, and studied Shan shui (mountain and stream) painting under Chung-Sung MOU and Chu-Cheng HUANG. Apart from traditional Chinese scripts, HU is also versed in the writings of minority tribes, such as the Xixia (Tangut) Regime Script, the Tibetan Script, the Mongolian Square Script (Phagspa Alphabet), as well as the Manchurian Script.

HU has participated in joint exhibitions on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as well as Japan, Korea, and the United States of America. “The Development of Chinese Character Scripts” exhibition was held at the 22nd Floor Capital Gallery, Florida State Capitol in 2016. His works are collected by public and private organizations.

HU is currently a member of the Taipei Arts Study Association, the Chinese Century Arts Association, and the Chinese Asian Arts Association. He is also a calligraphy instructor at the Fa-Kuang Institute of Buddhist Studies in Taipei.

II. Work

1. Title: Wise Words of Mencius in Phagspa Script

2. Text: “It is a true great man whom no money and rank can confuse, no poverty and hardship can shake, and no power and force can suffocate.”

3. Purport: Phagspa Script was the official script for written language of the Yuan dynasty, which is designed by Tibetan monk and Imperial Preceptor Drogön Chögyal Phags-pa for Emperor Kublai Khan. It is a kind of alphabet written vertically (top to bottom) from left to right. Traditionally it looks rigid because the alignment is justified, the width of each line is equal, and was written by stiff pen. This work intends to a lively way by applying the Seal and Clerical scripts of Chinese styles, interests of dry and wet ink, and layout of scattered lines. The inscription and seals are put on the top-left corner in order to represent the freely, novelty, dynamic modern charm.

一、作者履歷

胡進杉先生，臺灣省彰化縣人， 1953 年生，臺北市立建國高級中學、臺灣大學經濟學系、政治大學邊政研究所畢業， 1981 年至臺北故宮博物院服務迄今，現為該院圖書文獻處副處長。

自幼喜歡書畫，長隨王愷和、施孟宏兩位先生學習書法，從牟崇松、黃渠成教授研習山水畫，書法創作除傳統真、草、隸、篆外，並從事西夏、藏文、滿文等少數民族文字書法之研究。書畫作品，曾參與海峽兩岸及日、韓、美等地聯展數十餘次， 2016 年於美國佛羅里達州政府大樓 22 樓藝廊舉辦「中國文字演進書法展」，作品並為公私機構所收藏。現為臺北市畫學研究會、中華世紀書畫協會、中華亞細亞藝文協會會員。並擔任臺北法光佛學研究所書法班指導老師。

二、作品簡介

1. 作品標題：八思巴文孟子嘉言

2. 作品內容：「富貴不能淫，貧餞不能移，威武不能屈，此之謂大丈夫。」

3. 創作旨趣：八思巴文為元朝的官方文字，乃元世祖的上師西藏高僧八思巴所創造，是一種拼音文字，行文從上往下，自左至右書寫，傳統方式上下並齊，字型行距一致，以硬筆書之，略嫌板滯。今參酌漢文篆隸筆法，配合乾濕墨趣，求其活潑變化，而在全幅方面，採上下參差行間錯落的布局，並將落款移至左上，加上姓名章和閒章的鈐蓋，以表現自由不拘、新奇動感的現代意趣。