Yang Ningshi (873 – 954 AD) is the most famous calligrapher of the chaotic Five Dynasties period (906 – 960 AD).
This eccentric scholar-official (nicknamed ‘Mad Yang’) was later seen as a guiding light for calligraphy during dark, unstable years.
He was work was enormously influential on the calligraphy of the Song dynasty that followed.
One famous calligrapher pithily surmised Yang as a man who ‘was not extinguished by his times’.
Contents
Biography
Early life and family background
Yang Ningshi (杨凝式), courtesy name Jing Du, was born in Huayin (in today’s Shaanxi Province) during the late Tang dynasty (618 – 907).
He was born into a family of scholars descended from the powerful general and politician Yang Su (544 – 606 AD), who reached the equivalent of prime minister during the Sui dynasty (581 – 618).
Yang Ningshi passed the imperial examination (jinshi) in 905, aged 32 or 33. He then served in government as a financial inspector, secretary, and censor.
In 907 AD, when Yang was about 34, the Tang dynasty collapsed.
A likely apocryphal story about Yang was written during after his lifetime, during the Song dynasty.
It stated that during Tang’s collapse, Yang persuaded his father (Yang She) not to present an imperial seal to a new ruler.
This was a way for the elder Yang to remain loyal to the Tang regime.
‘Mad Yang’
He became known as ‘Mad Yang’ (杨风(疯)子)’ and appears to have often offended social proprieties.
This placed him in a long line of eccentric calligraphers, such as Zhang Xu (ca. 675 – 759 AD) and Huaisu (737 – 799 AD). Before this, the Daoist classic The Zhuangzi also influenced how artists were seen:
Anecdotes (perhaps apocryphal) have it that he would often fall into an ecstasy whilst tirelessly daubing Buddhist and Daoist temple walls in calligraphy.
He was also said to be quick-witted and forthright.
The collapse of the Tang dynasty (618 – 907)
The first decades of Yang’s life overlapped with the final decades of the great Tang dynasty.
By the time Yang was young, banditry and rebellions were rife as the dynasty lost control of increasingly large amounts of territory.
The Tang capital, Chang’an (today’s Xi’an), was taken over by the rebel Huang Chao (835 – 884) in 880. The Tang dynasty itself was formally replaced in 907.
Life and career during the Five Dynasties period (907 – 960 AD)
The rest of Yang’s life took place during the Five Dynasties period (also known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period).
This was a violent time short-lived states competing for parts of the former Tang empire.
The Song dynasty writer and historian Ouyang Xiu (1007 – 72) noted:
The Five Dynasties lasted only 50 years. The state changed five times and there were 13 rulers from eight families. Of the scholars who were unfortunate enough to live during this period, few could maintain their integrity […]
– Ouyang Xiu
1. Later Liang (907 – 923)
In 907, Yang was appointed an official of the first of the five dynasties, the Later Liang.
This dynasty ruled an area that included the two most important Tang cities, Chang’an and Luoyang.
During this period, his talent as an official was noticed by powerful politicians, including Zhang Quanyi and (852 – 926) and the prime minister Zhao Guangyin (? – 925).
The latter appointed Yang to the position of Upright Scholar (直学士).
2. Later Tang (923 – 936)
In 923, the Later Tang dynasty replaced the Later Liang. Yang was again appointed as an official.
During this period, he was placed in a number of important positions. At one point, he was ill with heart trouble, which may have been a euphemism for ‘insanity.’
This may have been feigned by Yang to avoid political difficulties.
3. Later Jin (936 – 947)
The Later Jin replaced the Later Tang. Yang again served early on in this dynasty.
In 939, he retired as an official on grounds of health. He lived in Luoyang, where his reputation as a calligrapher and eccentric grew.
4. Later Han (947 – 51)
The Later Han dynasty replaced the Later Jin. Despite Yang being elderly (in his 70s), he was still appointed as an official.
However, he was excepted from military service. Instead, he served as a tutor to princes. This no doubt added prestige and authority to the reigime.
5. Later Zhou (951 – 960)
The Later Zhou dynasty was the last dynasty Yang worked and lived under.
It was also the final of the five dynasties before the Song dynasty (960 – 1279).
Yang’s request to retire was accepted in 953. A year later, he passed away in Luoyang.
Yang’s calligraphy
The Song dynasty was a great age for Chinese culture.
Today, it’s most famous for its landscape painting, the roots of which were established during the Five Dynasties.
With calligraphy, however, the story is slightly different.
It was generally considered to be an age of decline for calligraphy. Su Shi (1137 – 1101) summarised this:
自颜、柳没，笔法衰绝。加以唐末丧乱，人物凋落，文采风流扫地尽矣。独杨公凝式笔迹雄杰，有二王、颜、柳之余，此真可谓书之豪杰，不为时世所汩没者。
After Yan [Zhenqing] and Liu [Gongquan] passed away, brush methods declined definitely. Add to this the tragic chaos of the end of the Tang dynasty, human talent’s withering and decline, and [the potential for] beauty in Five Dynasty characters and elan was swept away completely. Only the brush traces of Lord Yang Ningshi were valorous and outstanding. They contained parts of the Two Wangs [Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi], Yan and Liu. He was a hero of calligraphy, one who was not extinguished by his times.
In other words, Yang was the leading light of his times.
Further praise came from Su’s friend and fellow great calligrapher, Mi Fu (1051 – 1107):
杨凝式如横风斜雨、落纸云烟、淋漓快目。
– Mi Fu
Yang Ningshi was like horizontal wind against slanted rain, mists descending onto paper, uninhabited, quick eyes.
In the Yuan dynasty (1271 – 1368), Zhao Menggu (1254 – 1322 AD), who also collected Yang’s work, remarked after viewing Yang’s Summer Heat:
杨景度书，出于人知见之表，自非深于书者，不能尽识也，此帖沉着而又潇洒，真奇迹可宝。
– Zhao Mengfu, Colophon on Yang Ningshi’s Summer Heat (1316)
Jingdu’s [Ningshi’s] calligraphy surpasses [many people’s] visual understanding. Without deep knowledge of calligraphy, one will never be able to understand his limits. This specimen is profound and uninhibited, its truly original traces should be treasured.
Yang’s style
Not much of Yang’s work survives today. And what does survive varies in scripts used, so it’s difficult to gain a complete picture of his work.
What survives is in running script work (in particular, running-cursive, which would be a key script for Song calligraphers) and cursive script.
It’s clear that he had a robust, uninhibited (almost ‘unmanageable’) style. He was even criticised by Huang Tingjian (1045 – 1145) for not writing according to ‘rules’ (规矩).
He was also capable of skilful, made up of balanced, ‘effortless’ looking elegance. He also made good use varied thicknesses of strokes and even spaces between characters.
Su’s noting of Yan Zhenqing (709 – 85 AD), Liu Gongquan (778 – 865 AD) and the Two Wangs above was prescient, as influence of all of these calligraphers are clear to be seen in Yang’s work.
There is also the influence of Ouyang Xun (557 – 641 AD), whose bold, squat characters embody the early Tang calligraphy style.
However, the clearest influence is Yan. Yang’s characters resemble Yan’s so much that the two are often mentioned in the same breath.
Style and loyalty
Throughout Chinese history, disapproval of ‘disloyalty’ was common.
This was due to the Confucian ideal of loyalty (or perceived/simplified Confucian ideal it).
For example, the Tang poet Wang Wei (701 – 761 AD) was forced to serve briefly under An Lushan’s regime.
Despite the appointment being brief and likely being under pain of death, Wang was still criticised.
Yang was criticised for disloyalty by his contemporary, Feng Dao (882 – 954).
However, man later writers – perhaps owing to the story of Yang telling off his father – overlooked this.The great Song dynasty scholar-offical Ouyang Xiu noted:
杨凝式以直言谏其父，其节见于艰危
– Ouyang Xiu, Collected Ancient Records (集古录)
Yang Ningshi used frank words to remonstrate with his father. His integrity is apparent in adversity.
Going one step further, the concept of ‘writing reflecting personalities’ (or ‘characters reflecting characters’ to coin a phrase) has long circulated in Chinese calligraphy.
This has tarnished other calligraphers before, perhaps most famously Zhao Mengfu (1254 – 1322), who served under the Song and Yuan dynasties.
However, Yang appears to have largely avoided this judgement. So, this also adds to the idea that he was not buried with his times.