Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2005

EXHIBITION S A r t Museum Exhibitions • ‘Master of Cursive Calligraphy: Yu Youren 1879-1964 ' took place f r om 9th July to 4th September 2005. Amo n g the five basic scripts in Chinese calligraphy, th e cursive script is characteristic fo r the linked brush strokes and the most varied and simplified f o rm of the characters. While the w r i t i n g could be rapidly rendered, the disadvantage of cursive calligraphy is that i t could be somehow illegible. In the 1930s t o 40s, Yu You r en (1879-1964) p r omo t e d the standardization of the cursive script, and he himself became a we l l - k n own master of cursive calligraphy . This exhibition has assembled Yu's representative works from various sources to demonstrate the great accomplishments of the master. The majority of the exhibits are drawn from the collections o f Yu's descendants, including those of his grandson, Prof. Lawrence J. Lau, vice-chancellor of the University. As a protean figure, Yu wa s celebrated i n political, literary, educational and artistic circles. He had been the president of the Control Yuan of the Nationalist Government for over three decades. In the art world, Yu was hailed as the ma s t e r o f c u r s i ve c a l l i g r a p hy i n m o d e r n Ch i n a. H e concentrated on the stud y of the cursive script an d finally developed a p owe r f ul and fluent personal style wh i ch came to be k n own as the 'Yu style'. • ‘Ink Rubbings: Gifts from the Family of Professor Shang Chengzuo' ran f r om 16th September t o 27th November 2005 at the West-wing Galleries. Shang Chengzuo (1902-1991), scholar and calligrapher, was a native of Panyu, Guangdong . He taught at many prestigious universities across China, spending his final years at Zhongshan University, Guangzhou. In a lifetime spent researching inscriptions on oracle bones, b r o n z e s a n d steles, he p r o d u c e d v o l u m i n o u s a c a d e m i c publications and amassed a sizable an d important collection of ink rubbings f r om these subjects. Recently, Prof. Shang's descendants d o n a t ed the entire f am i l y collection o f rubbings to the A r t Museum of The Chinese University. This exhibition therefore, not only commemorates Prof. Shang's scholarship bu t also honours the generosity o f his family. The rubbings are as rich as extensive, w i t h a great variety of pictorial images taken from bronzes, stones and bricks, as we ll as inscriptions f r om epitaphs, steles, tiles, seals, potteries and coins. The highlights include two-dimensional rubbing s of bronze vessels, rubbings of steles f r om the Xi'an Stele Forest, and epitaphs of the Wang and Xie family burial site in Nanjing, wh i c h date f r om the Eastern Jin dynasty. 6 8 Chinese University Bulletin Autumn • Winter 2005