Masterpieces in the art of calligraphy

The calligraphy artwork by Lou Jian (1554-1631) highlights the “Elegance of Jiading” exhibition. 

Li Huacheng and Yu Hong

As a part of Jiading’s culture and history, painting and calligraphy are among the important elements, while Jiading has obtained great achievements throughout the Chinese arts history. 

Three masterpieces by well-known Jiading native scholars — Lou Jian, Yan Yan and Pan Xiaozeng, are on display as the highlight in the Jiading Museum, having attracted numerous visitors to take a look. 

The valuable highlights include Lou’s xingshu (semi-cursive or running script) brush writing, Yan’s caoshu (cursive or sloppy script) brush writing) and Pan’s calligraphy and painting, which are the first time to be put on the display. Even, senior curators in the Jiading Museum have never seen them before.

The exhibition, “Elegance of Jiading,” was launched in Jiading Museum as one of the activities to celebrate the coming 800th anniversary of Jiading, showcasing some 50 pieces of artworks from Jiading locals living in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911) when Jiadingers played an important role in the arts fields. 

When watching painting and calligraphy exhibitions, visitors will sometimes complain it is hard to understand the meaning of artworks. Therefore, the museum offers visitors special lectures by two speakers — Tao Jiming, the expert on Jiading’s history, and Xu Zhengwei, the staff with the Jiading Museum, on the introduction and explanation of the artworks. Xu said relics are valuable because they show us the real ancient world that modern people don’t know. 

Young artist Yang Huan was deeply attracted by the three-meter-long calligraphy by Lou at the scene and observed the masterpiece for about 30 minutes. Yang has a good command of arts knowledge and is keen to the precious paintings and calligraphies. Hence when she saw the information of this special exhibition, she was determined to visit the museum as soon as possible.

“This Lou’s calligraphy has never been displayed publicly so I am so excited to see it here. However, it is a pity that only a part of the 10-meter-long calligraphy is on display and I wish to see more relics in Jiading Museum,” said Yang.

The museum also set up the guqin training class to invite visitors to experience the traditional culture. Barrie, a foreign Chinese culture lover, took part in the guqin class and brought the music score home for reference. 

“Holding this exhibition is to show the beauty of the relics and promote Chinese traditional culture to the public,” said Shao Hui, a curator of Jiading Museum.

Jiading Museum

Date: Through January 7, 2018, 8:30am-4:30pm

Tel: 5992-8800

Address: 215 Bole Rd

博乐路215号