Baojinshan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the third-generation transmitter of the Beijing Samteng lineage of Mongolian calligraphy. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mengguwenshufa in Inner Mongolia: The Mongolian script has an “upright-standing” form and a structural character with “a head and a tail” (the form a character takes within a word is divided into initial, medial, and final forms), as well as a distinctive manner of writing: within each word the strokes run from top to bottom, and lines are arranged from left to right. Among its forms, documents written in gold, silver, copper, conch shell, coral, and agate (respectfully called “treasures” in Mongolian, divided into the “five treasures” or “nine treasures”) and bound into volumes can be called the finest among the classics. For example, the Genghis Khan Stone Script written in 1225, the Shakyamuni Temple Stele Record of Mongke Khan, the Prince of Yunnan Aru Stele erected in 1334 at the Yutan Qiongzhu Temple in Yunnan Province, the handwritten Mongolian-Chinese bilingual Zhu Xujun presented by Altan Khan to Emperor Shenzong of the Ming in 1580 along with a tribute of horses, and the Mongolian-language steles at Dunhuang, the Palace Museum in Beijing, Xi'an, the temples of Mount Wutai, and the Yungang Grottoes at Datong are all brush-written regular-script (kaishu) works in the Uyghur-derived Mongolian script. From the point of origin, the Mongolian alphabet was created on the basis of the Sogdian script and the ancient Uyghur script.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Mongolian ethnicity, born in August 1967, a native of Otog Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. From the age of nine he practised Mongolian calligraphy with his great-uncle Mirgala. His calligraphy has solid technique, ingenious composition and propriety of writing; it carries an artistic appeal in which the words end but the meaning does not, and displays the plain, bold temperament of Mongolian calligraphy. He has published a national Mongolian calligraphy textbook for primary and secondary schools, a calligraphy collection of Mongolian folk maxims, and a calligraphic long scroll of The Secret History of the Mongols. He has also built a Mongolian calligraphy museum and developed five-line practice paper, water-writing cloth and brushes for Mongolian calligraphy. Through new models of teaching and transmission, entering classrooms, communities and households, and through systematic teaching methods, he guides young people and calligraphy enthusiasts. Within the documented technical tradition of Mengguwenshufa in Inner Mongolia: Before the advent of modern letterpress printing and electronic printing, people wrote mainly with the brush, and Mongolian calligraphy took shape naturally in the course of this writing. By virtue of these characteristics, Mongolian calligraphy gradually developed into an artistic category with a distinct national style. In terms of tools and materials, it is not limited to the usual implements. Brushes vary in hardness and softness, including flat brushes and hair brushes; the ink comes in two colors, black and red. Its writing surfaces also include rock, wooden boards, paper, cloth, and leather. Since ancient times, Mongolian calligraphy has occupied an important place in the lives of the Mongolian people. Mongolian calligraphy plays an important role both in major events such as celebrations and sacrifices and in everyday activities of a religious, joyous, or funerary nature. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Stone book and Mongol inscriptions": From the Stone Book of Genghis Khan to the Ming court's bilingual tribute scroll and the temple steles of Dunhuang and the Forbidden City, these are brush works in Uighur Mongol script. "Sogdian and Old Uighur roots": The script was fashioned from Sogdian and Old Uighur letters, and its upright joined forms and downward, left-to-right writing set the art its particular basis. "Bows, brushes, black and red ink": Its tools are varied — stiff and soft pens, black and red ink — and it is written on rock, wood, paper, cloth and leather. "Manuscripts in the five treasures": Manuscripts written in gold, silver, copper, conch, coral and agate — the Five or Nine Treasures — are the most precious of all.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Mongolian Calligraphy, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Baojinshan · National Representative Bearer Archive