Mengguwenshufa
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Mongolian calligraphy is a form of calligraphy that has gradually taken shape and been transmitted in its entirety since the Mongolian people created their own script; in China it is mainly found in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in Mongolian-inhabited areas of Qinghai Province, Gansu Province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Liaoning Province, Jilin Province, and Heilongjiang Province. In the course of historical transmission and innovation, Mongolian calligraphy has produced multiple script forms, including regular script, running script, and cursive script. Bao Jinshan (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Mongolian ethnicity, born in August 1967, a native of Otog Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. From the age of nine he practiced Mongolian calligraphy under his great-uncle Mirigala. His calligraphy rests on solid skill, with ingenious composition and well-proportioned writing; it has an artistic power in which meaning endures beyond the reach of words, displaying the plain and bold character of Mongolian calligraphic art. He has published nationwide Mongolian-calligraphy textbooks for primary and secondary schools, the Mongolian Folk Adages Calligraphy Collection, and a calligraphy long scroll of The Secret History of the Mongols. He has also established a Mongolian calligraphy museum and developed five-line practice paper, water-writing cloth, and brushes for Mongolian calligraphy. Through new teaching-and-transmission models — into classrooms, into communities, and into homes — together with systematic teaching methods, he guides teenagers and calligraphy enthusiasts. Representative inheritor of Mongolian calligraphy, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project, fifth batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Baojinshan 05-2717
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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