Manwenxibowenshufa
01 · Historical Records
The origins of the Manchu script involved a complex process of evolution.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Manchu and Xibe calligraphy is an important component of the Chinese art of calligraphy; one of its main areas of circulation is the Manchu and Xibe inhabited areas of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including Urumqi, Yining, Chabuchaer County, Bole, and Tacheng. In the course of long use, influenced by Manchu aesthetic culture and the art of Chinese-character calligraphy among other factors, a Manchu calligraphic system gradually developed that encompassed multiple script types — regular, cursive, clerical, and seal script — such as vigorous regular-script stele inscriptions, free and easy running-cursive copybooks, elegant and dignified seal-script plaques, and fluid running-script manuscripts. In the mid-eighteenth century, in order to strengthen the defense of the northwest frontier, the Qing government moved some Xibe officers and soldiers, together with their dependents, from the northeast to the Ili region of Xinjiang to reclaim land and garrison the frontier. In using the Manchu script, the Xibe who had moved west to Xinjiang modified it in accordance with the characteristics of their own language, adding some letters, and created the Xibe script. Manchu and Xibe calligraphy took shape gradually over several hundred years and is a crystallization of the wisdom of the people.
The creation of the Xibe script
After the Xibe were moved to Ili in the mid-eighteenth century they added letters to the Manchu script and made a writing system of their own.
A full four-script system
Out of Manchu aesthetics and Chinese calligraphy grew a full family of hands — forceful stelae, flowing cursive albums, dignified seal-script plaques and neat hand copies.
Ge Tuken's several styles
Ge Tuken developed eight clerical hands and cursive forms, adding pine-spirit, smoke-cloud and pine-soot styles and composing in a hundred dragons and tigers.
A hundred dragons and tigers
His hundred dragons, hundred tigers and twelve animals in Xibe and Manchu show calligraphy at once disciplined and free, exhibited and awarded at home and abroad.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Afterward, out of the need for beautiful writing and faster recording, the art of Xibe calligraphy was created in accordance with the artistic characteristics of Manchu calligraphy; a combined Manchu-Xibe calligraphic system gradually took shape, bearing regional characteristics of Xinjiang.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Manchu and Xibe calligraphy is not only of important historical-source value for the study of Manchu and Xibe history; it is also a vivid witness to the history of the Xibe westward migration, the history of land reclamation and frontier garrisoning in Xinjiang, and the interaction, exchange, and integration of Xinjiang's many ethnic groups. It has considerable historical, artistic, and sociocultural value. Ge Tuken (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Xibe ethnicity, born in December 1944, a native of Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Fond of painting and calligraphy from childhood, he practiced ceaselessly for years; building on the traditional calligraphic heritage, he created eight clerical-script forms for Xibe and Manchu and a zhangcao (rapid cursive) style, developed such scripts as the Songhun (pine-spirit), Yanyun (smoke-cloud), and Songyan (pine-smoke) styles, and perfected the regular, cursive, clerical, and seal script systems of Xibe and Manchu; using these scripts, he created works on the hundred dragons and hundred tigers and on the twelve zodiac animals in both Xibe and Manchu. He is especially skilled in Ge-style calligraphy, whose characters are refined and the ink masterful, polished and natural, flexible and varied — a school of his own. Representative inheritor of Manchu and Xibe calligraphy, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project, fifth batch. His calligraphic works have been displayed, won awards, and been collected on many occasions in China and abroad. He has devoted himself to the study of the Manchu and Xibe scripts and to the training of successors, and is the author of works including the Ge Tuken Calligraphy Collection, the Xibe Calligraphy Copybook, and A Concise Dictionary of Oracle-Bone Script.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Getuken 05-2718
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。