The Appearance and Development of the Stelae Written in Wang Xizhi’s Characters in the History of Korean Calligraphy
Authors:   The Korean Society of Calligraphy, Jung Hyun-sook 
Published: April 2024

This paper is to look into the appearance and development of the stele written in the characters of Wang Xizhi(王羲之 集字碑, Wang Xizhi jipjabi), the famous calligrapher of the Eastern Jin in China. I compared the characters of Wang Xizhi jipjabi of the Unified Silla(統一新羅) and Goryeo(高麗) dynasties in Korea with those of the T’ang(唐) dynasty in China. As a result, I found out the characteristics of the writing of Wang Xizhi jipjabi of Korean through the similarity and difference.
Wang Xizhi jipjabi was first built in the late 7th century in T’ang dynasty. To that effect, it was first built in the 8th century in the Unified Silla dynasty. The first of the Unified Silla is Hwangboksa Stele(皇福寺碑), the second Mujangsa Stele(鍪藏寺碑) built in 801, the last Sarimsa Stele(沙林寺碑) built in 886. Of the three, the last is the only one identified by the writing of the stele. Wang Xizhi jipjabi of Goryeo in existence is Ingaksa Stele(麟角寺碑) built in 1295.
In China, most emperors since Taizong(太宗) were fond of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy. Accordingly, Wang Xizhi jipjabi was mostly built by the imperial order, and collecting characters was mainly performed by the Buddhist monk. The typical ones are Jizi Shengjiaoxu(集字聖敎序) in the reign of Gaojong(高宗), Xingfusi Stele(興福寺碑) in the period of Xuanjong(玄宗), and Diamond Sutra(金剛經) in the time of Wenjong(文宗). Following the tradition of China, in Korea, monk collected Wang’s characters by the king’s order as well.
The characters of Hwangboksa Stele of the Unified Silla resemble those of Jizi Shengjiaoxu of T’ang. The characters and description form of the head sentence of Mujangsa Stele are similar to those of Jizi Shengjiaoxu, so Mujangsa Stele can be considered as Wang Xizhi jipjabi. There is a strong possibility that a monk collected the characters of Mujangsa Stele like Jizi Shengjiaoxu and Xingfusi Stele. Especially, he would be the monk of Hwangryongsa(皇龍寺) because the character ‘皇龍寺’ was engraved on the end of the first line. The name of compiler Kim Yukjin(金陸珍) is written above ‘皇龍寺’.
In general, the first the name of compiler and next that of writer were recorded in the sentence on the stele. As Wen Fanggang(翁方綱) of Qing(淸) mentioned in the record of Kim Jeonghi on the left side of Mujangsa Stele, the three strokes on the upper part of the character ‘崇’ on the stele is identical to those of Lantingxu(蘭亭序) Wang wrote in 353. It is one of the evidences that Mujangsa Stele is Wang Xizhi jipjabi.
And the point that the space between character is regular although only vertical lines were drawn, that the writing includes the bush stroke of the regular script, and that the characters carry personal characteristics rather resemble to those of Ingaksa Stele of Goryeo. Therefore, it is highly possible that monk Jukje(竹虛) who collected Wang’s characters for the writing of Ingaksa Stele copied the writing of Mujangsa Stele.
The form of characters is similar to that of T’ang stelae because Wang Xizhi jipjabi of Korea is based on those of China. But the the style of writing is different each other. The writings of T’ang are flowing due to the brush strokes of the running script, but those of the Unified Silla and Goryeo is stiff due to those of the regular script. In addition, a few characteristic characters on the stelae of the Unified Silla and Goryeo resemble each other. It means that monk Jukhe would see the writing of Wang Xizhi jipjabi of the Unified Silla, following those of T’ang. Therefore, it can be said that Wang Xizhi jipjabi of the Unified Silla influenced on that of Goryeo.
Meanwhile, the writing of Wang Xizhi jipjabi of Goryeo influenced by the Unified Silla is better than that of the Unified Silla that influenced on Goryeo. The reason is that the running and grass scripts were prevalent in the Goryeo society due to