I studied Madam Jang's realms of art in the three fields. She had the cursive style in the paintings and writings field, she was more concerned about the nature than the human beings in the literature field. Especially, in the Chosun dynasty when wome...
I studied Madam Jang's realms of art in the three fields. She had the cursive style in the paintings and writings field, she was more concerned about the nature than the human beings in the literature field. Especially, in the Chosun dynasty when women were treated as inferior to men, she showed the greatness of a human being who overcame the discrimination. Considering these, the significance of her realm of art can be summarized as following.
First, she is estimated as a great woman artist in the state of the predominance of man over woman.
Next, she inherited her father's study and handed it down to her sons Jonjae Lee Whi-il, Galam Lee Hyun-il and her grandsons Milam Lee Jae, Dasan Lee Sang-jeung. The name of the study was 'Seongnihak' which was about the human nature and natural laws, and she did the important role for the philosophy in order to get continued. We can find out this fact from her literature and art works.
The third, the scholastic atmosphere in her family was apparently reflected in her paintings, writings and literature works. In other words, she took a serious view of 'E'(its meaning is Reason) in the philosophy 'E-Gi'(the basic principles and the atmospheric force of nature), and we can see this attitude from all her works, cooking, and handwriting etc. For example, she wrote the story in which she expressed the sympathy for the relationship between a mother and her daughter-in-law. She also acted with modesty in her usual life using the cursive style. We can see her unique thinking from those facts.
The fourth, she also inherited the studies and the family customs in the calligraphy field. At the age of ten, she worte a work in the cursive style, and it was given a favorable reception by Cheongpoongja Jeong Yoon-mok, because it was powerful and had traits. Since then, she showed her true ability in the calligraphy in 'Emsikdimibang'(the title of the book)or 'Hakbalcheop'(the title of the collection of poems) handwriting. At that time, most scholars used the chinese letter styles, but she invented the creative letter-style through the youngnam school's letter style.
The last, she conveyed the ideas in Chosun dynasty well. For example, she carved the letters such as Sipjangseang(ten longavity things) or Soobok(fortune and longvity) in the bronze mirrors, and she painted the tiger next to the pinetree in her art work, 'Songhameanghodo', and they are the evidence supporting the fact that she inherited her father Jang Heung-hyo's or her husband Lee Si-myung's ideas.
As mentioned above, she was a prodigy of art. I haven't analyzed her art works from the political stand point. I'll light upon her more works and study them from many different viewpoints.
In short, Madam Jang's significance in calligraphy field is following. She wrote 'Eumsikdimimang' in the complex letter-style, which was one of the korean letter-styles. It appeared in 'Sangwonsajungchangkwonsunmun'(the title of theceremony writing), and became popular in the 16th century. She mixed the graceful and elegant styles of writing that were expressed in 'Sangwonsajungchangkwonsunmun', 'Seonjoeopil', 'Dosansi bigok', and so on.
In addition, she used the pure and liberal style of writing, the court style of writing, and the folk style of writing the Korean script. There were few calligraphy works in those times and this work became an important material in the calligraphy field.
Those works that were written in chinese calligraphy are 'Hakbalsi' and 'Gyeia'(the title of the epistles). The style of writing of 'Hakbalsi' followed the 'Myungjangpil's style of writing which was popular in the 16th century in the Chosun dynasty and added her unique style. 'Jangpil's cursive style was accepted critically by 'Tyegye'(the name of the great scholar) because it had been possessed in the 'Chungjae Kwon beul's family, and it gave the influence to his pupils as well as the masters of the cursive style. Madam Jang's hand-writing had soft but strong 'Jungbong'(a kind of stroke), mild 'Jeonwhak'(a kind of stroke), and stiff 'Jeolwhak'(a kind of stroke) occasionally.
In those days, most works were so simple that they were stuck to forms, but her works did away with some formalities and had many variations in 'Pashe' or the quantity of the phrases. She took the variety in the phrases, and expressed exciting and pure writing style. Above all, I regard her as the only woman that left her mark in the Chonsun calligraphy history.