宋代书学：'形象喻知'述评方式的落幕及其原因

汉字是先民以'象形'为基础而创造出来的，故'以形写象'的内在诉求极大地促成了'形象喻知'的述评方式在中国古代早期书法批评中的兴盛。但到了宋代，米芾、朱长文等人则提出了'要在入人，不为溢辞'的新的批评观点，当时的书法史论著都不约而同地采用了这种平实、明确的批评文风。其原因是多方面的。从外因来说，得益于文化向下的系列普及运动，以及宋初从柳开到欧阳修倡导的古文运动。从内因来说，一方面，随着文字的成熟，文字的象形因素已经逐渐减弱；另一方面，'形象喻知'的述评方式必然带来理解的模糊和不确定性，这对于书法技法的传承和书法作品的鉴赏都是极为不利的。所以，'形象喻知'的述评方式在宋代的式微，既是我国书法史学的一个巨大进步，也是历史的必然。

Paleography in the Song Dynasty: Decline of the Critical Model of "Imagery"

Chinese characters were created by ancient Chinese based on the 'pictographic symbols'. Consequently, the model of 'Imagery' has been popular in calligraphy criticism since ancient China. However, new critical views proposed by Mi Fu and Zhu Changwen, which focused more on clarity than rhetoric, came into being in the Song Dynasty. These views were echoed by contemporary calligraphy monographs which advocated the style of simplicity and clarity. There are various causes for this phenomenon. The exogenous cause is the popularization of knowledge and the Ancient Prose Movement launched by Liu Kai and Ouyang Xiu. As an endogenous cause, the pictographic element had declined with the maturity of Chinese characters, and the ambiguity and uncertainty caused by 'Imagery' became unfavorable for the appreciation and inheritance of calligraphy. In sum, it may be said that the decline of 'Imagery' is a historical inevitability as well as a good progress in the history of Chinese calligraphy.