[Exhibition] Science and Art Calligraphy Exhibition 2023

Description

Curators’ Message

The Silla Kingdom of Korea had long enjoyed close ties with the Tang dynasty of China. Many Korean students studied abroad in China at that time and the most celebrated one was Choe Chiwon. He stayed in China for almost 18 years and was dispatched to Yang Zhou in China to assist in military and political administration for four years. Many historical East Asian texts and stone steles still have records of his literary works and footprints in China.

“Science and Art Calligraphy Exhibition 2023” originates from the Calligraphy Connections Project. This exhibition invites renowned scholars and students from different disciplines to create calligraphy artworks works which are inspired by the rarely used Collection of Korean Anthologies (which are now archived in the Library of the City University of Hong Kong) and stone steles about Choe Chi-won. Most students’ calligraphy artworks were chosen to reflect Choe Chiwon’s footprints in China and Korea.

In addition, this exhibition will showcase the award-winning translation works of the JC Poetic Translation Awards 2023 which was organized by the Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong. The poem for translation awards this year is authored by Choe Chi-won and attracted many students from the City University of Hong Kong and secondary school students in Hong Kong to participate. It is hoped that the translation works will transcend the language boundaries so that more audiences can appreciate the beauty of ancient Korean poems. Bo Mu from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (City University of Hong Kong) has taken a step further and applied text-mining techniques to visualize the differences between poems authored by Choe Chi-won (from Korea) and Li Bai (from China). He finds that Choe Chiwon’s poems are mainly themed on “鄉” (Hometown) and “雲” (Cloud). This is not surprising given that Choe Chiwon left his hometown for China for many years and his literary name was “孤雲” (Lonely Cloud; Hanguel: 고운). Li Bai’s poems, on the other hand, are themed on “我” (myself). A more detailed explanation will be provided in the exhibition. 

Choe Chiwon’s literature was also recorded on stone steles, such as the Epitaph of the Monument for Esteemed Priest Jingam at Ssanggyesa Temple (National Treasure No. 47; Accession Number of National Museum of Korea - Bongwan 590). This stone stele was carved for Master Jingam (773-850) who died at Ssanggyesa Temple. King Munseong of Silla ordered the establishment of this stele and bestowed a name for it. The stele is presumed to have been erected in 887, and its epitaph, which was composed by Choe Chi-won, introduces the achievements of Master Jingam. Eleanor Guo from the Department of Linguistics and Translation (City University of Hong Kong) has tried translating selected paragraphs of the epitaph (in Classical Chinese) into modern Chinese so that people nowadays can understand. Richard Wong has also attempted to mimic the calligraphy on the stone stele, so that it may become easier for the audience to appreciate ancient Korean scholar’s calligraphy in ink.

It is hoped that the community can reflect on the wisdom brought by Choe Chiwon in modern society and Korean and Chinese can continue the humanities exchange which has been going on for more than 1000 years.

Zixuan Hao and Richard Wong  

科學與藝術:書藝同行展2023

策展人的話

韓國的新羅王朝與中國的唐朝邦交深厚，有眾多韓國來唐留學的學生，而最著聲名者，則屬崔致遠(최치원; Choe Chiwon; 號孤雲) (857年—908?) ，與李奎報和李齊賢被譽為韓國文學史的三大漢詩詩人。他十二歲辭別家人，乘船西渡，孤身入唐近十八年，曾擔任淮南節度使幕府，亦在揚州處理軍政職務達四年之久。東亞的古漢籍如《桂苑筆耕集》、《孤雲先生文集》、《全唐詩逸》、《千載佳句》和其他刻石文都記錄著他在中國各城市的足跡，亦存留了他的經典文學作品。這一位新羅時代的文人，為中韓兩地的文化交流開闢了一番新天地，被冠以「海東文宗」的稱譽。

「科學與藝術:書藝同行展2023」始源於「書法傳承與互聯項目」。展覽邀請了香港集古學社著名學者和香港城市大學不同專業的學生們，以崔致遠和唐朝為主題，從《韓國歷代文集叢書》(現藏於香港城市大學圖書館) 和刻石碑文中選取詩文佳句，臨摹或創作書法作品。大部分學生選取的創作內容都有地名，以書法的形式來展示崔致遠在中國沿著運河驛站、津渡候風活動的印記。書法作品的魅力就在於它以更生動、更富有個性與表現力的形式，呈現出創作者對筆下每個漢字的多重含義，使得古籍在表現形式上得以藝術化，進入更多觀眾的視野。

除此以外，展覽還會展示香港城市大學(城大)翻譯及語言學系舉辦的齊思古詩新譯獎2023得獎的英語翻譯作品。今年比賽的題目是崔致遠的七言絕句〈兗州留獻李員外〉。得獎者除了有城大的學生，還有來自香港的中學生獲獎譯作。希望透過英文翻譯可以讓韓國古漢詩打破語言的界限，更多人可以瞭解崔致遠創作的詩詞所表達的思想和感情。來自城大社會科學院的學生泊牧更進一步收集崔致遠近三十首詩詞，並與李白近一千首詩詞進行python文本數據挖掘(text-mining) ，嘗試把這兩位詩人的文學作品的差異可視化(visualization)。從研究所得，崔致遠的詩詞更多提到的是「鄉」和「雲」而李白的詩詞則以自我為中心，圍繞著「我」這個主人公。展覽中將更詳細地解釋說明。

值得研究的是，崔致遠的文學作品也遺留在石碑上的銘文，例如：被當代列為韓國書藝名蹟《真鑑禪師碑銘》(진감선사비명)最為著名，該座碑被列為韓國國寶第47號 。真鑑禪師（774年—850年）為新羅著名僧人，俗姓崔。唐元和年間，在嵩山少林寺受具足戒。太和四年（830年）返回新羅，在韓國智異山建立玉泉寺（今雙溪寺；쌍계사），大弘禪教。真鑑禪師圓寂後，新羅文聖王賜謚號「真鑑禪師」。崔致遠記錄了這位真鑑禪師的平生，從儒、釋、道三家之言到個人對不同教派的獨特見解，引經據典，妙筆生花。由於文言文之意較白話文晦澀，現代讀者普遍接受閱讀白話文文獻。至此，來自城大翻譯及語言學系學生郭鐘蔚嘗試把刻石文言文(節錄)轉譯成現代白話文，讓更多人可以理解及欣賞崔致遠非凡的文采及其思想。王瑋樂也以《孤雲先生文集》中的〈真監和尚碑銘〉尋找殘碑上風化的文字，依照首爾藝術殿堂出版的《韓國書藝：統一新羅 崔致遠 眞鑑禪師碑》的古代拓本碑帖，嘗試臨摹碑銘上的書法，重新演繹力圖唐朝時期的漢字書法作品。

現代讀者可以透過展覽中不同形式的創作與古人對話，讓中韓之間的人文交流隨「書」「藝」同行。

策展人

郝子萱 、王瑋樂