At present, the understanding of southern calligraphy style is mostly from the handed down notes, which is extremely rare so far. In the north, because there are many inscriptions, calligraphy has been preserved by carving stones, leaving us many relics. At this stage, especially in the Northern Wei Dynasty, stone carving calligraphy developed rapidly.

Judging from the existing stone carving calligraphy in the Northern Dynasties, there are mainly the following:

The first is the cliff stone carving. Most of them are in Shandong, and the most important one is the Zheng Wengong Monument, which has two monuments, the previous one and the next one. In addition, there are a large number of Buddhist cliff carvings in Shandong, such as Mount Tai and the Diamond Sutra in Shigu, as well as Jianshan, Gangshan, Geshan and Tieshan Cliff in Zoucheng today.

"Zheng Wengong Monument" under the monument.

The second one is stone carving. Due to the prevalence of Buddhism, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes were successively built at this time, among which Longmen Grottoes had the greatest correlation with calligraphy. Among a considerable number of grottoes, the grottoes in the Northern Wei Dynasty accounted for about one third of the total.

In addition to the Buddha statues, there are also statues carved in the grottoes, which record the relevant contents of the grottoes and inadvertently leave a legacy for calligraphy. Since the Qing Dynasty, epigraphists have introduced Longmen four products, ten products, twenty products, thirty products, fifty products and hundred products. Especially the four products, ten products and twenty products of Longmen have become a model of Longmen stone carving calligraphy. Later generations' understanding of calligraphy in the Northern Wei Dynasty came from this to a great extent.

The original stone of Sun Qiusheng's statue

Sun Qiusheng's Sculpture Rubbing (Part)

The third is the epitaph. After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang, the court strictly ordered that the ethnic minorities from the north should not be sent back to their original places after their death and must be buried on the spot, so a large number of tombs were left around Luoyang. So far, hundreds of epitaphs belonging to the Northern Wei Dynasty have been unearthed. Because the tomb owners are mostly nobles of the Northern Wei Dynasty, many of them are members of the royal family, so both writing and carving are very beautiful. Compared with the works of craftsmen such as the Longmen Statue, it can better reflect the calligraphy of the upper class in the Northern Dynasties. Among them, the more famous epitaphs are the epitaph of Diao Zun, the epitaph of Cui and the epitaph of Zhang Xuan.

Epitaph of Diao Zun (rubbings)

The fourth is the inscription. In addition to the above types of stone carving calligraphy, there are a few stone carvings in the Northern Wei Dynasty, such as Huifu Temple Monument, Hanging Pen Dry Writing, Zhang Menglong Monument, etc.

Huifu Temple Monument (rubbings)

These stone carvings describe the basic framework and characteristics of calligraphy in the Northern Wei Dynasty for us. From the perspective of the history of calligraphy style, it has formed a new aesthetic type, which is completely different from the romantic style of the two kings in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties. Its domineering form and strong atmosphere are shocking. Studying these calligraphy is of great significance to our understanding of the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the Northern Dynasties.