The copying of sutras, the sacred texts of Buddhism and Daoism, was an act of devotion as well as a means of propagating the faith. It required a special brush, paper of a conventional size with a vertical grid, and the use of the strictest, most formal script. This hallowed fragment of a Daoist religious text meets all of those requirements yet has an elegance and fluency that elevate it beyond normal sutra writing.
Commissioned in 738 by Princess Yuzhen, a daughter of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–56), this writing exemplifies the sophisticated court style of the High Tang period. The small script is balanced and harmonious, with every hook, stroke, and dot perfectly defined and executed. Applied with a stiff, long-pointed brush, each stroke shows clean, crisp movements and graceful, saber-sharp turns. Individual characters are straight, upright, and firmly built, with a rectangular frame of supports and walls. The construction of the characters reveals an analytical process: different types of brushstrokes are seen as forces (shi) in a dynamic composition, each having a perfect form and a “method” (fa) of interacting with the other strokes; each character, with its elegant, carefully considered deployment of those forces, exemplifies a model of physical equilibrium and spiritual repose.
In the early seventeenth century, this sutra was acquired by the influential painter, calligrapher, and theorist Dong Qichang (1555–1636), who regarded it as one of the finest extant examples of Tang-dynasty small writing. Dong reluctantly lent the sutra to a Mr. Chen for inclusion in a set of rubbings of model calligraphies, the Bohai cangzhen, but held back twelve columns for safekeeping. Dong was justified in his apprehension; the surviving forty-three columns that we celebrate today are those that were removed from the sutra by the unscrupulous Mr. Chen.
Weng Wan’ge 翁萬戈 (Wan-go Weng, born 1919), 2 columns in standard script, dated 1988; 1 seal:
Spiritual Flight Sutra, a genuine work by a Tang calligrapher, in forty-three columns. Weng Wan’ge on a summer day in the wuchen year (1988). [Seal]: Weng Wan’ge cang
唐人《靈飛經》真跡，四十三行。翁萬戈戊辰夏日 [印]：翁萬戈藏
Title strips
1. Unidentified artist, 1 column in seal script, undated:
宇内小楷第一。
2. Unidentified artist, 1 column in clerical script, undated:
《靈飛》真跡。
3. Unidentified artist, 1 column in semi-cursive script, undated:
《靈飛》墨跡，共四十三行，計五頁，又題跋四頁。
4. Unidentified artist, 1 column in semi-cursive script, undated:
董文敏書致隅陽公索墨蹟《靈飛經》、《蓮華經》，共三頁。
Table of Contents
Wu Yushan 吳餘山 (late 18th c. ‒early 19th c.), 7 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1810:
7. Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830‒1904), 2 columns in standard script, undated:
This [preceding colophon] is my father's hand-writing. It should be mounted in the album as an epilogue to the other colophons. Respectfully noted by the sixth son, Tonghe.
此先公手蹟，宜裝入冊，以當跋尾。第六男同龢謹記。
8. Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830‒1904), 14 columns in standard script, dated 1894; 1 seal:
[ Wan-go H. C. Weng , Lyme, NH, until 1989; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection," September 15, 2000–January 7, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Douglas Dillon Legacy: Chinese Painting for the Metropolitan Museum," March 12–August 8, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing," September 2, 2006–January 21, 2007.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings," March 1–August 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Printed Image in China: From the 8th to the 21st Centuries," May 5–July 29, 2012.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from The Met Collection (Rotation One)," October 31, 2015–October 11, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Up Close," January 25, 2020–June 27, 2021.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 130–31, pl. 17.
Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 14–19, cat. no. 3.
Ouyang Zhongshi et al. Chinese Calligraphy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008, pp. 438–39, 447, fig. 10.8.
He Muwen 何慕文 (Hearn, Maxwell K.). Ruhe du Zhongguo hua: Daduhui Yishu Bowuguan cang Zhongguo shuhua jingpin daolan 如何读中国画 : 大都会艺术博物馆藏中国书画精品导览 (How to read Chinese paintings) Translated by Shi Jing 石静. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2015, pp. 14–19, cat. no. 3.
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