臺靜農   Tai, Jing-Nong   1902~1990

Born in Huoqiu county, Anhui province, China, in 1902, Jing-Nong Tai was originally named Quan-Yan. It was not until the early 1920s that he renamed himself Jing-Nong with a courtesy name Bo-Jian. Throughout 1920, he audited the courses offered by the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, and founded the Wei-Ming club under the instruction of Xun Lu in 1925. This club was dedicated to promoting new vernacular literature and short stories. Tai also successively taught at Fu Jen Catholic University and Xiamen University. At the invitation of Shou-Shang Xu, the director of Taiwan Provincial Translation and Compilation Center, Tai firstly held office at the center, and then taught in the Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University, following in Xu’s footsteps. In 1948, Tai was appointed as the head of the department, a position he held for 20 years, until succeeded by Wan-Li Qu in 1968. The artist, together with Shi-Qiu Liang, won the National Literary and Artistic Awards in 1984. Tai’s scholarly research featured an interdisciplinary fusion. His treatises covered a wide range of subjects ranging from the textual criticism and explanation of Chinese ancient mythology, Han-style music and dance, ancient farce, and bamboo and wooden slips, to the analysis of documentation, rhymed classical writing, ancient novels, and Chinese short stories and operas, along with a broader coverage of stone sculpture, calligraphy and ink painting. Tai was a navigation beacon for later generations on account of his all-encompassing research fields, academic rigor, and critical reflection on new theories and novel concepts. Yu Fang, a professor at the Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University, eulogized Tai’s achievements, asserting that “ he was fairly intelligent by natural endowments. Besides his academic brilliance, Tai carved to a high degree of proficiency in art and literature in which he tended to find great spiritual freedom and delight. He was a prolific writer of classical and modern Chinese poetry and novels at the early stage of his career. In his twilight years, Tai was further praised as a calligrapher par excellence. He imbibed the quintessence of Yuan-Lu Ni’s calligraphic works, making his cursive and clerical scripts one of a kind. His riveting ink paintings of plum and pine trees also exerted a gravitational attraction. The quaintness and vigor expressed by his seal engraving particularly reflected his great mastery of calligraphy art.” Tai could be construed as an iconic, trail-blazing calligrapher in the history of the Republic of China on account of his exquisite taste.