Ancient Chinese art has always attached great importance to "lines": First, in calligraphy, painting, seal cutting, and sculpture, lines play a decisive role. I recently read in the book "A Perspective of Chinese Music Culture" (Peking University Press) that even in Chinese music and architecture, lines are the main image. This is a characteristic of Chinese art. For example, when I see Mo's paintings in a museum, I will exclaim "It's a symphony of colours!" But when I stop in front of Chinese Dehua porcelain, I will be amazed that the lines of the Arhat's clothes are as smooth as flowing clouds and flowing water. Chinese art rarely draws attention to color, light and shadow, but is more skillful in the use of lines. Good lines contain softness in their hardness and hardness in their softness, echoing each other and giving them a graceful appearance like a startling giant or a swimming dragon. Some look weak, but seem to be able to withstand great strength; some look strong, but are delicate. (Such as the thin bamboo branches in Chinese paintings...) Lines are rich in expressive power and cannot be replaced by color. It can even be said that the lines in Chinese art embody the vitality of the artwork. It’s probably no coincidence that line is so important in many forms of Chinese art. But I can't find a reasonable explanation. Of course, it can also be considered that due to the early origin and great influence of Chinese calligraphy, it has had an impact on other arts and Chinese people's aesthetics. (Calligraphy can almost be said to be the art of lines.) But I don’t think this reason is sufficient. The so-called lines are the best expression of flowing "charm". "Qi" is a very important concept in ancient China. It is the composition of the universe and the initial state of chaos that breeds life. It inherits the "way of heaven" from above and "human nature" from below. It is closely related to heaven and humans. For example, in the second chapter of "A Dream of Red Mansions", Jia Yucun commented: "Heaven and earth give rise to human beings... Clear, bright and beautiful, the righteousness of heaven and earth, is what the benevolent follow; cruelty and perverseness, the evil of heaven and earth, are what the evil do. Now it is time to On the prosperous day of Zuoyong, in a peaceful and inactive world, those who carried the spirit of purity and beauty were everywhere, from the imperial court to the grasslands. The remaining beauty had nowhere to go, so it was nectar and gentle wind, and it was irrigated by harmony. And all over the world. The cruel and evil spirit cannot flow out in the broad daylight, so it condenses and fills the deep ravines, and occasionally it is shaken by the wind or blown by the clouds. Those who escape by mistake are when the spirit of wisdom and beauty is too strong, and the good does not tolerate evil, and the evil is jealous of the good, and the two are incomparable; just like the encounter in Feng Shui, thunder and lightning, it can neither be eliminated nor let go, and it will inevitably cause a fight. If a man or a woman is born with this kind of spirit, he will not be a benevolent person or a gentleman, and he will not be able to be a great evil among millions of people. If he is born in a rich and noble family, he will be born in a poor family. Even if they are born in a poor family of Bo Zuo and become a famous prostitute, they will never be willing to be slaves and be driven by mediocre people like Xu You, Tao Qian and Ruan Ji. , Ji Kang, Liu Ling, the Wang Xie clan, Gu Hutou, Chen Houzhu, Tang Minghuang, Song Huizong, Liu Tingzhi, Wen Feiqing, Minangong, Shi Manqing, Liu Qiqing, Qin Shaoyou, and recently Ni Yunlin, Tang Bohu, Zhu Zhishan, and Li Gui Nian, Huang Banchuo, Jing Xinmo, Zhuo Wenjun, Hongfu, Xue Tao, Cui Ying, Chaoyun and others are all the same people in different places." Since "Qi" is how Chinese people understand the universe and life. way, it’s natural to reflect it in art. Lines are the flowing "qi" that flows out under the artist's pen and carving knife. "Vivid charm" is the evaluation of the best works of art in the past dynasties. This is not an abstract comment. We can judge the charm of a work from the flow, momentum, hardness, softness, thickness of the lines, as well as the harmony between the lines.
Composed of points, composed of points -> lines -> surfaces -> solids