Where did the ancients practice calligraphy
Shao Huo Huolan
In ancient times, there were no such good conditions for practicing calligraphy as now. Modern people have all kinds of paper readily available to practice calligraphy, including exquisite and practical copybooks, and convenient and fast calligraphy templates... However, in ancient times, paper was expensive and most people could not afford to buy it. If you want to practice calligraphy well, you only have to " Find another way."
Huaisu Bajiao practices calligraphy
Huaisu, an outstanding calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, was smart and eager to learn since he was a child, especially writing. In the absence of paper, he found a way to find a wooden board and disk, and wrote on them with white paint. Later, Huaisu felt that the paint board was smooth and difficult to ink, so he planted more than 10,000 banana trees in a wasteland near the temple. After the banana grew up, he picked the banana leaves, spread them on the table, and wrote them down. Because Huaisu practiced calligraphy day and night, the old banana leaves were peeled off and the smaller leaves were reluctant to pick, so he thought of a way. He simply took a pen and ink and stood in front of the banana tree, writing on the fresh leaves, even if the sun shone brightly. He felt like he was suffering, and the biting north wind made the skin of his hands crack. He still ignored it and continued to practice calligraphy unremittingly. After he finished writing one thing, he started writing another without stopping. At the age of 25, he had become a well-known calligrapher. At the age of 35, he became a leading cursive calligrapher. People called his cursive calligraphy "crazy cursive". Huaisu's cursive calligraphy is round and powerful. The rotation is like a circle, unrestrained and smooth, and completed in one go, which has a profound influence on future generations.
Yue Fei practiced calligraphy on the sand
Yue Fei, the hero of the Southern Song Dynasty who fought against the Jin Dynasty, loved writing since he was a child. But when I was young, my family was poor and could not afford pen, ink, paper and inkstone. When he saw children from wealthy families writing freely on rice paper, Yue Fei was envious. When others finished writing and crumpled the rice paper into a ball and threw it on the ground, he ran over to pick it up, took it home and spread it out. Then, the scraped pot bottom ash is mixed with water as ink, and a homemade chicken feather pen is dipped in it to write on the blank corners of the rice paper. However, the rice paper discarded by others that had already been written on was limited, and it could not satisfy Yue Fei's interest in practicing calligraphy. One day, a child asked Yue Fei to teach him a character he didn't know on the way to school. The child wrote the character on the ground with a small stick. Yue Fei recognized the character and told the child the pronunciation of the character. Yue Fei looked at the character on the ground and suddenly came up with a way to practice calligraphy: just write on the ground. So Yue Fei brought a lot of fine sand home in a small wooden bucket, poured it on a flat ground in front of his house, and used a small wooden stick to write on it every day when he had free time. After writing the words, he used a wide wooden chip to scrape the sand flat. , then write again, and so on. In this way, Yue Fei mastered a pleasing regular script.
Wu Chengen practices calligraphy with Pu Gen
Wu Chengen, an outstanding novelist in the Ming Dynasty and the author of "Journey to the West", is also a person who loves to write. When he was 7 years old, his handwriting was already tangible. Body. This is due to his father, Wu Chengen's father is a scholar. In order to teach his children to read and write, the father spent a lot of effort. But also because my family was poor, I could barely afford pen and ink, but I couldn't afford paper. My father saved money and bought some paper, but after a few days, it was covered with Wu Chengen's "masterpieces". Seeing his father's difficulties, Wu Chengen told his father that he no longer wanted to practice calligraphy. His father severely criticized Wu Chengen and told him that no matter what he does, he must persevere and never give up halfway. One day, my father passed by the lake and found a pile of cattails thrown away by farmers. His eyes lit up: Why can't we use cattails as paper to practice calligraphy? So my father picked up a few cattails and took them home. Wash and dry it, then peel it and lay it flat, and it will be a piece of paper for writing. His father asked Wu Chengen to try writing a few words on it. As soon as Wu Chengen wrote, he immediately felt like writing, and it felt more exciting than writing on paper.
From then on, whenever Wu Chengen had free time, he would go to the lake and pick up a bunch of cattail roots, arrange them according to his father's method, and then practice calligraphy stroke by stroke on the root piece. Before I knew it, the pile of used cattail root was as high as one person. Hard work pays off. Through diligent study and practice, Wu Cheng'en not only excelled in calligraphy, but also produced a good article that everyone admired.
(Published in "Children's Technology" Issue 10, 2014)