Reading "Learning from the ancients and playing house with Juanjuan —— Reflections on Calligraphy Classics"

The title of the book is a bit strange, but Mr. Bai has no intention of selling books. The subtitle tells the gist, that is, thinking about calligraphy classics. The first sentence of the introduction asks: What are the legal classics of books? Under what circumstances can non-classic words become legal classics of books? Mr. Bai did not directly discuss these issues in his book, but put all kinds of doubts he faced in front of the readers, making the questions in the introduction real and three-dimensional.

With a historical aesthetic attitude, Mr. Bai quoted Wu Changshuo's inscription for the Boston Museum of Art, "For the Ancient People", and pointed out the decisive influence of ancient writing and aesthetics on the artistic concept of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, from a sociological point of view, he wrote many daily life advertisements scattered in Han and Wei inscriptions and China folk streets (such as the name of the shop in the suburbs of Chongqing "Juanjuan made a fortune"). It is interesting and thought-provoking to analyze the calligraphy of contemporary "beginners" such as the works of American students in calligraphy class and to explore the subtle influence of epigraphy on contemporary calligraphy.

This book is more abstract than another academic treatise by Mr. Bai, The World of Fu Shan. I think the most noteworthy thing about it is that it points out the meanings of ancient "interest", "natural interest", "strange ancient" and "lofty ancient", which are actually "nothing today and nothing ancient" and also exist in the works of modern calligraphy beginners. Therefore, Mr. Bai put forward his key reflection or question, why can't contemporary "interesting" "folk writing" be a calligraphy resource similar to "Juanjuan Hairdressing Room"?

Mr. Bai did not give a conclusion. But in a dramatic way, in Chapter 12, I invented a story that makes people laugh and cry-Wang Xiaoer's Calligraphy of Ordinary People-a fictional story to sum up the story of this book. It vividly puts in front of us the absurd view that the theory and practice of "folk calligraphy" cannot be "integrated".