How is Shen Congwen's calligraphy level?

Shen Congwen, who is not famous for his calligraphy, is a unique calligrapher with simple brushwork. If writer Shen Congwen expresses the beauty of mountains and rivers, the sadness of human nature and the magnificence of life with natural and light brushstrokes in his literary works, then the line of life written by calligrapher Shen Congwen shows his "abstract lyricism", which is a kind of quiet and far-reaching beauty. In his later years, Shen Congwen smiled kindly and looked peaceful. In fact, how many stormy waves have he had in his heart? How many laps are there? At that time, a 20-year-old soldier wandering between Yuanjiang and Chenshui was suffocated by the old life and inspired by the new life. He suddenly decided to put down his gun and came to Beijing, a noisy city, to make a name for himself with literature. The penniless young man almost starved to death in his literary dream. I have painstakingly read Yu Dafu's Enlightenment to a Literary Youth published in the supplement 1924 1 16 of the Morning Post. In Yu Dafu's view, at that time, the poor young man was faced with a chaotic world, either being recruited as a soldier and killed in China outside the concession, or being a gentleman on the beam. But in the end, Shen Congwen used his tenacity to stand firm in the desperate situation. He desperately used that slender pen to write about Xiangxi, the rivers and landscapes he knew, the life in the city, and the fate of those people he knew and cared about who struggled at the bottom and survived tenaciously. Through the fermentation of his soul, he made a series of beautiful words and vivid pictures, and made a "successful transformation from China's poetry tradition to modern prose style". The carrier of this poetic writing has become Shen Congwen's calligraphy. Shen Congwen is unique. Xiangxi, where he lived and grew up, is a place where Miao and Tujia people have lived together for generations. "This is a land that has never been completely assimilated by orthodox Confucian culture. This land has fought against the Central Plains culture for countless times, and only then has it maintained its own simplicity, coexistence of man and god, and carefree (another monument of Li Rui). It is the infiltration and edification of "heterogeneous culture" on the edge of this vein and Shen Congwen's presentation and excavation of this "original ecology" culture that makes him unique. He once said: "I have never understood that an author tries to make his work vulgar, similar, individualistic and featureless by linking' work' with' for the majority', but hopes it will last for a long time and thinks it will last for a long time." (Shen Congwen's Silence) "I just want to build my own little Greek temple. Choose mountains as the foundation and pile them with hard stones. Exquisite, strong, symmetrical, small but not slender, it is my ideal building. This temple is dedicated to' humanity' (preface to Shen Congwen's Selected Works). " What was important to me at that time was light. "Looking back on Shen Congwen's creation, he has been trying to practice the qualities that a great artist must have all his life: always loving, never going with the flow, never sticking to the conventions of others, always expressing himself and always making an independent voice. He was not swallowed up by the tide of revolutionary literature since the May 4th Movement, but joined the torrent of modern literature in China with his outstanding attitude. At that time, while the works created by deep-water bombs were gradually forgotten by people, Shen Congwen's works, which were dismissed as "beautifying backwardness", "poetic numbness" and "reactionary literature and art", have been emitting more and more fascinating brilliance with time. If before 1949, Shen Congwen devoted himself to literature, then after 1949, Shen Congwen had to turn to another relatively unfamiliar field-the field of cultural relics research. This is Shen Congwen's helpless choice, or even no choice. In the face of the reality that "a certain creative enthusiasm, a certain basic creative motivation and an unrealistic arrogant ideal (the artist's emotion is egoism) centered on the individual have been destroyed for thousands of years" (Shen Congwen's Abstract Lyrics), Shen Congwen chose silence. Although he also worked quietly in the field of cultural relics and archaeology, and wrote masterpieces such as "Research on Ancient Chinese Costume" to fill the research gap, he always felt a dull pain in his heart, thinking that "he wasted his life on the career he really wanted to engage in for life". In fact, Shen Congwen is a person who is willing to waste his life easily. Zhou Youguang, a famous linguist and Shen Congwen's brother-in-law, once recalled: "Without local arrangements, leaders don't want Shen Congwen to do anything important. The whole country is in a state of political repression. After liberation, literary life almost disappeared, and creation shrank. The advantage of Shen Congwen is that he takes things as they are, turns bad things into good things, exerts his subjective initiative, and can make a difference when he is unlucky. " (Chen Tushou: Shen Congwen of Wumen) It is Shen Congwen's personality of "taking things as they are, turning bad things into good things and giving full play to his subjective initiative" that made him copy his old business again after studying literature and cultural relics, and completed his unique pursuit of calligraphy art. Some people say that Shen Congwen's calligraphy is a copy of his old business, because he was determined to be a calligrapher when he was young. In fact, his obsession with calligraphy began as early as when he was a child. At that time, he joined the army in the Yuanshui River Basin, serving as a document and copying official documents. "I bought a copybook for seventeen dollars in five months. "At that time, Shen Congwen's salary in the army was six yuan, and the monthly food expenses needed to be deducted by two yuan. After five months, he bought a copybook for seventeen yuan. It can be said that Shen Congwen almost squandered all his savings. From then on, in Shen Congwen's luggage, there were "Yunhui Monument with a value of six yuan, Chu Suiliang's Preface to the Holy Teaching with a value of five yuan, Lanting Collection Preface with a value of two yuan, and Yu Nankong Temple Monument with a value of five yuan. "... on the way to join the army, as soon as he settled down, Shen Congwen built the room with his own words. "Every corner of the line of sight, I also posted some small notes that read' better than Zhong Wang, better than Ceng Li'. Because at that time, I knew that Zhong Wang was famous for his writing. Two people died, but Zeng Zuozuo and Li Meian are still alive. "("Autobiography of Shen Congwen ") When he was thinking about how to" defeat Zhong Wang and overwhelm Ceng Li ",all the temptations from outside seemed to have disappeared for the young Shen Congwen. Even when he was stationed in the army, he was distracted by letting others play cards, gamble, smoke and go whoring himself, and he concentrated on practicing calligraphy, often writing for half a day. In fact, who can be a traditional scholar in China without calligraphy? Whether engaged in literary creation or cultural relics research; No matter in the heyday of literary creation in the 1930s and 1940s or in the darkest days of his later life, Shen Congwen no longer took calligraphy as his foundation, but he never left the brush, and most of his manuscripts and letters were written with the brush. When the ship of Shen Congwen's literature ran aground, it was the time when the canoe of calligraphy set sail. Shen Congwen's calligraphy was achieved by his solid pen and ink skills and complicated and bitter life experiences in his youth. The life of literature died young, but the endless poetry that was delayed in the literary life gradually filled his chest, perched on his simple and graceful calligraphy through the restrained and hearty expression under his wrist, just as his maverick in the literary field coincides with mine. His calligraphy was also far away from the disputes and entanglements between the Monument School and the Post School at that time, and he chose Cao Zhang, who was rarely concerned, to be unique. The combination of Cao Zhang and Cao Cao began in the Han Dynasty. This calligraphy style evolved from Li Shu's quick brushwork, with a standardized structure, strict statutes and inaccessible. Some chapters handed down from generation to generation are to be compared: there are still many points to be recorded in Zhong You's biography of Ronglu; Like Zhang, authenticity is hard to say; Lu Ji's biography of "Sit tight" needs further study. Dunhuang has Suo Jing, pen chop pieces; "Yueyi" is a beautiful pen, which combines rigidity with softness; The card is mainly based on the northern cool classics, and one school is still along; As far as the two kings are concerned, it is necessary to distinguish between authenticity and falsehood; "Leopard slave" is a chapter with many ancient meanings. ..... "(Shen Congwen's The Formation of Cao Zhang in the Development of Calligraphy) Shen Congwen combed and compared the development and evolution of Cao Zhang, and compared Cao Zhang with others. Starting from "anxious for Cao Zhang", he learned from others and combined the brushstrokes of Wang Xizhi, Chu Suiliang and Yu Shinan, which made this calligraphy style with relatively simple expression and independent words more life-oriented. The poet once wrote a poem praising his desolation: "Give a little to the diners and make a new cut in the romantic chapter." "Poor, write a seven-point pen and write Lanting drunk." What a bosom friend sigh! The overall style of Cao Zhang by Shen Congwen is fresh, beautiful, elegant, quiet and far-reaching, which is consistent with the aesthetic style expressed and advocated in his literary works. In Shen Congwen's memory, when he was very young, he was used to seeing murderers kill and murderers were killed again. Seeing more bloody life and the ruthlessness of reality, Shen Congwen did not turn from aversion to reality to despair and world-weariness. But although he struggled in worldly filth, he always pursued and expressed the purity and beauty of his soul in words, and refined this purity and clarity through his own pen and ink language. This style in Shen Congwen's vivid life schema is actually the externalization of his life. If you can't see this, you will often mistake his purity for shallowness, his purity for whiteness, and sublimation and transcendence for evasion and retreat. "Perfect fire" is the highest realm of artistic pursuit. The perfect fire is not a raging fire wrapped in smoke, but a blue color after full combustion; Perfection is not the roar of the Yellow River with sediment, but the deep blue of the sea that contains all the rivers. Pure green is not monotonous or shallow. Monotonous, shallow and mediocre, mystifying, pure green is a pure sister. Purely on the premise of profundity. Shen Congwen's calligraphy is beautiful and elegant, quiet and profound, which coincides with this. Shen Congwen is not a trendsetter of the times. He is unmoved by the trend and always insists on his unique and profound pursuit. His creation completely obeys his inner needs. This unique and marginalized position reflected in Shen Congwen's artistic creation has certain enlightenment and reference significance for impetuous calligraphy circles and some calligraphers who are eager for quick success and instant benefit.