Books retain the spirit of gold and stone, and sincerity comes from romance - Chen Jiming’s calligraphy art
◎Zhao Bingxin
Chen Jiming came out of Ningxia, and he successfully completed He achieved a spiritual breakthrough in his novel creation and became one of the most influential modern novelists in the country. At the same time, Chen Jiming is an all-rounder, and his calligraphy practice has also reached a very high level. I use the following words to describe it: sharp, sophisticated, boring, dignified, calm, majestic, and outstanding.
Calligraphy is the art of lines. Among modern calligraphers, the calligraphy of Mr. Lin Sanzhi, who is known as the "Sage of Grass", especially his cursive script, is full of rich poetic charm in the line movement, and the artistic conception of painting is overflowing in the line expression, which Chen Jiming can't put down. "Where dry ink scatters, the front is turned upside down, and the pen and ink turn into virtual threads, as if there is nothing." "The yin and yang of shades are magical, and the five colors of ink are dripping. Where there is no action, the void is extremely ethereal, and where there is ink, the deity is brilliant." This is exactly what the Buddhist scriptures say The so-called "wonderful existence" state. Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy uses new artistic lines to "understand the changes of ancient and modern times", thus forming a unique art of calligraphy. These characteristics are often reflected in Chen Jiming's calligraphy creations.
If you look closely at Chen Jiming's calligraphy, it is not difficult to find traces of Yu Youren's calligraphy. The famous writer Gao Jianqun said: "Yu Youren had been studying regular script before, and even approached the 'Two Kings'. But when he saw the thirteenth grade of Shimen, he was filled with emotion. It turns out that the characters can be written like this, so magnificent, powerful and freehand. It was after referring to the Thirteen Products of Shimen that Yu Youren's calligraphy works developed into 'Yu Ti'." In the process of learning calligraphy, Chen Jiming was shocked and infected by the innovative spirit of famous calligraphers and politicians. . Chen Jiming believes that calligraphy may be the biggest "little skill" in the world, but this is not to despise calligraphy, but to get to the bottom of things and put calligraphy in its proper place in the long river of personality and knowledge. No matter how talented you are, it is indispensable. After a long period of solid practice, you can improve yourself through continuous learning and understanding. Only in this way can you achieve "becoming better without intending to be". He often almost forgets himself while studying ancient and modern famous calligraphy.
Liu Xizai said in "Yi Gai·Shu Gai": "Books are like books, like their learning, like their talents, like their ambitions. In short, they are just like their people. Sages and philosophers The calligraphy of a wise man is gentle and gentle, the calligraphy of a handsome man is elegant, and the calligraphy of a talented man can be discerned. It has been passed down from generation to generation because in the writing process of literati in the past dynasties, the role of Chinese characters has long surpassed the symbolic function of recording language, and has become an art form for literati to dialogue with their "self", "a practice with rich aesthetic connotations and cultural connotations." ". Therefore, to a certain extent, the calligrapher's creation is actually "dialogue" with himself, conveying his own aesthetic connotation and value pursuit in the dialogue. I think the reason why Chen Jiming's calligraphy presents such a style is consistent with his spiritual world. His calligraphy has a strong modern flavor, which benefits from his critical sublation of traditional culture and his profound understanding of cultural modernity.
The creation of any artist is inseparable from the general background of the times. Looking at Chen Jiming's calligraphy works, they all reveal the strong characteristics of the times. Our era has entered a globalized modern society, and modernity should be the most distinctive feature of our era.
No matter how good Chinese traditional culture is, it is still classical and lacks modernity. For his understanding of modernity, he started from modern novels. He thought that people like Lu Xun and Yu Dafu started writing modern novels. They are indeed telling stories, but they are analyzing people, analyzing human nature, and observing the extent to which a person is himself and a real person. Under this premise, modern novels have their reason for existence. Modern novels started by Lu Xun have shown strong practical significance in opening up people's wisdom and revealing the essence of human existence. But later on, that kind of pseudo-morality, hypocrisy, and hypocrisy had a great influence on literature. It itself has a lot of confusion, which has harmed our literature and created many false literatures at present.
Chen Jiming consciously faces the reality of the transformation of modern Chinese society, discovers people, pays attention to people, faces people's existence, goes deep into people's spiritual world, especially the unknown irrational world, and writes about people's existence. Absurd and unbearable, it writes about people's anxiety and helplessness, and the reality of alienated human nature.
I think Chen Jiming is a master of "exploring human nature" through literature. His novels possess a profound human nature. I remember that his novel "Dozens of White Bottles in the Moonlight" was published 20 years ago and caused a strong response. At that time, most writers across the country did not understand what "modernity", "spiritual character of people in modern society" and "modern novels" were. At that time, many of our writers were still sparing no effort to write about rural areas and poetry (still continuing to this day) , but he has discovered the danger of human existence, discovered the "profound nature of human nature", and wrote about the unknown secrets of people's subconscious world.
Of course, the expressive techniques of modern art are often present in Chen Jiming’s calligraphy. His calligraphy works also have strong deformation, dryness, sluggishness, and depth of modern art... These all form part of his calligraphy art world and leave a deep impression on readers.
Zhao Bingxin is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the Chinese Literary Critics Association, a member of the Chinese Essayists Association, a director of the Ningxia Writers Association, and a literary and historical specialist of the Ningxia CPPCC. Mainly engaged in modern and contemporary literary criticism research. Won the "People's Literature" Criticism Gold Medal. He is the author of "The Untouchable Years", "The Sound of Lonely Landing", "Wandering in the Deep Philosophy", "The Modern Dimension of Criticism", etc., and is the editor-in-chief of "Listening to the Sea - Selected Works of Haiyun Internet Literature".