The history of calligraphy is essentially the history of Chinese cursive script. As long as the history of Chinese characters in China is, so is the history of Chinese cursive script.
Chinese characters have two basic functions: one is practicality, and the other is decoration. Practicality leads to the correct writing of Chinese characters, and appreciation leads to cursive writing of Chinese characters. The so-called "cursive script" is a practical and ornamental writing form.
Therefore, no matter which stage Chinese characters evolve, there are cursive scripts. There are sketches in Han bamboo slips, such as Wuwei Han bamboo slips and Yongyuan weapon book in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. Han Li has cursive scripts, such as Ode to Shimen; The King of the Three Kingdoms, Songjiang Urgent Chapter, is Cao Zhang's masterpiece. Seal script can also be written in cursive script, which is now written by Han Tianheng.
In the final analysis, the history of Chinese cursive script is the evolution history of Chinese civilization for thousands of years, a true portrayal of the spiritual life of China literati, and a special manifestation of the materialization of China people's philosophical thoughts, life beliefs and aesthetic tastes.
In the feudal society of China for thousands of years, faced with the oppression of powerful feudal political forces and the bondage of feudal ethics, an individual (regardless of his status) seems very weak and pale. However, people cannot live in peace forever. People's will to life, people's emotional interest and people's spiritual soul must find a carrier to vent, show and trust. When resorting to words may lead to fatal disaster, then resorting to calligraphy and painting (sketching words) will become the best way to escape from reality and return to noumenon.
Opening the curtain of the history of Chinese cursive script, through countless people and things written in Chinese cursive script, we can see the restless soul of China scholar-officials, as well as their desire to transcend life and hope of immortality. From Zhang Xu, who can't cure other skills, to Wang Duo, who expects a few good books, what we read is not only the helplessness and sadness of life, but also the consciousness of life and all spiritual sustenance. Today, when we look at calligraphers' cursive ink for hundreds or even thousands of years, such as Sun's book spectrum, Yan Zhenqing's manuscript of offering sacrifices to his nephew, and Su Shi's poems on Huangzhou cold food, it seems that we can still feel the different moods of the sages at that time, and the elegance and calmness when writing. Based on this understanding, we say that China's cursive script is the soul of China's calligraphy art.
China cursive script was quite popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when people studied cursive script almost crazily. Zhao Yi's "Non-cursive script" accuses a group of people: "Be loyal to the service, practice hard, be arrogant, forget your fatigue, fidget, and can't eat. Ten days, a few pills and a month's ink. Leadership is like soap. Lips and teeth are often black. Although I was in the crowd, I didn't talk about drama. I showed my fingers and painted the ground, covered the wall with grass, scraped my arms and cut my claws, and saw my cheeks bleeding. " This extremely vivid criticism proves two things from the opposite side: first, cursive writing of Chinese characters has become a common practice at the latest in the Eastern Han Dynasty; Secondly, the form of Chinese character sketch itself has infinite artistic charm and brings fun to life.
In fact, China's cursive script not only makes people taste the endless fun of calligraphy, but also shows the height and breadth that people's creativity can reach.
Throughout the history of calligraphy, we have seen the creation of outstanding calligraphers from generation to generation, and achieved themselves in such a wanton world of Chinese character sketching art. Zhang Zhi in the Han Dynasty, Wei Guan in the Three Kingdoms, Suo Jing in the Western Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi and Wang Xun in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Zhang Xu, Huai Su and Sun Liqian in the Tang Dynasty, Yang Ningshi in the Five Dynasties, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty and Zhao Meng in the Yuan Dynasty? \, Kang, Zhu Yunming, Yang Weizhen, Xu Wei, Dong Qichang, Huang Daozhou in Ming Dynasty, Wang Duo, Fu Shan and He in Qing Dynasty; In modern Yu Youren, Mao Zedong, Wang Juchang and Lin Sanzhi, if all the running scripts are put in, the team will be even bigger.
Sorting out and studying the history and present situation of cursive writing in China is not to obliterate the different characteristics of Chinese characters in the process of evolution, but to reveal the objective laws of the development and change of Chinese characters at a deeper level. The five-body characteristics of Chinese characters can still be used, and they can still be called truth, line, grass, official script and seal script when interpreting calligraphers' works. But this does not prevent us from grasping the objective facts of orthography and cursive script in the evolution of Chinese characters as a whole.
The history of Chinese character sketch art shows that everyone must undergo strict and standardized training in real art, and we can't ignore the basic fact that almost all Chinese characters are also masters in orthography. The ancients said: just like standing, walking and running grass. How can there be people who do good without clearing their names? So in the final analysis, the correct writing of Chinese characters is the premise and foundation of Chinese cursive writing. The orthography of Chinese characters emphasizes the stipulation and constraint of writing, while the cursive script of Chinese characters pays attention to the lyricism and freedom of writing. As the two poles of China's calligraphy, * * * supports the pyramid of China's calligraphy art, based on orthography, with cursive script at the top.
For a long time, due to the influence of ancient people's understanding of calligraphy, we only studied and combed the narrow sense of cursive script, which can not be said to be a shortcoming. The author believes that it is really necessary to promote the narrow sense of cursive script research to a systematic study of Chinese cursive script art in order to prosper calligraphy art. This will not only help us to further clarify the historical context of cursive writing, broaden the depth and breadth of research, but also help us to understand the humanistic spirit behind cursive writing of Chinese characters at a higher level.