From 65438 to 0987, when the bookstore was founded, the China Calligraphers' Association and provincial and municipal branches had already become the main organizers of calligraphy activities. However, bookstore members believe that organizations within a single system cannot fully meet the diverse needs of calligraphy development. Non-governmental organizations are more conducive to promoting horizontal ties and advocating an atmosphere of free discussion, equality and democracy. As a beneficial organizational form of calligraphy activities, exchanges, research and improvement, folk calligraphy associations should coexist with organizations within the system.
Calligraphy plays a unique role in shaping a nation's cultural psychology. Under the new situation, calligraphy should no longer be regarded as an amateur pastime, but as a lifelong struggle. This is the * * * knowledge of Canglang Bookstore members at the beginning of their communication. At the beginning of the establishment of the book club, some members suggested to Hua Rende, the chief deacon, that calligraphy and the book club should not be vassals of a certain class or an organization, but Canglang should be an independent and serious art research group, and it must be independent to play its role in the book world. It is also suggested to eliminate the bad habit of treating the director and chairman of a non-governmental organization as officials, so the bookstore only has deacons and officers responsible for daily work, and these positions are not publicized.
It is also clearly stipulated in the articles of association of the book club that all members are equal, and members can make suggestions and criticisms on the work of the book club, and have the right to vote and be elected in the club and the freedom to quit the club. Members of the reading club may have different popularity and achievements in different fields, but they should all keep their bodies straight and communicate with each other in an equal and democratic way. In his speech at the inaugural meeting of the reading club, Hua Rende particularly emphasized the concept of collective, requiring members to keep in touch and exchange information frequently, so as to enjoy information and knowledge. Everyone uses their own expertise, expertise and technology to serve everyone, and some rare materials should be reprinted and handed over to members. Members have their own gains, which are often made public. In his letter to the book club, Bai suggested that everyone should consciously think about the changes and innovations of China's calligraphy in concepts, techniques and materials. He especially introduced the book Modern Japanese Calligraphy translated by Zheng, and suggested that the book club read it.
In the late 1980s, there was an unprecedented upsurge in calligraphy. Holding exhibitions and editing publications is almost the goal of all calligraphy societies and individuals to gain social attention under the situation of both dragons and dragons. The activities of Canglang Bookstore at that time were no exception. In addition to collecting and evaluating works and observing the remains of ancient calligraphy, they are also seeking every opportunity to create conditions for exhibitions and collections. This is a very striking theme in the early member exchanges of the book club. They all have their own opinions and talents on whether to hold exhibitions or collections first, what kind of exhibitions to hold, how to mount exhibition works, and the cost information of various venues. In a letter to Hua Rende, Wang Yong suggested that bookstores had better hold theme exhibitions, which would be easily accepted by publishing departments. Or hold a sketch exhibition, which can save the mounting fee. Such careful consideration is rare today. Book lovers consider everything from the overall situation, regardless of personal gains and losses.
After the establishment of the book club, it will take a lot of effort and money, whether it is daily expenses, annual meeting, newsletter writing, or contact exhibition, mounting, photographing and printing. Suzhou members, such as Pan Zhenyuan, Zhu Dalin, Wei Zhili, Zhang Shidong, etc., have taken pains and undertaken many trivial tasks. In the late 1980s, the marketization of artistic works did not become a trend, so it was even more difficult to raise funds for the activities of book clubs. In addition to social fees, the funding of the book club mainly depends on social donations and the sales of works and books. On June 2 1989 and 2 1 day, Gongda Yan said in his letter to Hua Rende that members should make more sacrifices and contributions to the collective, and he was looking for funds everywhere. Bai not only helped the publishing house to promote art magazines in Taiwan Province province, but also contacted exhibitions in Taiwan Province and the United States, and also ran around to raise sponsorship fees. In a letter to Hua Rende from19881February 8, 988, he put forward a plan to ship the publishing house's works to the United States for sale, and said that raising funds and contacting the United States to hold exhibitions were his priorities at this stage. Sometimes a member will finally contact the sponsor, and all members will share the obligation to write the work. Judging from the several annual meetings held by the book club, in addition to the works written by members at the pen club, the members of the host place often have to make more efforts and contribute more works. But for the sake of the collective interests of book lovers, no one cares about these.
The collective concept and democratic consciousness of the book club are also reflected in the establishment of the system. For example, they require members to pay attention to the introduction of excellent new members, who must be of good conduct and have considerable calligraphy creation and theoretical level; After introducing two members, more than two thirds of the members were allowed to join the club. The new members who later joined the reading club, regardless of their fame, have experienced such a democratic process. At the fifth annual meeting of 1998 Bookstore, Hua Rende, who has served as the chief deacon for two times, proposed not to be the new chief deacon. He believes that non-governmental organizations, in particular, should not engage in tenure. When a person works for a long time, the book club becomes lifeless. The influence of cultivating and establishing a system is much greater than that of a certain person. Only by electing new social organizations in a democratic way can the book club be more dynamic. His request was approved by the members. At this annual meeting, Gongda Yan was elected as the chief deacon.
Canglang Bookstore is not big, but strong. Because the development is too fast and the stall is too big, it is easy to become a mere formality. After a long time, the book club will become an empty shelf and a dispensable party. Therefore, the book club has always put the improvement of everyone's creative level and academic level in the first place, advocated democratic and equal exchanges and criticisms within the book club, and pioneered the atmosphere with a serious artistic attitude and research spirit. During meetings or exchanges, members always express their shortcomings or put forward their own opinions. Yu Zeng, a member of the club, said with deep feelings that he joined the reading club under the pressure of "high-level" and his words could not keep up at all. 1987 After returning to Anhui after the annual meeting in Suzhou, he talked about the impact he suffered in a letter, feeling that he was just muddling along in the past, and now his works have made a breakthrough.
In the comments of books and magazines at that time, there were endless eulogies, which were not good for the world or the people who were praised. Hua Rende hopes that colleagues can reverse this trend and start to criticize each other sincerely and realistically, so that the criticized can accept, think and improve. He first pushed himself to the position of being criticized. "I beg my colleagues to analyze and cut my heart." If you can die, don't go easy on the rest of your wishes. Take communication as the month, please start from human morality! " Up to now, Canglang Bookstore Newsletter still retains the words of mutual criticism among members of the bookstore: Yu criticized Hua Rende for attaching importance to stillness and neglecting movement, and criticized pointillism for being too clear; Hua Rende criticized that there were too many angles in the frame structure; Bai Shenqian criticized Hua Rende for pursuing implicature, but it was not as good as the beginning in the past; Pan Liangzhen criticized Wo Xinghua for excessive deformation, and Chu Yun was good at short-term and slightly inferior in long-term; Hua Rende criticized Wo Xinghua for being fragmented and unnatural. At the Xuzhou annual meeting from 65438 to 0989, criticizing the works of Gongda Yan and Wo Xinghua even became an important agenda.
No one cares whether these criticisms are completely correct, but everyone knows that all criticisms are true and full of affection among social friends. It is always good to listen to two, but it is dark to listen to the other. Many members of Canglang Bookstore have won awards at major calligraphy and seal cutting exhibitions in China, and some even became judges of national exhibitions. I believe that in addition to personal efforts, the overall environment of the book club and the cynicism among friends are also important factors to improve the creative level. In today's book world, the wind of touting is getting stronger and stronger, and those sincere criticisms of that year are precious!
In addition to the criticism and discussion of calligraphy works among members, academic disputes also occur from time to time. When Pan Liangzhen wrote the article Sinology and Lishi, he asked Hua Rende for advice. Hua Rende put forward some opinions, some of which were absorbed by Pan Liangzhen's paper, but he still had reservations about the maturity of official script in Han Dynasty. Pan Liangzhen also discussed the ugliness of calligraphy with Yu. He thinks that it is inaccurate for Yu to equate ugliness with nature, and Yu's praise of Pan Liangzhen's criticism in On Liang Zhen is by no means perfunctory. When Bai was preparing to speak at a meeting, he wrote to Pan Liangzhen about the relationship between Badashanren's calligraphy and epigraphy. Pan Liangzhen told Hua Rende about it at a Changshu party. Hua Rende thinks Bai's point of view is wrong, so he has an argument with him. Later, in his letter to Hua Rende, Bai said that he wanted to have a broad understanding of the study of steles, which pursued simplicity and simplicity, and both Badashan people and Zheng Zhi in the early Qing Dynasty had such an aesthetic tendency. Later, Pan Liangzhen wrote "Bai Shu Shen Qian's Reply to Hua Rende", acknowledging that Zheng Zhi, Deng and others were early practitioners of stele study. The formation of stele science is not overnight, it has been brewing for a long time.
After the establishment of Canglang Bookstore, a newsletter was published from time to time, with 20 issues, each of which was not very thick. Later, it was arranged into five volumes. In addition to news, members' news, communication, poems and songs, and funds for book clubs, many pages are often devoted to publishing members' academic papers and calligraphy criticism articles, such as the textual research of Wu in Huai Su's Self-Narrative Post, the textual research of Mi Fei's Participation in Politics Post, Zhang Shidong's Origin Analysis of Li Shu and Pan Zhenyuan's Wang Chong's. In fact, the book club not only gathered a group of outstanding calligraphers, but also some experts in calligraphy history who are famous all over the country. Some members participated in the compilation of the Complete Works of China's Calligraphy, and Hua Rende, Cao Baolin, Huang Yun, Liu Heng and others also co-edited the Four Volumes of the History of China's Calligraphy, which won the Sixth China Book Award. It is precisely because of the equal emphasis on academics and art that members of the book club have achieved fruitful results in these two aspects.
The bookstore also consciously guided a good academic atmosphere, and successfully held the International Symposium on Calligraphy History in China (1995) and the International Symposium on Lanting Collection (1999). These two conferences have had a positive impact at home and abroad with their undifferentiated spirit and strict academic norms. The International Symposium on the History of China Calligraphy held in Changshu is the first international conference sponsored by the folk calligraphy society, which indicates that the folk society has entered the stage of international academic exchange. All papers in the conference are specially invited. In addition to experts in the history of calligraphy, the book club also invited some experts in the fields of ancient book collation, philology and archaeology to study specific problems and show the charm of textual research methods. Yan Gongda, then deputy director of the National People's Congress and president of Changshu Painting and Calligraphy Institute, used his extensive contacts in Changshu to make all material preparations for the success of the conference, and the work of the conference was quite thoughtful and meticulous. All participants have only one identity-scholars, regardless of domestic and overseas, job titles, new and old relatives and friends. Everyone is treated equally in terms of food and accommodation, and the bookstore does not take special care of anyone. However, in general academic conferences in China, participants are often regarded as three, six and nine people respectively, which makes the book club establish a good reputation in academic circles.
Four years later, the bookstore won the support of Taipei He Chuangshi Calligraphy Art Foundation and jointly held an international academic conference on Wang Xizhi's Preface to Lanting. After submitting the formal plan to the Foundation, Canglang Bookstore issued invitations to scholars at home and abroad in the name of the Foundation and Bookstore. It is worth mentioning that in the invitation letter, in addition to detailing the citation marking method (including author, book title or article title, place of publication, publishing house, date of publication, page number, etc. ), scholars are also required to consider the following four questions when preparing and reading papers: 1, why did you choose this topic, and what are your concerns in the calligraphy phenomenon you studied? 2. How do you deal with the historical materials related to your topic? 3. The relationship between the paper you submitted and your academic research in recent years. 4. Has your research on the history of calligraphy surpassed the significance of general case analysis? In our opinion, this is not only the guarantee of the quality of the paper, but also the guarantee that the audience may get more inspiration when the author reads the paper. It seems to be just a few questions, but it is related to the actual effect of the meeting. Therefore, this detail should also be regarded as the concrete embodiment of academic norms. Following and perfecting academic norms is an effort of Canglang Bookstore with great sense of realistic responsibility and historical responsibility. Because of such efforts, Fu Hui, a famous scholar in Taiwan Province Province, did not hesitate to praise: This conference is first-class among similar conferences in the world!
It is the aim of Canglang Bookstore Association to engage in artistic creation and academic research in good faith and promote good atmosphere. It is not easy to persist for 20 years and have a positive impact on calligraphy. The early members were in high spirits, but now their temples are frosted. Looking back at the history of the book club, they can feel comfort for all their efforts. What will the surging waves look like in the next twenty years? What will happen in the next twenty years? Cherish the reputation of the book club, adhere to the purpose of the book club, and effectively improve the creative and academic level. We look forward to going further and doing better.