How Calligraphy Works Reflect the Spirit of the Times —— Re-discussion on "Pen and ink should follow the times"

Shi Tao, a famous painter and calligrapher in Qing Dynasty, once said: "Pen and ink should keep pace with the times", which means that the works created by painters and calligraphers should reflect the spirit of the times to a certain extent. In other words, works that can't reflect or embody the spirit of the times can't represent the height of the painting and calligraphy art of the author's era. Aside from painting, as far as calligraphy is concerned, it can actually be said that Shi Tao's sentence is also a summary of the survival characteristics of China's calligraphy in previous dynasties. Throughout the history of books, China's calligraphy is inextricably linked with general social factors, including politics, economy, culture, philosophy, religion and architecture. In the process of the evolution of calligraphy style and the formation of various calligraphy styles. Because calligraphy evolved from the practical process of China's spoken and written languages, and the art of calligraphy was formed in the practical writing process of Chinese characters, calligraphy, whether it is practical or artistic appreciation, is bound to be restricted and influenced by the social system of a specific era. Calligraphy works reflect the spirit of the times, which is not only an inevitable product under the constraint of mandatory norms of social system, but also a natural expression of the individual personality spirit of specific book authors, and a comprehensive reflection of the overall cultural psychology of the whole era. Contemporary book circles strongly advocate highlighting the main theme of the times, reflecting real life and embodying the spirit of the times. But calligraphy, after all, is different from literary works and painting works, which can not be directly reflected, but can only indirectly reflect the cultural psychology and aesthetic fashion of an era.

First, the mystery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Shang Dynasty is the first font in the history of Chinese characters development, and also the first calligraphy style in the history of calligraphy development. Yin people regarded divination as a very sacred social activity. They frequently carry out divination in their daily lives, carve the contents of divination on tortoise shells and animal bones very devoutly, and respectfully collect those Oracle Bone Inscriptions with the will of ghosts and gods, and collect them together like archives. They hope to get the protection of heaven and ghosts and gods and live in peace. In fact, this is just their wish. The tide of history will not be reversed, the pace of time will not stay, and anyone will eventually quit the stage of history. However, the Oracle Bone Inscriptions they created together has indisputably become an extremely precious cultural heritage owned by future generations. The real person was the host of the divination ceremony at that time. They explained the divination results to everyone and recorded these situations with a knife and pencil. As calligraphers in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, they were naturally calligraphers in the society at that time. Fan Wenlan's General History of China said: "Witch history (Zhen people) speaks for ghosts and gods and guides the actions of the country and kings. The king asked for the guidance of ghosts and gods, that is, he had to be guided by the history of witchcraft before he could act. " The History of China and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, co-authored by Wu Haokun and Mr. Pan You, said: "Historians, including priests and priests, have extremely lofty status, and their highest officials can rank with scholars in the Qing Dynasty." Thus, Zhen people in and out of the court, prominent position, holding real power, and Shilin, Zuo Shu and other secretarial officials engaged in copying, writing is very different. In fact, they were the literati with political power and cultural knowledge in the slave society. Oracle calligraphy's styles are diverse, and his facial expressions are different. However, under the restriction of the aesthetic fashion of the times and the specific tools of calligraphy, there is obviously a * * * commonality between styles. Most of the strokes are strong and straight, thin and sharp, simple and simple; The structure is mainly square folding, which embodies the truth, simplicity and primitive beauty of early art.