Summary of calligraphy theory

Calligraphy theory's original existence is generalized, which is not only manifested in the multi-dimensional concept, but also in the integration of theoretical interpretation caused by the contradiction between the materialization of calligraphy and instrumental writing. In other words, the initial discussion of calligraphy is not necessarily a pure topic. In other words, written discussions were also tolerated by the original calligraphy theory. Calligraphy theory's admiration for the myth of word-making and the political significance of writing reflects that writing and calligraphy are inseparable, and chaos and fuzziness are a major feature of the original theory. If we insist that this is a knowledge of writing or calligraphy, it is not only inconsistent with the original state of the theory, but also may not be of much benefit to the understanding of the origin of calligraphy. As a pioneer of China's calligraphy, theory leads practice. If a theory can't work for ordinary people, it's not called a theory. In the spirit of serving the people, this theory has strong guiding significance and strong appreciation value.

It is on this premise that we abandon the general narrative mode of calligraphy theory history, but trace the history of calligraphy theory back to the ancient times-the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to obtain a position and concept of the whole history. As mentioned above, in the development of ancient calligraphy theory, calligraphy theory and writing theory were always in a state of high integration. Therefore, from the perspective of the history of calligraphy theory, the early writing theory is actually (1) Calligraphy edited by Chen Zhenlian. The origin of calligraphy theory. Although writing and calligraphy belong to two different aesthetic systems, their living conditions are closely related-writing constitutes the material carrier of calligraphy; Calligraphy is the artistic expression of words, and both are indispensable. It is the complementary relationship between writing and calligraphy that determines the high integration of early calligraphy theory and writing theory. As the source of ancient calligraphy theory, the theory of "Six Books" laid the foundation of calligraphy theory to a great extent, and it was also a systematic theoretical summary of the development from painted pottery in Banpo, Yangshao to oracle calligraphy in Shang, Zhou and Zhou Dynasties. Compared with the calligraphy ontology rising in Han Dynasty, the theory of "Six Books" is still in the theoretical stage of writing-calligraphy structure, and has not yet risen to the height of calligraphy ontology, which is stipulated for the early development of calligraphy.

The evolution of calligraphy noumenon tends to intensify in the pre-Qin period, which is mainly manifested in the evolution of calligraphy structure, from the painted pottery depiction of Banpo in Yangshao to the official change of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Shang Dynasty and Warring States Period. The evolution of calligraphy constitutes the main content of book history in this period. Because calligraphy is in a state of instability and rapid change, aesthetic discourse with metaphysical significance in critical concepts cannot be constructed, and the modernity of theoretical concepts and calligraphy evolution is in a state of * * *. The origin of China and calligraphy theory can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the theory of six books that appeared in this period constituted the origin of calligraphy theory. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Liu Shu, as one of the "Six Arts", became a compulsory subject for aristocratic education. The theory of six books was first seen in Zhou Li, but it was only named as six books with no specific content, which was clarified by scholars in the Han Dynasty. "In the past, we often discussed Liu Shu's theory from the standpoint of ancient philology, but rarely observed its value from the standpoint of calligraphy aesthetics and art, so calligraphers mostly regarded it as a kind of specialized knowledge, and even mistakenly thought that it was necessary for only those who specialized in seal script to study it, and those who practiced cursive script had nothing to do with it, but in fact, Liu Shu's theory can be said to have laid the basic concept and aesthetic position of China's calligraphy.

As the basic theory of China's calligraphy, Liu Shu Theory established calligraphy theory's basic point from two aspects: spatial structure and aesthetic concept. The pictographic characters, the word indicating things and the word knowing things constitute the three basic elements of the spatial structure, while Zhuan Zhu, borrowing and pictophonetic characters are not completely the foothold of "observing things and taking images" in structural form, but they are still regarded as the foundation of the structure.

The concern and explanation of the spatial structure in Liushu theory is consistent with the materialization of Chinese characters-calligraphy, and the development of Chinese characters into an art is caused by its formal autonomy. However, the morphological structure of calligraphy is not a pure form, it is an organic combination of image and meaning, and the critical position of "Six Books" theory on writing-calligraphy is showing such a dialectical concept. First of all, calligraphy is the result of "pictographic characters", that is, "looking at things and taking images", but the "pictographic characters" in calligraphy are not a mechanical simulation of natural Vientiane, but an abstract extraction of the subject introduction-standing like an image to see the meaning. This point has been revealed in the early development of writing. From the description symbols of Yangshao pottery in Banpo about 4800 years ago, it can be clearly seen that the characters and symbols in this period are extremely abstract, showing a pure structural combination, while the decorative patterns and color paintings of Yangshao pottery in Banpo at the same time show a realistic and typical painting consciousness. This shows that writing and painting have embarked on two diametrically opposite roads from the beginning-writing pays attention to the abstract extraction of the main meaning of nature; Painting pays attention to the simulation and reproduction of nature. It is this abstraction of characters that lays the material foundation of calligraphy art.

However, it is undeniable that in the early development of abstraction, characters are caught in a dilemma. Too much abstraction makes the spatial modeling vocabulary of words tend to be poor and single. In this case, words have to be close to painting in order to get rid of the predicament. The forms of characters formed by painting channels can be roughly divided into three categories: hieroglyphics directly imported from pictures; Hieroglyphics inspired by ancient totems and family badges; Some hieroglyphs on the sacrificial membranes of temples.

In this way, Chinese characters not only get rid of their own crisis, but also enrich the spatial composition of Chinese characters, which is a gospel for the future development of calligraphy. However, as far as the historical development of writing itself is concerned, the combination and choice of writing and painting is short-lived. After getting rid of the early predicament and establishing a preliminary pictographic system with the help of painting, the characters quickly parted ways with painting and returned to the original abstract position. During this period, writing mainly strengthened its own construction from the aspect of abstract meaning. The "image meaning" and "image object" in the six books are a high generalization of this artistic aesthetic feature in the early development of calligraphy art from the perspective of theoretical criticism.