Mr. Zhang is currently the chairman of China Financial Calligraphers Association and a famous contemporary calligrapher in China. His profound calligraphy attainments and solid foundation have long been famous in the book world. He is good in all aspects, especially the official script.
Mr. Zhang's official script mainly draws lessons from the classic inscriptions and pen and ink in ancient France. He learned from others and studied bamboo slips, silk calligraphy, Zhang Qianbei, Xian Yuhuan Monument, Yiying Monument, Shimen Song, Qin and Han Dynasty Shanwang Monument, especially Yi Bingshou's official script in Qing Dynasty, which benefited a lot. At the same time, a large number of running script and seal script are absorbed and used in official script, especially the structure and brushwork of Yan Zhenqing regular script. Therefore, its official script has the elegance of Zhang Qianbei, the simplicity of Shi Guwen, the elegance of Yiying monument and the exquisiteness of Danba monument. There are both the elegance of Ode to Shimen and the vigor of Monument to the Good King, and the solemnity and massiness of Yi Bingshou's official script and Yan Zhenqing's regular script. Tong Yan's official script is unpretentious, which comes from Han seal script, Han bamboo slips, silk script and Han tablet, and reproduces the ancient customs in Qin and Han dynasties at a higher level. And novel, because he absorbed the essence of the book of changes and had advanced aesthetic consciousness. So his official script is rich in connotation and unique in style. It is not only vigorous, sincere and neutral, but also atmospheric, quiet and temple-like, which is well received by his colleagues and loved by the masses.
In the evolution of fonts, from seal script to official script, the vigorous brushwork is gradually replaced by the vigorous brushwork of founder. Although mature official script has both Fiona Fang and Fang Bi in brushwork, it has become the most typical feature of official script strokes. Zhang's official script is written, but it is mainly rough and round. Sometimes in his official script, he even deliberately avoided the strokes of official script and wrote official script purely with the center. Central stroke, hiding the head and protecting the tail, strict statutes and even strokes. The representative strokes of the official script "Silkworm Head and Phoenix Tail" are relatively light, horizontal and vertical, and the pen collection is implicit. Even if there is such a stroke, its contrast with other strokes is not obvious. In addition, in his official script, horizontal strokes are often slightly thinner than vertical strokes, and left vertical strokes are thinner than right vertical strokes. These outstanding features are mainly due to his ten-year regular script in Yan Zhenqing. Its strokes written by the method of circle center seal are round and straight, giving people a sense of elegance, massiness, boldness and rigidity.
Although the brushwork of his official script is centered, the basic feature of his lines is the combination of steep and vigorous Fang Bi and round, relaxed and vigorous brushwork. Judging from the shape of basic stippling in his official script, it changed from linking to dispersion, and on the basis of clever use of pens in seal script, there were obvious lifting, hiding and turning, which made stippling more colorful. The stippling of his official script, whether round and heavy or simple and smooth, also shows the artistic characteristics of simplicity and vigor. In order to enrich the brushwork of official script, Mr. Zhang has made great efforts to copy the official script of He, Deng and Wu Changshuo, so his official script is deeper than the theory of thick and round lines, and he pays great attention to the roundness and firmness of lines, which further strengthens the texture of official script lines.
From its origin to its formation, the official script font generally experienced the initial stage from the Warring States to the Qin Dynasty, and by the Western Han Dynasty, the official script font was standardized and became the prevailing font at that time. Among them, the middle and late Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty is the mature period of official script, and it is also the period when the font and style of official script are merged. After the Han dynasty, other fonts replaced the official position of official script. Although the official script font is still used from time to time, its practical value gradually weakens and its artistic value is ignored. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, with the rise of epigraphy, the artistic characteristics of official script were re-recognized by scholars. After sleeping for thousands of years, Lishu began to revive with its unique artistic style. Yi Bingshou is a typical representative of the revival of official script in Qing Dynasty. Mr. Zhang's official script, especially in structural configuration, was deeply influenced by Yi Bingshou. Mr. Zhang is very sensitive to the configuration of Chinese characters, for example, words with more horizontal strokes let nature take its course, and words with fewer strokes are appropriately compressed to make them square and flat. Adhering to the basic structural principle of "depending on the character", the character structure is boldly deformed. The basic characteristics of his official script style are founder, vigorous and heavy, but there is no lack of spirit. In order to make his official script more agile and vigorous on the basis of maintaining its style, strength and emphasis, Mr. Zhang is ingenious and skillfully integrates the tension band and the rhythm change of strokes in Zhao Mengfu regular script, the contrast of strokes in Yan Zhenqing regular script and the slender structure of seal script into official script. The ingenious structure of his official script shows the aesthetic consciousness of his modern composition, which makes people feel novel and even incredible. \r
Yi Bingshou once said this when talking about official script in his Collection of Mo 'an: "Founder, odd and correct, vertical posture, easy, simple, virtual, real, fat and thin, the transformation is beyond the wrist; It should be harmonious, intentional, intentional and unforgettable. " The word "Zhuo" is a classic summary that is easy to study and copy the Han tablet in depth. Mr. Zhang obtained the mystery of "clumsiness" in the Book of Changes, which is embodied in the square structure and straight lines. Although his official script structure doesn't win with charm, on the premise of Gu Zhuo's overall style, he occasionally breaks the dullness of the whole work with jumping strokes, reaching the harmonious realm of "being clever and clumsy, seeing the strange and seeing the vulgar". Yang Xiong said, "Books are drawn for the mind". I think the reason why Mr. Zhang's official script can reach this level is closely related to his honest, easy-going, simple, rigorous and steady style of dealing with people.
The structure of official script is mostly horizontal, with profound meaning, long left and large left, and open and close left and right. Zhang's official script not only understands the horizontal trend of traditional classic official script, but also pays attention to the flexion and extension of font structure. Sometimes, according to the rules, he asked or stopped the same glyph, and often used the method of expansion and contraction to break the habit of using the flat width of official script. His official script adopted more vertical positions as a whole, and there was no lack of charm in seal script. His structure is mainly vertical, and the combination of seal script and official script is full of ancient interest; Its official script generally emphasizes the square and full knot, but according to the up-down and left-right relationship of words and the number of strokes of a single word, the font is randomly processed, so that its official script knot breaks the uniform flat shape of ordinary official script, but is long, short, square and round, which is natural and vivid. There are horizontal lines and vertical lines in the composition. Generally speaking, word spacing is larger than line spacing, which gives people a spacious and fresh feeling.
Mr. Zhang's official script absorbed a large number of structures of bamboo and silk, Chinese script and regular script. Through the ingenious change of opening and closing, it not only avoids the parallelism between strokes, but also fully shows the dynamic beauty of official script. The combination of stippling, the square font, the welcoming relationship of radicals and his unique aesthetic taste are also important reasons for his distinctive official script style.
Ou Yangxun, a great calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, said when he talked about using ink: "Light ink hurts the spirit, and extremely thick ink stagnates." Pen and ink are too light, which easily hurts charm and style; Ink is too thick, it is easy to stagnate and difficult to write freely. As a kind of official script, Mr Tong Yan likes to use thick ink, because his brushwork is relatively calm, and when he writes, his elbows and wrists are suspended, and his hair is centered, so that the whole body's strength reaches the nib, and then the nib rubs the paper, even with the help of his body's breathing adjustment, using techniques such as lifting air, lifting pen and lightness skill. Therefore, it can make the ink dark, alternate between reality and reality, and the shade is soft. Although the brushwork is clear and clean, it is vigorous, ethereal and harmonious, penetrating the back of the paper and full of energy.
Judging from the relationship between the writing rhythm and strokes of various fonts, Lishu is a "static" font with slow writing speed and rhythm. Mr. Zhang's official script focuses on the expression of static structure and interest, and the font is full, and the composition often makes it full, especially showing and highlighting its heavy line configuration, so I personally think that his official script is particularly suitable for writing couplets, plaques, banners and so on. His official script is solid and steady, and with a square structure, it has created a solemn calligraphy image of Duanfang. Running script and cursive script are "dynamic" fonts, and the writing speed and rhythm are faster. In addition, strokes pay more attention to each other's echo. In Mr. Zhang's official script, it is quite ingenious and does not give people a feeling of affectation. It is unforgettable to hide wisdom in clumsiness, seek change in the stability of work and seek unity in change. His official script embodies the unity of opposites between broadness and exquisiteness, the ingenious combination of ancient customs and modern consciousness in Qin and Han dynasties, and arbitrary and irregular norms. Mr. Zhang has been involved in calligraphy for more than 30 years. Therefore, although his official script is "steady", it does not give people the feeling of "craftsman", but it is more agile, full of vitality and has the charm of cursive script.
Zhang's achievements in the creation of official script are related to his talent and understanding, but mainly to his diligence and cultivation. His official script can be traced back to the pre-Qin dynasty and poor in the Han dynasty, so it can be vigorous and dignified; His official script can be widely used for reference in modern times, so there is no lack of modern meaning in his official script. In addition, because of Mr. Zhang's good personality cultivation, he is good at learning, learning from others' strengths, making friends, and having a broad vision, he can take the essence and use its macro, and learn from the ancient to achieve the unity of numbers and bodies.
Mr. Zhang's achievements in the research and creation of official script are obvious to all, but there is no end to art and knowledge. There is no best on the road of calligraphy art, only better! For a person who loves the art of calligraphy, "the road is long, its Xiu Yuan is Xi, and its Xiu Yuan is Xi", and the mountain road is endless, so it needs unremitting efforts to search up and down!
(The author Meng Yunfei is a postdoctoral fellow in Tsinghua University, a postdoctoral fellow in calligraphy and a member of China Calligraphers Association).