Among the aesthetic factors of China's calligraphy, the structure of cloth and white is of course important, while the lines are more important. Calligraphy is a unique line art composed of the author's thoughts and feelings through pen and ink. This movement and combination of lines has carried people's spiritual life for thousands of years.
there is no doubt that round lines are admired by people. "strength" refers to the sense of force, while "circle" refers to the three-dimensional sense. Briefly described below.
strength-the sense of force of calligraphy lines. Sense of power is the life of calligraphy art. For thousands of years, in writing practice, in order to show the effect of calligraphy art, people have explored the basic law of "using a pen", that is, using a reverse stroke when starting a pen, using a center when writing a pen, and using a back stroke when closing a pen, so that the force can be condensed, natural and solid, showing the sense of force of lines, such as "in clocks and watches" When the ancients discussed books, they compared stippling to a falling stone from a high mountain, holding painting to a "hundred-shot crossbow", and vertical painting to a "long live a withered vine", all of which illustrated the power of calligraphy lines. Imagine that a boulder suddenly falls from a high mountain. Once the crossbow with fateful force comes out offline, what kind of power is shown in a movement line formed by its momentum or in the tenacity compared with Gu Teng in the Millennium? What does it feel like? Such lines naturally leave the viewer with a rich sense of force, and show the essence of calligraphy "spirit" through the appearance of "shape".
how do calligraphy lines produce the effect of "strength"? The answer, of course, is "with a pen". -
The pen used by the center is the root of calligraphy lines, but it does not exclude the side stroke (there are many ways to say the side stroke in academic circles, and some attribute it to the pen used by the center; Some define the lateral front as the "angle" of the pen and deny the use of the front. Here, the lateral front is regarded as a kind of action front). The changes of lines are different in form, such as straightness, thickness and so on. In essence, it mainly refers to the center and winger. The lines produced by the center's pen are full and round, full of vitality and strength; With a pen on the side, the edge shows, the spirit shows, and the strength shows. The center is the center, the flank takes the momentum, and the middle side is used together. It is cadence, quiet as a mountain, and moving like a spring note, which shows the strength of the brushwork and the strength of the lines.
circle-the three-dimensional sense of calligraphy lines. It is formed by the lines themselves. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Luzhen said in "A Brief Introduction to Calligraphy": "The husband is round, and the potential is round, which is not called sharpening and chamfering." This shows that the three-dimensional sense of the line is not determined by the shape of the turning point at both ends of the line. (Fang Bi, round pen is about using a pen and brushwork. ) Bao Shichen made it even more clear in "Art Boat and Twin Towers": "The method of using a pen can be found at both ends of a painting. The ancients, however, were rich and arrogant and unattainable, but they were cut in the painting. ..... Try to draw an ancient post horizontally and straight, and cover both ends and cut it in the middle, then people will see it. " This shows that the three-dimensional sense of lines is not necessarily related to the shapes of both ends, but is formed by the lines themselves.
then, how do calligraphy lines form a three-dimensional sense on the plane? I think we can analyze the causes of three-dimensional sense from two aspects: paper and pen.
The term "ink permeates the back of the paper" (ink here refers to Mo Dao), that is to say, the thickness of lines is expressed by the infiltration depth of Mo Dao when writing. The lines with ink penetrating the back of the paper can show a three-dimensional thickness feeling on the edges of the lines through the translucency of the paper; However, when the paper is swept away, the lines whose ink color is less than the deep layer of the paper have no such thickness feeling at all. Although this feeling is very subtle, it is very clear to observe it as a book reader.
some people may ask, what do you mean by "dry pen and thirsty pen"? Dry pen and thirsty pen also have Mo Dao, "The pen will sink when it is astringent", and it can also be seen through the paper back, showing a three-dimensional effect. If the pen floats, even if it is dipped in a lot of ink, it can only be "floating ink" and its thinness is obvious. This problem is exactly what the center will talk about below.
the second name is "pen luck center". Only relying on "ink penetrating the back of the paper" can only create a three-dimensional effect on the thickness, but it can't completely produce a round effect. To achieve the "round" state, it must be expressed through a high degree of pen skills. It should be said that the "round" effect of calligraphy lines is mainly caused by the center's pen.
The reason why the pen center is easy to form a round line is actually due to the difference of pressure distribution when the pen moves on the paper. From the ink of the pen center, it can be seen that the pressure along the center line of the pen tip is the highest, while the secondary pressure on both sides gradually decreases from the inside out, resulting in the difference of deepening degree and dryness, and there are subtle differences between the thick middle edge and the dry middle edge, showing the three-dimensional sense of the line "round". In traditional calligraphy, descriptive language such as "painting sand with a cone" is often used to make a visual explanation.
for the convenience of analysis, I discussed "strength" and "circle" separately. In fact, in the aesthetic feeling of calligraphy lines, circle and strength are integrated, and the calligrapher also integrated them into one furnace when creating this line. Anyone who is "energetic" will show its "round" effect; Anyone who is "round" naturally has the beauty of "strength", and the two are interrelated, infiltrated and inseparable.
It is not easy for a calligrapher to achieve "roundness" in calligraphy lines, and it is not difficult for anyone with calligraphy experience to realize this. Of course, simple round lines are not the whole connotation of calligraphy. Because, as an element of calligraphy, line is simple after all. However, this simple line form is in sharp contrast with the extremely complicated changes of this dotted line in calligraphy, which makes people understand the true meaning of calligraphy. China's calligraphy shows all kinds of complex artistic conception and interest with simple and refined line modeling, and "roundness" is refined and created from this simple line element. To explore and master the mystery of this change, we can only inject the formal composition (that is, the combination of lines) and spiritual connotation (that is, spiritual sustenance) into people's hearts and then into pens to show the life and charm of lines.