The theme of the book is that calligraphy has rules to follow, and the essence of this "rule" lies in using fingers and wrists to exert strength. As the book says, today people use the power of "lifting pressure" to make the thickness of strokes, while the ancients used the power of "taking potential" to make the thickness of strokes. Nowadays, people do not turn pens, but shape them with their eyes; The ancients turned their pens and followed the trend. Completely and completely different things, never in the same breath
What makes me awake in the article belongs to the author's tracing back to the origin of brushwork.
The brushwork is formed in the writing posture.
This is the book "School Map of the Northern Song Dynasty". You can see that the proofreader on the couch has different postures: one of them holds paper in his left hand and writes with his right hand, and his posture is like a porcelain servant in the Western Jin Dynasty; A person rests with a pen in his right hand and looks sideways with a paper in his left hand, as if enjoying his own book. Judging from the furniture of the same period, several boxes at that time were very short and almost flush with the bed. If the paper is written on several cases, the distance between hands and eyes is far away, and it is impossible to write the exquisite fine print at that time; If the whole person's body is written on several squares, it is obviously more like an acrobatic action, which is not in line with physiology and nature, and it is even more impossible to turn your fingers.
From the Western Jin Dynasty to the Northern Qi Dynasty, the period of nearly 300 years was the peak of calligraphy, and the official history Wang Zi (Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi) dominated the world. From the above seven sages of bamboo forest, they truly reflected the living condition of "sitting on the floor" at that time.
The picture above is a historical picture of a woman. There is a woman's history standing in the picture, with paper in her left hand and writing in her right hand. Look carefully, it is the "classic" writing at that time. It can be inferred that contemporary Wang Xizhi has never written on his desk.
The brushwork discussed in this way is derived from and formed in this posture. The definition of "fa" in calligraphy should be based on this posture first, and then the transfer of strokes and fingers.
In Zhou Wenju's Map of Wen Yuan in the Five Dynasties, we can see a man on the right holding a roll of paper and writing with his right hand. And the person sitting on the left is looking at the dense fine print in his hand. As you can see, the paper is still in your hand.
Let's look at the paintings of the Song Dynasty. In Zhang Zeduan's famous Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty, we can see high tables, stools and tables everywhere.
In the Eighteen Pictures of Bachelor in Song Dynasty, the writing state at that time was described in an unobstructed view: people were sitting on the bed, with a high table in front of them, a piece of paper spread out on the table, and some people wanted to write.
Therefore, Song paintings clearly tell us the true writing style of people in that era. However, it is different from the past: the paper has changed from being held in your hand to being laid flat on the table; The hand holding the pen changed from "lifting the wrist" to "flat wrist"; The brush touches the paper, changing from perpendicular to the reading surface to perpendicular to the desktop. Although these small changes are inconspicuous, they are particularly critical changes.
When the hand is writing without support and the reading surface is vertical, due to the physiological limitation of the hand, the fingers are flexible, but the wrist lift is bound to be restrained, and the amplitude is small, which is not suitable for writing big characters. Besides, it is not stable enough because it is holding bamboo slips or paper. Paving the road with a table instead of your left hand is absolutely stable. After the brush is perpendicular to the desktop, not only the space for fingers to move up and down becomes larger, but also the brushwork changes unconsciously.
Judging from Ma Yuan's "Garden in the West" in Song Dynasty, the writer's writing attitude is almost the same as that of modern people.
Calligraphers of later generations always say that "the ancient method declined after the Tang Dynasty". The so-called "ancient method" is the brushwork used when writing with paper in hand. Because of the use of tables, the "ancient method declined", and this unsupported writing method naturally declined.
Of course, the difference between ancient and modern brushwork is rooted in the change of writing posture, but the inheritance of brushwork has been preserved to this day: turning the pen and moving the fingers and moving the wrist.
Enlightenment to the next calligrapher: it is useless to study ancient calligraphy and blindly pursue the similarity of glyphs. Read more stickers and well-printed ink stickers, and feel the movement of pens, pens and fingers of the ancients at that time. In the process of learning brushwork, we must first learn to "learn". It's not enough to look at it by yourself. You need a teacher's guidance to distinguish the beauty and disadvantages of brushwork. Secondly, it is necessary to rely on the teacher to teach in person, hold hands and cooperate with the formula; Finally, it is your hard work. As the saying goes, "the master leads the door and practices in the individual." If the brushwork is right, the font will naturally be similar.
I think this is the main gain that this book has brought me so far.
Finally, I ended my reading with a passage by Zhu Luzhen, a calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty: "It was not easy for the ancients to write cantilever. What is the basis of ancient learning? There is no one who can be handed down from generation to generation without hanging up his pen. Special descendants have been writing books according to cases since childhood and are accustomed to Yan' an. Easier to go than to come, the ancient law is a fear of Tao. It's not normal, but it's different "