Zhao Yi's non-cursive script occupies a very important position in the history of calligraphy theory and has a milestone significance. The basic point of this paper is to oppose the infatuation of Zhang Zhi, Luo Hui, Zhao Xi and others with cursive script. Zhao Yi believes that these cursive writers are not studying the way of saints and governing the country, but studying a kind of "small skill"-cursive script, which is "not hung by astronomical phenomena, not vomited by Heluo, but made by Chinese and African saints", which is contrary to the lessons of saints. No matter from which point of view, Zhao Yi's non-cursive script can be regarded as an anti-calligraphy article, but this anti-calligraphy article is in the first place in many calligraphy selections in past dynasties. Source: Calligraphy Home, Calligraphy Home China Calligraphy Learning Network. This is a very interesting phenomenon.
As far as Zhao Yi's article is concerned, it is not anti-writing, but anti-calligraphy. Although Zhao Yi didn't say the boundary between writing and calligraphy, she was puzzled by her single-minded pursuit of calligraphy. From the perspective of calligraphy development, anti-calligraphy articles like this are completely contrary to the historical process. We could have ignored it, but I think this is not a good phenomenon for studying the history of calligraphy criticism. The reason is that, as mentioned above, we generally emphasize two goals in studying the history of calligraphy criticism, one is to study the content of criticism, and the other is to study the methods of criticism. Judging from the content of research criticism, Zhao Yi's anti-calligraphy phenomenon is definitely not desirable on the whole; However, if we study his critical methods, non-cursive script leaves us with a very precious and rare example.
First of all, many books and Fu evolved from Han Fu left us the impression of pure appreciation. This impression will be very happy for a scholar who studies the concept of calligraphy, because it shows that the ancients began to express their artistic appreciation of calligraphy with words and formal documents. But for artists who are really engaged in calligraphy creation, this appreciation is a figurative and personalized metaphor, which has no direct significance to calligraphy creation. To some extent, especially from the perspective of calligraphy itself, the metaphors of imitating things and personification are actually subjective and arbitrary, and their appreciation opinions may be completely different according to the personal opinions and preferences of the appreciator. For example, for a line, you think it is like a long-lived vine, and I can think it is like the intersection of two snakes. You can imagine a point as a crouching bear, and I can imagine it as a stone. For the same object, different people, according to their different life experiences and different familiarity with things, can make completely different concrete conclusions, and these conclusions have different interpretations. This makes appreciation diversified, but the research is too different to grasp and determine, which proves that it is not desirable for the later development of calligraphy in practice. This is the basic impression left by many books at that time. Source: Calligraphy Home, Calligraphy Home China Calligraphy Learning Network. Therefore, the rise of the real calligraphy theory should go through such a process: first, we should make a concrete observation of abstract calligraphy works, but we can't just stop at this step. If we just stay here, it is likely to lead to such a danger as concretization and painting of calligraphy. Therefore, while calligraphy theory is moving towards descriptive appreciation, some real critical theories are urgently needed to improve the quality of his research. Zhao Yi's "non-cursive script" is precisely the most ideal model of this critical theory. There is a contradiction here. As a critical content, Zhao Yi's non-cursive script is very disappointing. However, as a critical method, it was the ideal critical method of "yet we called and urged a thousand times before she started toward us" that calligraphy theory urgently needed at that time. We can sort out these three relationships as follows:
Six Books on "Non-cursive" Calligraphy Fu
Writing-Criticizing Content Errors-Excessive Metaphorical Observation
(Practical) Criticism and Correct Attitude (Aesthetic)
The critical content of non-cursive script is wrong (anti-calligraphy), but its critical method is progressive. The progress of critical methods is relative to the metaphorical attitude of book fu and book potential. Compared with calligraphy, non-cursive script has more positive significance in critical methods. To be sure, non-cursive writing is a kind of judgment and evaluation; And "calligraphy" and the like are just a general personal feeling. Therefore, in contrast, the "non-cursive" method seems to be progressive, and "calligraphy" seems to be backward. Judging from the content of criticism, they are just the opposite. Zhao Yi's criticism is against the artistry of calligraphy. He believes that the art of calligraphy is useless for governing the country, so he advocates the use of characters. In contrast, the content of Fu is progressive. These two kinds of articles just constitute a set of contradictions between the critical contents and methods involved: they both have their own backward side and advanced side. Zhao Yi does not take the aesthetic position, but the position of using words. However, the location of this application has rich historical significance.
Between non-cursive calligraphy and calligraphy fu and the theory of six books at that time
At that time, there was an interesting relationship among non-cursive script, calligraphy fu and Liu Shu because of their different positions, methods and contents. I have drawn a relationship diagram (practical-aesthetic), an appreciation axis and a text application axis for you before. Between the six-calligraphy theory and calligraphy fu, non-cursive calligraphy appeared. His position of choosing critical content is close to the theory of applied writing, while his critical method is close to the speculative position that calligraphy art theory urgently hopes for. The reason why "non-cursive" is a milestone is also its significance. There is a very strange turning point between its critical content and critical method, and we can't find a second example of this turning point together at that time. As a researcher, the more unified the historical phenomenon, the clearer the connection between superficial logics, and the less meaningful it is to him. On the contrary, the more contradictions there are, the more information there is, and the more opportunities there are to guess or infer what the ancients thought and what kind of ideology they were at that time. Therefore, the more contradictory the phenomenon, the higher its value, which is worth studying by future generations.
Let's analyze Zhao Yi's non-cursive script in detail. He thinks that the original purpose of cursive script is "easy and quick", but now it is "difficult and late", so he thinks that there are many mistakes. He says that cursive script skills "cover the ears of skills" and think that cursive script skills are also the least important among insect carving skills. "Villages and towns don't need this as a skill, courts don't need this as an official, doctors don't need this as an exam, four subjects don't need this as a preparation, recruitment doesn't ask this skill, and performance appraisal doesn't take this word. Good does not reach politics, and it does not harm governance. " In the past, the selection of talents from local to central authorities really focused on writing ability, but it had nothing to do with cursive writing. Whether cursive writing is good or not has nothing to do with political achievements and governing the country. This arrangement is a very logical arrangement.
The logical structure of Zhao Yifei's cursive prose can be roughly divided into three sections:
The first part: clarify the viewpoint that cursive script is not enough for learning.
The second part: it is said that people who studied at that time were not worth learning and had no ability to learn well.
Part III: Explain why learning is useless.
We can use the above three sentences to summarize the basic idea of non-cursive script.
Let's look back at Shu Fu. Book Fu uses many metaphors and descriptions, but can it form an interlocking logical "chain" like Zhao Yi? The appreciation of calligraphy in Shu Fu is actually dull. Non-cursive script has a logic: cursive script is not enough to learn-people who learn it are not worth learning-and it is useless to learn it. Therefore, we can distance the non-cursive script from the "Calligraphy Fu" of Han and Jin Dynasties from the research methods and speculative characteristics and from the general calligraphy theory at that time. If calligraphy theory's standard is based on speculative meaning, then Zhao Yi's non-cursive script is the first paper that meets this standard. The so-called speculation is a process of argumentation. Interestingly, the first official calligraphy theory paper was actually anti-calligraphy. This is a very interesting phenomenon, but to be sure, this first one is very important to us.
We can summarize the non-cursive script from the following aspects:
First of all, its method is characterized by thematic criticism. Please note that this is a theory, not a narrative or description. Book Fu in Han and Jin Dynasties is basically descriptive, and description and monograph should be distinguished. The way to describe it is that I will only tell you what it is, what is happening there now and how it happened. It's called description. Monograph is that I prove to you why, the cause and effect. The difference between the former and the latter is that the latter needs the support of very strict logical thinking. I think the emergence of thematic criticism is very important, which has epoch-making significance in the history of calligraphy criticism and will determine the basic direction of calligraphy theory's development in the future.
Secondly, the non-cursive script reflected the trend of a theory moving towards practice at that time. I attribute it to practical significance, because in this article, Zhao Yi talked very specifically about the situation of people writing cursive scripts at that time. As for Zhang Zhi, Cui Yuan and Du Cao, there are the following records:
Cui and Cui all have extraordinary talents. They study in their spare time and wander around.
In the future, future generations will admire. Serve the people wholeheartedly, drill hard and raise high, forget its fatigue and leave it alone.
Rest, not enough to eat, every ten days, every month, pills and ink, leadership is like soap, lips and teeth are often black.
Although in many seats, I don't talk about drama, I show my fingers to draw the ground, I cover the wall with grass, and my arm grazes my skin.
Claws are broken, gill bleeding is seen, and it still lingers.
Such a craze for cursive script was actually outlined when cursive script just emerged for our future generations.
Such a passion for cursive script, for our future generations, actually outlines the fanatical mentality of a large number of artists when cursive script just rose. In the Han and Jin dynasties, all appreciation of calligraphy was limited to personal feelings. If you think it is a crouching bear, a sly rabbit, a bird or an animal, it is extremely subjective and arbitrary. But Zhao Yi's non-cursive script began to reflect the true historical facts of learning calligraphy at that time. Although it is opposed, at least this article has practical significance, because it retains these precious historical materials. Without this article, we might not know how people wrote cursive scripts at that time. Some people in later generations said that when Zhang Zhi wrote, the pool was full of ink. But we had no idea that Zhang Zhi, Cui Yuan, Du Cao and others at that time had such a fanatical pursuit of calligraphy. It is precisely because "Non-cursive script" provides in detail the infatuation and madness of these artists when writing cursive scripts at that time, so we say this article has practical significance. Looking at the age, Zhao Yi and Zhang Zhi are contemporaries, and Zhao Yi is describing the practices of his peers. Maybe we have reason to speculate that he witnessed it with his own eyes. Otherwise, why did he write such a vivid dramatic scene and why did he feel so wronged? Looking at Han He's Fu alone, we can't get a glimpse of the writer's modality at that time, but Zhao Yi vividly told us that this is a great contribution.
Thirdly, the concept and background behind these phenomena were also important research topics. Zhao Yi believes that "a hundred herbs are easy and quick, but now it is difficult and late" because the difference between "cursive script" and "cursive script" just appeared at that time. Cursive script was not pure art at first, but appeared as a practical form of cursive script. For example, Zhang Zhi once said, "Cursive writing is in no hurry". The punctuation of this sentence is different, but the meaning is opposite: the first punctuation is "I am too busy to write cursive", which means that cursive should be written slowly; The second punctuation is "in a hurry, cursive", which means that there is no time in a hurry, so writing cursive is to write cursive quickly. Two kinds of punctuation marks bring two diametrically opposite meanings, which is the trouble that ancient books without punctuation marks bring to future generations. Is cursive writing fast or slow? In fact, no one can guess today because there were no punctuation marks in ancient times. And this kind of fast and slow, just reflects two different views of cursive script. If it is "cursive", it should be "in a hurry, cursive", which is opposite to the orthodox cursive art, just like our scribbled words today; If it is "in a hurry, it is obvious that cursive script exists as an art, rather than scribbling quickly." Because we don't know what circumstances and occasions the ancients said these words at that time, we can't judge what kind of punctuation marks it is. Similarly, many people in later generations have two different explanations when summing up because they don't understand the difference between cursive art and cursive (scribble). At that time, these two styles were in a state of juxtaposition (coexistence), so they were easily confused, which is of great significance to our research today. When Zhang Zhi and others wrote "leaders are like soap, and their lips and teeth are often black", he took "cursive art". Where is Zhao Yi's criticism of Cecilia Cheung? Herbal medicine is easy and quick, but it is difficult and late today. Obviously, Zhao opposed the cursive script from the standpoint of cursive script. Can we understand that Zhao Yi is using "cursive script" to oppose "cursive script"?
Fourthly, there was a concept stipulation in the critical method at that time. The reason why Zhao Yi wrote non-cursive script in this way is probably related to the cultural background at that time. There is a phenomenon in the history of literature: is the trend of literature "beautiful" or "practical"? The reason why Han Fu is still beautiful is that it expresses the author's writing skills in the form of carving, accurate comparison and antithesis. Han Fu gradually reached its peak at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but at the same time, a considerable number of artists or writers saw that it was about to decline and become rigid, and began to make an appeal, emphasizing the "still-in-use" function of literature: expressing emotions and ambitions through poetry. For example, Yang Xiong has a saying that is often quoted by later generations, which is called "Carving a small skill, forcing a husband to do something". In fact, Yang Xiong's words at that time did not refer to seal cutting, but to overemphasizing the formal beauty of Han Fu. It is a real man's disdain to dismiss the exquisite form of Han Fu as a skill of carving insects and aiming at Qingyun. Yang Xiong has this view. When he came to Zhao Yi, he actually expressed this view in the form of literature. What kind of person is Zhao Yi? He is a famous writer who has written many works from generation to generation. He has a "Fu" article called "Fu on the Diseases of the World", which is also very famous in the history of literature. Think about it. The style of "Fu" was originally used to praise, but a beautifully written Fu was actually used to "stab the world" and "attack evil". Is it critical? Is there any purpose to attack current events? Obviously, Zhao Yi is using Fu (literature) to interfere with current affairs. The appearance of non-cursive script aims at opposing the duality of parallel prose. From the standpoint of critical history, the style he used is actually a very progressive style, getting rid of the antithesis, parallelism and word refining skills of Han Fu and moving towards straightforward narration. Therefore, "Shang Yong" should be an anti-literary phenomenon in the history of literature, but this phenomenon has found a healthy development track for literature itself in a specific historical background. Zhao Yi's non-cursive script, if viewed against the background of the history of literary criticism, actually adopts a very progressive style. He used a very progressive style to do such a special work against calligraphy art. Although we can say that it is progressive in the history of literature, it is retrogressive in the history of calligraphy. Furthermore, is the logical relationship between this progress and its retrogression consistent? Can it be said that because he is using a still-used style to promote the still-used view of art, it is consistent in internal logic.
There is a certain dislocation between the history of literature and calligraphy.
There is some dislocation between the history of literature and calligraphy. Literature pursues exquisiteness and then returns to use. What about calligraphy? Does cursive script have an exquisite artistic premise against the artistry of calligraphy? The development of China's literature from The Book of Songs and Songs of the South to Han Fu can be said to be the first time in the history of literature that the independence of literary form was completely emphasized, and literary talent was brought into play, and then it was still used. This is the development track of the history of literature. What about the history of calligraphy Is there a delicate artistic development as a prerequisite? Although Zhao Yi also stressed that she was still using it at this time, on the surface, the goals of literature and calligraphy were the same, but calligraphy did not appear in the exquisite form of literature before it was still used, and there was no aesthetic preparation and deficiency in the early stage. So it is still useful to bring it up at this time, but it is actually backward. Then we can say that the use of literature is positive, while the use of calligraphy is negative at that time, when calligraphy just needed to be beautiful. If we look at the two in isolation without considering the needs of calligraphy itself, we feel that they are very consistent and normal: the same era, the same society, the same cultural background, and the same attitude of "reuse". However, if we consider the requirements of calligraphy itself besides sociality, we will find that the conclusion is just the opposite. Therefore, the development of every art may be restricted by a social law, and art itself also has the requirement of "self-discipline". If we do not respect the requirement of "self-discipline", the history of calligraphy is likely to be very simple and conceptual. For example, many calligraphy history books we saw in the past are nothing more than two kinds: one is that there is no historical view at all and only some original materials; The other is to have a certain historical view, but this historical view is mechanical materialism, the art of social progress will advance, and the art of social retrogression will also retrogress. This is ridiculous. How do you know that if society goes backwards, art will definitely go backwards? Maybe art is progressing, so how can we treat this completely different research object so simply and naively? As for Zhao Yi, we spent a lot of time discussing its value. I hope you are as familiar with the content of this article as possible. Because it is a key to understand the whole tangible history of China's calligraphy criticism. Invisible criticism is scattered in various historical materials and sporadic records, while tangible criticism is a single article that appears in the form of words and forms a document. If Zhao Yi follows the trend of calligraphy and emphasizes beauty, he may hardly become a typical key, which means little to us. Because of his anti-calligraphy, it provides us with many possibilities for further exploration, speculation, judgment and sorting. We can consider why he opposes calligraphy. We can also consider his anti-calligraphy background, such as the background of calligraphy itself, the relationship between calligraphy and social background and so on. This is our understanding and grasp of the value of Zhao Yi's Non-cursive script as the most important document in the history of criticism.