Time flies, and the new year is coming to an irreversible end. Maybe that's why I think so much every year. The seemingly unrelated proposition of calligraphy and life often haunts my mind, giving me the impulse to leave a mark with a pen.
Life is hard, so is learning books. When people are young, their manners are often fearless. In middle age, they become worried and even cautious. The reason is probably that I really realized the hardships and hardships of life. For learning books, it can be said that "children are addicted to learning books and have a pen mark on their fingers"! Won a lot of praise and welcome. While secretly pleased, even though I am shorter than others, I can't help but feel a little frivolous and proud. After listening to more than 300 calligraphy lectures given by Professor Tian, a postgraduate tutor of calligraphy at Nankai University, it can be said that it was "three days of lingering sound"! You know what is big, what is home, and what is manners. Putting aside shame, I am glad that I was guided by Tian Lao in time to the "middle age" of "calligraphy life" and began to become rational and self-aware. According to the general theory of the ancients, it takes ten years to become a painter and twenty years to become a calligrapher. A true calligrapher is both a scholar and a writer. I am not confused when I am near, and I have no chance to be a calligrapher. However, I was fortunate enough to face the peak of China culture-calligraphy. Although I was slapped like an ignorant child, I know enough. I feel that calligraphy is a gift from God to my middle age, which makes me feel the heaviness of middle age in traditional culture and the hardships of studying hard. For calligraphy, it is not only good handwriting, but also rich China culture behind it. Calligraphy without the support of China culture is pale, and it is superficial to regard calligraphy as just writing good words. The so-called "creation" and "art" that deviate from the "law" of calligraphy and steal the name of "calligraphy" are even more deceptive, confusing conscience and even ulterior motives. Similarly, for life, if we are only satisfied with eating and drinking Lazarus and pampering ourselves, what kind of realm will our life be? What kind of state will our society be? As an ordinary person, for the sake of society, we are not allowed to do nothing, let alone be ignorant.
Life has a road, and calligraphy has a road. Based on the pluralistic trend of thought in reality, people often say that everyone has his own way of living, which also produces many attitudes towards life. I think that no matter what kind of living method, there must be a premise, that is, while respecting individual freedom of will, we must abide by universal social laws, ethics and so on. To sum up, people who respect others live a high life, which is the so-called lifestyle. As Tian Lao said, if you don't go this way, others will scold you. The law of calligraphy is the avenue that the ancients endowed Chinese characters with "three beauties in one" in sound, form and meaning. The two princes and sons, Liu Zhao the tern, Su Huang Camo and the modern calligrapher, have different styles, but they are still the same and inseparable from their ancestors, thus achieving a calligraphy method that has been circulated for thousands of years and is praised by people. Nowadays, being keen on fame and fortune, taking ugliness as beauty and being ashamed of sages are contrary to the original intention of calligraphy. Bad atmosphere, reflected in personal behavior and attitude towards life, is more ignorance, more fearlessness, more speculation, more camouflage, infiltrating and subverting the mainstream values of society and the road of calligraphy, and thinking that I am the law. Compared with Tian Lao, what kind of realm and attitude towards life is it to learn from the past lessons and enjoy the "loneliness of pen and ink" for decades?
The method of calligraphy has great details of life. As the saying goes, herringbone is easier to write than to do However, for writers, herringbone is difficult to write and people are difficult to do. Anyone who reads books has such a taste:
First, simplified characters are often difficult to write. One, two, three, four, five, what a pity! These seemingly simple words are used the most, but they are difficult to write well. Therefore, the ancients injected a lot of rules into it. Once the writing is not good, problems will easily appear. Therefore, the ancients often took small letters as their daily class, and they were familiar with it and enjoyed it. It can be said that practice makes perfect. For life, why not? Daily necessities, pots and pans, seemingly simple, but everyone who has eaten fireworks knows the taste. For individuals, if simple things are done well and small things are done well, they will often achieve great things and even dreams.
Second, complex characters contain philosophy of life. The so-called traditional Chinese characters, with many strokes, are difficult to tie up and take time. To this end, the ancients grasped the font on the macro level and handled the strokes on the micro level. Often accustomed to the principle of truth and falsehood, welcoming and letting go, we can achieve symmetrical layout, combination of reality and falsehood, saving the day and perseverance. Related to life, people are often overwhelmed by things. Understanding team spirit with calligraphy is often "another village".
Third, it is easier to be a calligrapher than a writer. Connecting with life, being a bookseller is like a person growing up, mostly in a physiological sense. The real calligrapher, the difficulty lies in writing. Literature is the soul, and books are the carrier, more like spiritual things. A person's life can reach the extreme in the accumulation of material wealth, but many things in the spiritual level are difficult to achieve, which adds a lot of shortcomings to the short life and makes us less worthy of aftertaste and inheritance!
Fourth, why should calligraphy deliberately describe life? Most of the ancient sages and calligraphy were easily captured and flowed down the river. Honesty, naturalness, vividness and kindness leave the beauty from the heart to future generations, which is probably the "characteristic beauty" of calligraphy. Nowadays, some people deny the ancient law, abandon the ancient law, start their own businesses, abandon the basics, grandstanding, deceive the world and steal the name, which is worrying. Some people say that life is 30% live high and 70% being an actor. I agree with that. But what I value more is the 30%, and my pity and nostalgia for that 30% is as obsessed as the pursuit of the natural beauty of calligraphy that day. Our calligraphy, our life, if we deliberately describe it blindly, how much is the value of calligraphy and life!
In the face of calligraphy, I lament the sages. I fear life. Being able to appreciate the hardships of life by calligraphy, awaken the massiness of life and pick up some of life in one's elegant hobbies, isn't it a blessing to enjoy and enrich life after warmth?
I recommend it carefully.