Reading the calligraphy of master Hongyi, we can feel such a state.
Fortunately, it is quiet and not impetuous.
Impetuousness is a vicious competition among spiritual belief, money worship and lack of human nature, which often makes people feel anxious, helpless and depressed. Impetuousness is the external expression of this emotion and knot. Impetuousness shows that our happiness index is not high. It is a common and frequent pathological state, a big obstacle that hinders us from making greater achievements in our career and obtaining a higher quality of life, and also a big evil in artistic creation (including calligraphy).
When you read a master's book, you will feel a solemn silence. Those words are steady and decent, unlike the calligraphy of people who pursue the exhibition hall effect at present, which is arrogant, furious and ugly (people who like this taste, or call it "striking", "impact" and "innovation").
How did Hongyi make his calligraphy have such a quiet atmosphere?
First of all, the author has a good attitude. Without a calm heart, you can't write a calm word. After a lifetime of prosperity, Master Hongyi voluntarily converted to Buddhism and called himself a "rotten person". Glory is very dull, he converted to complete purity, completely detached from dust, and became a generation of legalists. He is versatile: calligraphy and painting, epigraphy, poetry, drama, music, art and education. After entering an empty door, all of them were abandoned, leaving only calligraphy as a tool and way to spread Buddhist thoughts. He thinks that calligraphy is a symbol, or Buddhism itself. He said: "My words are Buddhism, and the layman need not be too different." Therefore, calligraphy is not for calligraphy's sake, but for art's sake. He pays more attention to the role of words and expressions, not to show off his accomplishments and talents in calligraphy. With such a heart, the essence of the pen is awe-inspiring, silent, smooth and diluted, quiet and comfortable.
On the other hand, it has something to do with his writing habits.
Most of his writing is regular script, and he doesn't pay attention to different sizes and patchwork, nor does he pay attention to the connection between words. The size of the characters is basically the same, and the thickness of the strokes has not changed much. This writing can easily become an "operator". How did he break it? Through the side of the word and the emphasis of individual strokes of each word. The scope of this emphasis is not large, so grasp a "degree". If this range is large, it will be "earthquake" and "tsunami", not to mention "calm". Mi Fei's "calligraphy" and "sword array" and Huang Tingjian's "spear and halberd" are both "moving" badly.
Fortunately, literature is not wild.
Wild fox Zen is not all bad. In calligraphy creation, some people try their best to break the inherent aesthetic stereotype and deliberately appear rude. For example, Fu Shan's aesthetic view of calligraphy is an example: "Ning Zhuo is not clever, rather ugly than flattering, rather piecemeal than smooth, rather true than arranged". However, this appearance should contain the spirit of innovation. On the premise of a comprehensive survey and a clear understanding of the tradition, such a "wild" may be a kind of tension, a kind of new life, which can be said to be superficial and its core. If you act boldly blindly and do whatever you want, you can only write bad letters.
Master Guan's calligraphy is elegant and smart, and the content (mostly classics) should be matched with such words. It is not a luxurious temple spirit, a cold and thrifty mountain spirit, a sharp-edged wit spirit, and it is not arrogant.
Master Hongyi's calligraphy often appears in the form of couplets, and the content is taken from Buddhist classics. The distance between words is very far, about two-thirds of the distance between words, giving people a sense of spaciousness. A word is a word, which is elegant and well reflects the aesthetic effect of "counting white as black".
Word spacing reflects the "text" in the composition, and individual words also reflect the "text". In Hony's writing, it seems that there are many points, and short horizontal and vertical lines simplify him into points, such as two vertical lines of "tradition" in "general", two horizontal lines below "Japan" and two vertical lines above "tradition" and so on. Turning the horizontal and vertical points into points is the "point stop", that is, the "emptiness" of Buddha and the "nothingness" of Tao.
Fortunately, it is wet but not dry.
Moisturizing is often too thick and ink is too thick, so it is called "ink pig". In the history of calligraphy, Xu Hao, Su Shi and Liu Yong have all encountered this extreme ridicule. For this reason, Su Shi deliberately told people that he had never studied Xu Hao, but called his calligraphy "wrapped in iron" with bones and flesh.
Master Hongyi's calligraphy is slender, even if there is no thirsty pen, no flying white, and the ink is as thick as paint, it is not too bloated. If we use the word "left and right" like Su Shi or "Zhu Da", it will probably give people the impression of using too much ink. Going up and down with the trend, the contradiction between fullness, darkness and fullness is well solved.
Hongyi's calligraphy, the words are true and meticulous, and the strokes are clearly explained. Seemingly naive, it is actually a brilliant Zen: every word and stroke permeates and infuses his piety and simplicity.
Ink is colorful. In Chinese painting, special attention is paid to shade and dryness. Some calligraphers also use this technique to make their calligraphy show colorful changes in depth, dryness and softness, so as to give people a strong visual impression. Hongyi just moistens blindly, reaching a pure mixed state.
Fortunately, it is simple and not complicated.
"The Sanqiu tree, which is simplified by deleting complexity, leads the new February flower." (Zheng Xie) China's art stresses "simplicity". Chinese painting emphasizes simplicity, freehand brushwork without rewriting the form, and the picture is too full to breathe, which is considered a failure. This is different from western art, and so is poetry. It emphasizes hammering words and refining sentences, and one equals ten. There are no long poems in China's language and literature, and there are no tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of epic poems in ancient Greece and India. Calligraphy is the same, simplicity is also a kind of beauty, a kind of interest and pursuit.
In the history of calligraphy, the handwriting is clean and simple, and Zhu Da is a typical example.
Master Hongyi's calligraphy is also neat and concise. The "point" mentioned above is actually a simplification; Blindly moist, not seeking change, is also a kind of simplicity: the thickness of strokes is roughly the same, without seeking the contrast between the center and the oblique direction, and the contrast between the thickness of strokes is still a kind of simplicity.
One more thing, in Hongyi's calligraphy, strokes can be saved, but the word "love" is not enough. The words "heart" and "rain" are simplified to two points, and so on. Borrowing his couplets can be described as "one to one, and the text follows the righteousness."
In addition, Hong Yi's handling of the horizontal pen is also worthy of attention. When he started writing, he wrote this song without trace and without brewing, just like the sound of nature, which cannot be measured by the usual methods. This is also a kind of Jane.
Three days before Master Hongyi's death, he wrote down his masterpiece "Sorrow and Joy" and reviewed and summarized his life in four big characters. It's really concise and meaningful.
From the simple analysis of the above aspects, we can get the impression that Master Hongyi's calligraphy is simple and natural, without any artificiality and luxury, just like a bright moon hanging quietly in the sky, giving people a clear glow.
Miao Feng said in "Preface to Master Hongyi's Handwriting Yan Jia Collection": "It is not difficult to find that Master Hongyi's works are lifeless, with no traces of knives and axes. The words are like people, and they are not obvious. They disappear into the jungle with' civilians' and' cloth clothes'."
Honestly.
Some people say: As a monk's calligraphy, Hongyi is different from some monks and artists in history, such as Zhiyong and Huai Su. Although they are dressed in cassock, it seems that their life is not aimed at firm Buddhist belief and sincere and pragmatic Buddhist practice. They are just artists sent to Buddhist temples, "obsessed with the world and intoxicated with gaining true knowledge", which is completely the temperament and romance of artists. The irony of starling in Badashanren's works is obvious. His paintings are really a kind of venting. After joining the WTO, they are not detached. Compared with them, they completely escaped from Zen and Song. He converted to his own heart, transcended worldly customs, and devoted himself to the cultivation of Buddhism by dharma. He is a pure Buddhist master.
Calligraphy is the trace of the soul. Hongyi's calligraphy changed from gorgeous in vulgarity to plain after vulgarity, which is the result of cultivating the mind and the sublimation of the master's spiritual realm.
In the noisy and flashy world, experts hold the Mo Bao left by Master Hongyi, which is also a blessing of life and a spiritual feast.