(F) Bai Di: What is missing from studying the style of the two kings today?

Now the calligraphers who study the two kings are mostly imitators. The most fundamental reason for this phenomenon lies in the unconsciousness of calligraphers' subjective style consciousness and their indifference to Wang Shu's artistic spirit. From a technical point of view, the poor performance of Wang's pen and ink in physique, style and spatial form is the bottleneck to improve the style characteristics of Wang's popular calligraphy. What's more, many scholars oppose the erection of monuments under the banner of the two kings, and limit the tradition to the form of the two kings rather than the traditional aesthetic spirit contained in the style of the two kings. They excluded the ancient seal script before Wei and Jin Dynasties from the tradition, which greatly misinterpreted the essence of calligraphy tradition. First, the unconsciousness of style consciousness The reason why the calligraphy style of the two kings is immortal and enjoys a lofty position in the history of calligraphy is, first of all, because it has turned the old-style pen since the Han Dynasty into a new-style pen characterized by ups and downs. Structurally, with the origin and development of regular script in Wei and Jin Dynasties, the two kings found a freely usable carrier, which made cursive script fully mature on the basis of regular script. This unprecedented creation laid the dignity and status of his calligrapher. Since Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, vigorously promoted Wang Xizhi's calligraphy, many people in the past dynasties have learned from Wang Dai. Just like those unscathed copybooks in Feng Chengsu, such as "Chunhua Pavilion" and other copybooks carved by national forces, it is possible to spread the book of the king to a certain extent. But as a pure scholar, there are few recognized masters now, exactly like two kings. Most of them are learning kings, and all of them are handed down to future generations in a strong personal style. Such as Zhang Xu, Yan Zhenqing and Huai Su in the middle Tang Dynasty, and Yang Ningshi and Song Sijia in the Five Dynasties. Undoubtedly, the creation of Wang Xianzhi, the son of Wang Xizhi, is the most enlightening. As the calligrapher closest to the father of the sage, Xiao Wang has seen more original works of kings than anyone in history, but Xiao Wang is obviously not satisfied with learning only his father's calligraphy. Some of his remarks and works left in the world can fully explain his ideal of not being shrouded in his father's books-The Book Score reads: "A taste asks Amethyst:' How can a noble book be like a just army?' Answer the cloud:' Therefore, we should win.' Wang Xianzhi's suicide notes, such as Thirteen Lines of Luo Shen Fu, Duck Head Pill Post and Twenty-nine Post, all have unique charm. The ancients learned from Wang Shu and thought innovation, which was caused by artistic consciousness. Today's popular king of calligraphy style, similar to the king of ancient calligraphy, lacks style Why can't they jump out and compete with the masters in history? The primary reason is the lack of innovative consciousness. Most of them think that Wang Shu is synonymous with tradition, and some basic routines to learn from Wang Shu are to master tradition. And once their ideal tradition is close, they stop and stop pursuing more. This is completely different from the calligraphy concept that the masters of past dynasties took the pursuit of self as their own responsibility. Secondly, the evaluation system of today's book world is not perfect, and most calligraphers who study under Wang control the platform and power of book selection. The gain of this power is mainly due to their "good-looking" style accepted by most people. Once they enter a deeper level of self-exploration, they may be thrown aside and their power will be sidelined. How can they easily give up the benefits they have worked hard for many years? Therefore, it is better to be more affordable than to explore hard. Third, there is a lack of understanding of the beauty of calligraphy itself. It is believed that Wang Zi is the highest realm, and it rejects or even refuses to absorb ancient seal characters, thus losing the possibility of complementary characters. Second, the lack of bones and muscles, painting style Sheikh proposed that painting should have six methods: vivid charm, brushwork, pictographic, color following the class, business position and transformation. Although it aims at painting, it seems to be "expressive and verve" and "bone method". What is "bone method"? Is to see the bones and muscles with a pen. The author understands that pressing hard with a pen, grasping moderately vertically, brushing moist but not dry, threatening but not fierce, clear but not empty, is to look at bones and muscles. Before Wang Xizhi's old style, his pen inherited the simplicity and conciseness since Han bamboo slips, and there were often unexpected pens. Wang Shu's movements are exquisite, pen and paper cooperate tacitly, and his movements are clean and neat, and he is not careless at all. Its strokes are not dry unfortunately, the lines are not empty, and the transition from lifting to pressing is natural. Compare Wang Shu with those of Zhao Mengfu and Dong Qichang, and you will understand what bones and muscles are. Comparing Wang Shu's Frequent Sorrow Posts with Zhao Shu's Red Cliff Fu and Shu Dong's Pipa Travel, Wang Shu's pen is vigorous and powerful, with the nib pressed down to a greater extent, and the turning point is often dark, with a fast and rhythmic pen, but the line quality is vigorous and beautiful; Zhao and Dong's calligraphy speed is even, and they use fewer pens, especially when they break or stop at the turning point. It won't be too dark to change the front with a pen, especially when changing quickly. The action is simple and the dragging is obvious. Zhao and Dong's bones are naturally not as strong as Wang Shu's because of their few strokes and small pen-carrying ability. In fact, most scholars who study Wang Shujia today have inherited the methods of Sun (), Zhao (Meng Zhi), Dong (Qi Chang), Ge Tie and others, but the efforts to copy Wang Shujia's calligraphy and the Preface of the Tang Dynasty's Holy Religion are beyond their power. What's more, it is a joke to think that Wang Shu's prescription, folding method and writing method are all copied and engraved. Square folding, roundness, toughness and smoothness are the basic contents of Wang Shu's bones and muscles. Compared with the cultural aesthetic feelings contained in Wang Xizhi's works, the follow-up of later generations seems superficial and conservative. Scholars have their own mentality and goal of pursuing elegance, but it is not only gentleness that can achieve elegance. Scholars are more artists than obedient believers and tools in the political system. Therefore, if we look at Wang Shu's handwriting from a gentle point of view, it seems that it can't correspond to Wang Shu's singularity and jump, although there are many meanings and rules in Wang Shu's singularity and jump. Comparing Zhao Mengfu's letters with Wang's, Ya seems to be more on the side. However, Wang Shu's complexity, exquisiteness and changeability are beyond Zhao Shu's reach, and Wang Shu's freedom, frankness and detachment are beyond Zhao Shu's reach, and his elegance can be imagined. In fact, to a certain extent, sweetness, smoothness, elegance and weakness can be regarded as a basic form of elegance. This is not unique to Zhao Shu, and it is not uncommon to learn from Wang Shu in past dynasties. Of course, those who are rigid in dogma should be eliminated. Wang Xizhi fully demonstrated the noble and free-spirited style of Wei and Jin scholars in his daily writing, which is an excellent proof of the consciousness of calligraphy art. If modern people don't study and learn from the cultural consciousness contained in its form, but always stick to the rules and requirements of one stroke and one painting, it will be far from reaching the realm of Wang Shu. Third, the loss of sense of space In the book "Analysis of Wang Xizhi's Calligraphy", the author explained Wang Shu's structure and sense of space in detail. The author believes that Wang Xizhi's sensitivity to structural forms and his understanding and practice of spatial calligraphy are the important components of his innovation. The spatial structure of general innovative calligraphers often becomes their experimental field. The aesthetic feeling of Wang Shu's space is mainly manifested in the formal sense of the overall structure, that is, its composition is a "meaningful form" (clive bell), which is completely different from the rigid "copying" way of some scholars later. This meaningful form is first implemented in words. Take Preface to the Sacred Religion of the King of Qi and Preface to Lanting as examples. On the one hand, the characters have a sense of scale, that is, stippling and opening letters are rigorous and straight; On the other hand, the "odd" is injected into the "positive" by such stippling methods as tilting, shifting, disconnecting, expanding and merging. For example, the first word "Gai" in the text of "Preface to the Holy Teaching of King Ji" is animated beside the second and third horizontal paintings (especially the third horizontal painting). On the one hand, the writing of the four horizontal paintings in the word is different, and at the same time, it is precisely because the third horizontal painting inclines upward that the knot is broken. There are hundreds of words in Preface to Lanting Collection, and thousands of words in Preface to Ji Wang Shengjiao. Almost every word can cite the method of this change, which shows that Wang Xizhi's psychology of seeking novelty and change is profound. Studying Wang's popular calligraphy style now is obviously not thorough enough to understand the traditional spatial form of Wang's calligraphy. Inertia pen makes similar stippling single and similar; The rigidity of word structure makes the work lack of ups and downs; Plagiarism is doomed to make it difficult to distance the works in appearance. These are all caused by people's lack of practice and concept of spatial form. Of course, the most important point is the lack of creative consciousness, creative consciousness and innovative consciousness, that is, the calligrapher's subjective consciousness as an artist is incomplete. As a book sage in history, Wang Xizhi has a bright future, and no one doubts his historical position and achievements. For every calligrapher, it will undoubtedly improve his traditional writing ability and creative ability to study Wang Xizhi's calligraphy from the aspects of pen use, structure and style consciousness. But this does not mean that Wang Shu is everything in the tradition. Even as far as learning Wang Shu is concerned, if you can experience Oracle bones, Zhong Ding and Han Li in Qin Zhuan for less than three generations, is it useless to understand and absorb Wang Shu? ! What's more, these (and of course other) traditions besides Wang Shu are magnificent and unfathomable. The book of the king is like a mountain top, but when we stand on the top of the mountain and see the endless sea and the unpredictable seabed, what association will we have? Only by going deep into the sea to explore its mystery can we feel its infinite charm.