Author; Secret book (Cao)
How time flies! I have known Brother Guan Jiping for 24 years in a blink of an eye.
I was sorting out old things, and I came across a photo taken with Guan Xiong that year. It was the dead of winter in 1986. At that time, it happened that 50 symposiums were held in the special issue of Reading Music, and many famous Shanghai writers and writers came to celebrate. I am still a teenager in the photo, and Jiping is a teenager. I remember that he was an accountant in a factory at that time, and because he loved literature, he contributed to my layout. I found him in many contributions. Although his writing is still immature, his love for books is distinct, and there is a strong sense of heroism between the lines, so I wrote back to him. Later, Hongyan handed me a book and we met. Through conversation, they hit it off very well, so they changed from the relationship between editor and author to book friends.
Great changes have taken place in the past twenty years. Ji Pingge wrote a good article with his persistence and study of words, and he also became my colleague-an excellent editor. All this is due to his personal efforts, his understanding and practicality. This time he collected and published some articles he wrote in old Shanghai, and asked me to make a preface. I feel too ignorant to learn, and I feel ashamed to refuse again and again. Brother Ji Ping is still holding on because I have known him for 24 years, and I have real feelings for him step by step. Besides, Brother Jiping is also a comrade of our Jiu San Society, so I readily agreed.
Brother Ji Ping and I have similar hobbies, both like reading, especially classical Chinese, reading essays in the late Ming Dynasty, and are also willing to collect and travel. Xiling printing plant, Dunhuang colored sculptures, Lingnan scenery, Suzhou gardens, etc. They all left a happy impression on us. This artistic taste makes us pay more attention to the exquisiteness of words and like to have different epiphany in writing. This is the direction of my efforts. In this regard, Brother Ji Ping seems to be more interested. Therefore, this collection of essays in old Shanghai has a style of writing that sees the big from the small. We all admire the style of writing, have personal experience, and resolutely do not copy the text. This is another feature of this little book.
Secondly, I look at Ji Pingge's handwriting and the layout of his editor. If you carefully taste it, you will find that his writing is very folk, which is probably related to his love for traditional culture. Pingge is good at calligraphy and seal cutting, and his words are quaint and straightforward, close to traditional culture. The alley features of old Shanghai are naturally memorable and make people laugh.
Brother Ji Ping and I are both good sketches in the late Ming Dynasty. In my opinion, the literary achievements of essays in the late Ming Dynasty did not surpass the "Eight Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties" as a whole, but they also had their advantages, such as unprecedented emancipation of mind, ingenious writing and many humorous essays, which can be quoted from the preface written by my good friend Brother Xibo for the Collection of Essays in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Perhaps influenced by the essays of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiping's writing also pursues humor, and his writing is interesting and interesting. (This article is the preface of Shi Shuo)
The paper rhyme of China's calligraphy
the Chen Dynasty
China culture is a big tree, and Chinese characters are the seeds of this big tree. Chinese characters are picturesque. Chinese characters mean that feeling is a state of mind, a scene of the world and a dream of life. Whether it is charming and steady, or rich and sparse, it is picturesque.
China, every word is a flower, a leaf, the sound of fingertips on the strings, the son on the chess table, a touch of light, a sudden glance, and a dancing heart. Or kites, whistling arrows, the sun and ridges, birds in the air, light thunder on the tiles, bright moon and cool breeze, gentle and polite. In a word, all people and scenery are full of Chinese characters. Articles written in Chinese characters are also the world we live in. Green is the world of mountains, and green is the world of water. The world of mortals, graceful figure, has been written, no need to organize. And it is this surging appearance that is the real world, whether it appears on paper or in the heart. Chinese characters are like paintings. Writing with a brush will naturally look good. For thousands of years, Chinese characters have been written with warm feelings and poetic beauty.
For a hundred years, many people still treat and expect Chinese characters in this way. That's our parents, even grandparents. It's all well written. They may be the last people in China who wrote Chinese characters with a brush, and most of them have already left. Thought of here, I feel very helpless, I don't even know where my life and cultural dreams were left by a person.
Chinese characters are very important. Chinese characters written with a brush are very important. We pay attention to and concentrate on the logic of Chinese characters arrangement, but ignore the Chinese characters themselves. We misunderstood the culture of China. China culture with Chinese characters as its roots, branches, flowers and fruits was born as a part of Vientiane, which has infinite vitality and possibilities, whether gorgeous or plain. This is the truly intelligent culture in this world. Just like a big tree, lush, endless and towering, it has never been explained clearly by the so-called logic. Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi and Qu Yuan, we can't write their feelings about Chinese characters. Written on bamboo slips, it feels stranger than a brush. Even a dream of red mansions, which appeared very late, could not be written. We don't lack writers, but we don't lack poets and scholars, but we don't lack literati. In the last century, the poets and literati who felt the brilliance of Chinese characters in China's calligraphy were getting farther and farther away from us, and few people felt this sadness.
Thankfully, Jiping also thought of this and felt sad. Over the years, he has read the great Chinese characters written by all poets and literati in the last century and written with a brush. I also wrote my feelings about reading this book. Since great culture and great writing can travel through time and space, there is no reason for today's people to stop yearning and enter the hearts of immortal poets and literati with the light of past writing and culture. First of all, culture is not a weapon of fame. Culture is the first and last cornerstone for a person to become a real person. We often feel sad about it. Wang Wan, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, has a very good poem: "... the night now gives way to the ocean of the sun, and the old year melts in freshness." We will follow his feelings and miss the past. Our sense of culture is not enough. We are eager to get strength and affection, confidence and future from our parents and grandparents.
Here, I sincerely congratulate and thank Ji Ping for writing this book. Because this book is more than just a book.
(This article is a preface to Guan Jiping's temperament on paper: literati calligraphy in the Republic of China)