In the final analysis, calligraphy is not written, but the heart and people.
Comment on Zhang Jianhui's Calligraphy Works
Photo 1 Works of the 5th National Youth Exhibition in Zhang Jianhui (1993)
Yang Jiping commented.
(Vice President of Calligraphy College of Shanxi Normal University)
Director, Professor and Master Tutor of Calligraphy Institute)
Zhang Jianhui's official script gives people a vague impression, and it is difficult to have a deep memory, even a memory. Generally speaking, calligraphy works are hard to impress people, either because they are not strong in personality or far away from statutes. From a technical point of view, Mr. Zhang Jianhui's problem is not big, it should be something else.
Relatively speaking, the works exhibited by Zhang Jianhui (photo 1) in the 5th China Youth Exhibition are more eye-catching, with full ink color, heavy stippling, upright and rigorous structure, obvious printing flavor and natural structure. In addition to learning from Han Li, there is obviously Yi Bingshou's shadow and Wu Changshuo's demeanor. It can be said that the integration of this work is relatively successful, and it also has the opening and atmosphere of northern calligraphers. The shortcoming is the naivety and weakness of his signature draft.
Figure 2 Works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition in Zhang Jianhui (20 17)
The works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition (Figure 2) obviously promoted Zhang Jianhui's running script instead of his official script. Seeing the signature of this work, we can know the lack of his previous calligraphy cultivation. His running script has Mi Fei's rich freedom and Wang Xizhi's natural solemnity, and his aesthetic taste exceeds his official script.
However, his official script was deliberately changed, his writing style was indecisive, his words were neither fish nor fowl, and there was a lack of echo between stippling and painting, and even he was in danger of dying. Especially the active use of wings is almost unreasonable. It can be seen that Zhang Jianhui is deliberately pursuing roughness and naivety, but the result is neither fish nor fowl. Zhang Jianhui's problem is universal in most contemporary calligraphers. The fundamental reason is his cultural accomplishment, mainly philosophical accomplishment, which means that his aesthetic accomplishment is not enough.
Many people have written words, painted pictures and sang songs all their lives. They don't know what kind of words are good, what kind of paintings are good and what kind of songs are good. What a pity! Without an understanding of the essence of beauty, there can be no superb artistic thought. Without independent artistic thought, how can we have the ability to distinguish artistic beauty from ugliness? So for Mr. Zhang Jianhui, what is lacking is not the writing ability, but the understanding of calligraphy.
A few days ago, a disciple complained to Mr. Wei that it was unfair for the author to evaluate Mr. Liu as a "writer" because the importance of cultural accomplishment was mentioned in every speech. The author replied: Teacher Liu emphasized it, but how many books did he read? How many academic works are there? Does he have his own culture?
In the author's impression, Zhang Jianhui's lectures basically don't talk about culture, only about technology, only about pediatrics, not even as good as Liu Wenhua's, and the rest are out of the question. Some time ago, at an official calligraphy exhibition of China Calligraphy Association, Mr. Zhang Jianhui wrote "Cold Plum" as "Leng Hai", but he still had to write a couplet incorrectly, which showed his indifference to cultural literacy.
Commentary by Zhou Decong
(Director, Calligraphy Culture Research Center, Three Gorges University,
Professor, master tutor)
Mr. Zhang Jianhui is famous for his official script, and his official script is always on the road of exploration. As a bridge between ancient and modern Chinese characters, official script originated from seal script, so it is full of ancient meaning, and because of the change of its brushwork, it has opened up the convenient writing of modern Chinese characters, which is naturally innovative and unique.
Many people of insight advocate that learning books should start with official books, and on this basis, innovate. Mr. Zhang Jianhui's official script is often used in the early days, with rigorous brushwork, Confucianism, muddy and vigorous, or hidden or exposed. Its collectors are as thick as seals and strokes, and its exposed people are also interested in protecting it. Although the strokes are arranged evenly, they are all sparse, dignified in shape, handsome in the elderly, developed in the flat, and rhythmic in Fiona Fang, which shows the jurisprudence.
He internalized a monument in Han Li in his brushwork image instead of simply moving a monument and a pillar. After tasting Han Li's "People's Collection" in the exhibition hall, he finally felt that he lacked the choice of classics and flexible use of them, although it looked like a spirit. Obviously, Mr. Zhang Jianhui is much taller than his contemporaries. He used Han Li's method to express his ancient meaning and his own meaning, and formed his own language characteristics in the dialogue with the ancients.
On the way to study official script, he said to himself, "Han Zong casts spells, thrives on Yi Shu, and takes cliff statues". It can be seen that Han Li was the ancestor of his official script, and he highly praised the writing of bamboo slips. After refining and integrating the natural images of cliff stone carvings, he gradually formed a character of being ripe at birth, ripe in his later years, elegant in Gu Zhuo, clean and solemn.
From his works in the 5th and 4th National Youth Exhibition, we can see the evolution track of this official script style —— the change from emphasizing law to emphasizing meaning, which is permeated with his dialectical thinking and hard practice on strange, ancient and modern, familiar and born, clumsy and clever.
In the early days, the distribution of silkworm head and goose tail was stable, but now it has become straight, stiff and lateral; The smooth and round lines in the early days have now become tight and dense; The early honest and plain knot pattern has become a steep and clumsy spatial image today. This change is not only related to the expansion of technique cognition, but also related to the exploratory trial and error of official script.
Han Li, as a classic paradigm, has been handed down from generation to generation by scholars, whether it is the strengthening of the brushwork of the silkworm head and goose tail, the "eight points" at the beginning of the knot, or the formula of large spacing and small spacing, forming the so-called "Tang Li" and "Qing Li" with their own characteristics. Although "Tang Li" and "Qing Li" had less influence on later generations than "Han Li", the norms established by "Han Li" have been stylized and continued by later generations.
In this context, Zhang Jianhui's remolding of Han Li's brushwork-seeking perfection from seal script, and omitting the line of "dovetail" without opening the letter, is particularly ancient and innovative; He broke away from the routine of official script writing, and was unique in space density, uneven parts and changeable appearance, forming a new style with "Zhang Jian Hui Yi", which influenced the style trend of official script creation in contemporary calligraphy circles.
I think that the creation of the new official script represented by Zhang Jian is a transcendental practice of honest officials. Perhaps this exploration is not perfect: in order to survive, it has lost its "writing", its lines are straight and it lacks the vividness it deserves. How to avoid this disadvantage is worthy of teacher Jianhui's deep thinking.
Qi commentary
(Director of shandong youth university of political science Institute of Calligraphy Potential Theory,
Professor, master tutor)
Mr. Zhang Jianhui is a thoughtful calligrapher in the creation of contemporary official script. He has unique views on the creation of official script, and advocates that learning calligraphy should cover a wide range and take contracts.
He said that the spirit of official script is between simplicity and simplicity, which is the symbol of Chinese culture and the foundation of national spirit. Looking at his two works around today, it is precisely because of his extensive involvement and service that his official script has formed a simple and natural style, just like the works of the Fourth National Youth Exhibition. The following uses calligraphy potential theory to analyze the works of these two different periods.
In terms of pen gesture: in the works of the Fifth National Youth Exhibition, the author used pen gesture factors such as wrapping the front and folding the pen, mainly wrapping the front; The potential factors such as twisting front and spreading brush strokes are mainly spreading brush strokes; The pen-closing method uses some potential factors such as folding pen, wrapping front, center and upward front according to the pen. The front is mainly wrapped, and the swallowtail of the silkworm head of Lishu can be seen faintly.
In the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition, the author used some brushwork factors, such as Bao Feng, Zhong Lu Feng and pen folding, with Bao Feng as the main one. The potential factors of brushwork, such as twisting front, lifting pressure and spreading brush, are mainly twisting front; The pen-collecting method adopts the factors of folding pen, collecting pen and lifting pen, mainly lifting pen and lifting pen
Because the authors of the two works pay different attention to the potential factors of brushwork, they have formed different styles such as lines: in the works of the fifth national youth exhibition, each line is relatively uniform, showing the texture of the face, and the main pen has the shape of a swallow-tailed silkworm head; In the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition, the thickness of lines is changing, showing a columnar texture, and the main pen has almost no shape like a silkworm head swallow tail, showing a simple feature. See the figure below:
The word "Fei" in Zhang Jianhui's works of the Fifth National Youth Exhibition
The word "Fei" in Zhang Jianhui's works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition.
In the aspect of Chinese character potential, in the works of the Fifth National Youth Exhibition, the author used the relatively unified Chinese character potential, which is tight on the top and loose on the bottom, tight on the left and loose on the right, tight on the left and loose on the right. The main factor is the density of characters, and the application of the potential factors of long and short words of lines has obvious "left alignment" or "right alignment" law.
In the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition, the author used the following words: tight on the top and loose on the bottom, tight on the left and loose on the right, tight on the left and tight on the right, and loose on the top. Mainly based on factors such as density and thickness, the application of factors such as line length and width is more in line with the law of "shape is determined by heart"
As shown in the following figure, the word "painting" conforms to Zuo Qi's law in the works of the 5th National Youth Exhibition and meets the requirements of good weather, while it conforms to the law of "shape is determined by heart" in the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition, which is "naive and simple" in line with natural laws.
"Painting" in Zhang Jianhui's Works of the Fifth National Youth Exhibition
The word "painting" in the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition in Zhang Jianhui
Composition: In the works of the Fifth National Youth Exhibition, the vertical and horizontal relations of the upper (lower) couplet are horizontal (horizontal), horizontal (vertical), horizontal (vertical), square (square), vertical (horizontal), horizontal (horizontal) and vertical (vertical); In the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition, the vertical and horizontal relations between the upper and lower couplets are square (vertical), horizontal (vertical), vertical (horizontal), horizontal (horizontal), vertical (horizontal), square (horizontal) and vertical (horizontal).
From the above analysis, we can see that only one pair of corresponding words in the upper and lower couplets of the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition has the same horizontal and vertical factors, while four pairs of works of the 5th National Youth Exhibition have the same horizontal and vertical factors. It can be seen that the changes of horizontal and vertical factors in the works of the 4th National Youth Exhibition are more abundant than those in the 5th National Youth Exhibition.
Through the analysis of the above brushwork potential, character potential and composition potential, we can see that from the fifth national youth exhibition to the fourth national youth exhibition, the author turned from crisis to crisis, forming a simple, natural and dangerous official script style.
The reason why the author formed this style is consistent with his artistic pursuit. Mr. Zhang Jianhui said: "I learned from the official script and studied the materials left by the ancients in the Han Dynasty, and summed up three artistic pursuits: one is meteorology, the other is statutes, and the third is implication." "I have always grasped the essence of Zheng Da's meteorology, such as antiquity, monuments, slips, cliffs and epitaphs. All the remains of Han Li have been absorbed, and I have established a creative method to observe the statutes of Han Zong stone tablets, take the cliff weather and keep the interest of simple books."
He believes: "Calligraphy is not writing in the final analysis, but writing about the heart, people, people's thoughts, feelings and temperament, painting like people, and books like people, which is the materialization of thoughts and feelings." "Some calligraphy works are exploratory and may not be mature, but they have positive significance and may inspire us more than traditional ones.
Because the works of some mature calligraphers, seemingly perfect, often form an inertial thinking, lacking freshness, which makes people turn a blind eye; It is precisely those immature explorations that contain some fresh vitality that you don't have, which can provide a kind of thinking and paradigm to promote your thinking. From the author's discussion, we can see that he pursues a simple and fair calligraphy style.
The author thinks that the author's simple style is formed, which is manifested in the simplicity of brushwork and the handling of words and rules, which conforms to the natural laws of Yin and Yang, so the works have formed naive interest. However, the fair weather pursued by the author has not yet appeared, or is still in the process of formation.
Because in the works of the author's official script of the 4th National Youth Exhibition, there is no pen gesture and calligraphy gesture to show the integrity of official script, such as the swallowtail of the silkworm head in the brushwork and the arrangement order of the knot in calligraphy. The reason is that in the process of pursuing simple style, the author changed the neat arrangement of strokes in official script works into "naive childlike interest" with obvious differences, and lost the dignified and solemn atmosphere of official script.
Using natural, simple and naive calligraphy style to express the aboveboard calligraphy atmosphere requires a choice between the factors of brushwork potential and character potential, that is, the factors of brushwork potential and character potential that the author said should be aboveboard. As Sun said, it still needs to go through a process of "recovering from danger". This process is a qualitative change process, which requires the author to re-recognize and sublimate his own calligraphy cognition.
Originally, it was very rare for official script to be written to this extent, but the author is the vice chairman of China Book Association, so the society will have more expectations for him. Coupled with the author's age advantage and cognitive advantage of calligraphy (as the author said, "some calligraphy works are exploratory, not necessarily mature, but have positive significance"), we have reason to believe that as long as the author is more accurate in "taking contracts", a simple and aboveboard official script style will definitely appear in Mr. Zhang Jianhui's pen, which will be a blessing worthy of being recorded in the history of calligraphy!