When did the calligraphy form of couplets originate? What is the relationship between calligraphy and couplets? A few days ago, Mr. Wang wrote to Mr. Meng to answer the above questions. In his letter, Mr. Wang said, "It can be said that couplets are a comprehensive art that starts from Jia's New Year's Day and is combined with calligraphy. Changchun' is very decorative and practical in Mengchang and Houshu. " He also said: "The poetic and literary nature of couplets is a great contribution to traditional culture. Calligraphy is not only the carrier of couplets, but also has unique aesthetic value. " This clearly tells us that the calligraphy of couplets is a comprehensive art combining calligraphy and couplets.
We inspect and evaluate a pair of couplets calligraphy works, including calligraphy and couplets. Calligraphy is an intuitive line art, and couplets are an inherent language art. A good pair of couplets calligraphy works should not only have the connotation support of good couplets, but also have a good calligraphy appearance. The charm of couplet calligraphy shows the colorful beauty of Chinese characters, and calligraphy is more intriguing because of its beauty of words, antithesis and harmonious phonology. Couplets permeate and condense the author's unique feelings and sentiments about society and life, and have poetic artistic conception and charm. Calligraphy conveys personality, temperament and emotion with the help of the shape, strength, rhythm and spirit of pen and ink lines. Therefore, the calligraphy of couplets is the product of the combination of calligraphy and couplets, and it is a complementary work of art.
Are our calligraphers and calligraphy lovers aware of this? In my opinion, people with a clear understanding combine calligraphy and couplets well in their couplets calligraphy works. "I am passionate about my guests. I am full of wine and poetry." "The pen is smart and bright, the rhythm is clear and the charm is long." The antithesis of couplets is steady, the rhyme is melodious, and the calligraphy is vigorous and old, which makes people echo each other. But there are also some people who have a one-sided understanding that the calligraphy of couplets is a form of calligraphy. As long as the calligraphy is excellent, it doesn't matter whether the couplet is qualified or not. With this understanding, it is a pity that his couplets calligraphy works, although in place, are difficult to be classified as fine works because of the lack of work. Contemporary book circles have a strong learning atmosphere from top to bottom, and the voice of comprehensively improving calligraphers' cultural literacy is very high, which is a great blessing for book circles. I chat with friends in the calligraphy field, and the topic I often talk about is the relationship between kung fu inside words and kung fu outside words. Promising calligraphers should not only be able to write, but also jump out of the pile of inkstones and papers and dabble in cultures other than calligraphy. A calligrapher has been writing all his life, writing and writing. In the end, he still writes about temperament, accomplishment, connotation and self. The depth of this word shows the level of a calligrapher. Calligraphy of couplets, for calligraphers and calligraphy lovers, calligraphy is internal kung fu, while couplets are external kung fu. A calligrapher with extracurricular skills in this field should consciously and creatively make couplets by himself, so as to reach the level of writing books by himself, and at least know what it is like to have couplets and even tones. Moreover, even if you choose ready-made couplets of ancient saints and sages, you will choose them everywhere. However, some calligraphy lovers often have questions about this couplet. They don't know that ancient poems are all couplets, so they confuse couplets with poems. Can I write two poems as couplets at will? As we all know, only the third and fourth sentences, and the fifth and sixth sentences are couplets (also called poetry couplets), which are called "parallel couplets" and "neck couplets". For example, in Autumn Night in the Deep Mountains written by Wang Wei in the Tang Dynasty, "Moonlight in the pine forest, crystal stone in the stream" is a couplet, and "Laundry girl sings in bamboo, lotus leaf in front of fishing boat" is a necklace. The first and second sentences and the seventh and eighth sentences of the whole poem are not couplets, so don't write couplets, otherwise it will make jokes and make people laugh. Some calligraphy lovers regard the quatrains of the ancients as conjunctions, which is also problematic. Generally speaking, quatrains pay attention to meter, but don't insist on correct words. For example, Du Fu has a four-line poem: "Two orioles sing green willows, and a row of egrets go up to the sky. The window contains autumn snow in Xiling, and the Wu Dong Wan Li boat stops at the door. " This quatrains poem, which consists of two antithetical sentences, is an example of quatrains. Never mechanically think that all quatrains are antithetical sentences and all quatrains are couplets. Another example is Wang Zhihuan's "Lusu" in the Tang Dynasty: "The mountains cover the daytime, and the sea drains the golden river. But as long as you go up a flight of stairs, you can broaden your horizons by 300 miles. " This is a five-character quatrain and an example of it. Similarly, Wang Zhihuan's seven-character quatrain: "The Yellow River is far above the white clouds, an isolated city, Wan Ren Mountain. Why bother to complain about the willow, the spring breeze is only Yumenguan. " There is no antithesis in this poem. In addition, some calligraphers like to combine the poems and calligraphy of old friends. If the collection is good, it will naturally create new talents. On his 89th birthday, the late Liu Haisu, a famous master of Chinese painting, wrote a set of sentences from birthday couplets: "The markers used to dry up, but the years can be counted." The first part is selected from Du Fu's poems and the second part is selected from Su Shi's poems. Lao Haisu said: "I hope to live a long life, not to enjoy happiness, but to gain more time and create more spiritual wealth for the people." What a precious spirit this is, it can be said that it is the best footnote of this auxiliary sentence. But there are also some essentials that can't combine sentences and don't understand the basic characteristics of couplets, which leads to jokes. At the first national couplets calligraphy exhibition, a couplet won a silver prize: "A small building listens to the spring rain all night, and an isolated tree falls three feet into autumn and spring." The first couplet is selected from the Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You's Spring Rain in Lin 'an: "The small building listens to the spring rain all night, and the deep alley sells apricot flowers." "The second part is taken from Lu You's" Luwen Rebellious Generation Huashan Hermit ":"The cauldron of medicine destroys the dusk, and the solitary tree flows three feet in autumn and spring. "The poem is closed, and the upper and lower sentences are not correct, which does not conform to the rhythm of couplets. So these two poems are not couplets. Although the calligraphy of this pair of couplets is very good (maybe the judges just valued the calligraphy and ignored the couplets and won the silver prize), they were criticized for being wrong. The phenomenon of serious damage to couplets in calligraphy works of couplets even appeared in the fifth national couplets exhibition in an amazing proportion. Can't this arouse the high vigilance of liantan and calligraphy circles? Looking at the first five national calligraphy exhibitions of couplets, I think there are two reasons why the repeatedly flawed couplets are flooded with exhibitions and even mixed with winning works. First, calligraphers don't know the law, and they can't figure out what level and what to fight. Hunru entered the calligraphy competition with ordinary poems as couplets. Secondly, our judges are not strict. In the process of judging the calligraphy works of couplets, they only pay attention to the quality of calligraphy and ignore the other side of the quality of couplets. It can be seen that in order to comprehensively improve the artistic level of contemporary couplets calligraphy, we must vigorously advocate calligraphers and calligraphy lovers, concentrate on learning some knowledge about couplets and understand what poetry is. What are couplets? Further, I hope our calligraphers and calligraphy lovers can write couplets themselves and create their own couplets. If calligraphers can write their own couplets, what an elegant creative realm it would be! Our ancestors set an example for us. Examining the fine couplets handed down from Ming to Qing dynasties is enough to appreciate the artistic taste of "Mo Lian". In the category of traditional culture in China, calligraphy art is the quintessence of China, couplet culture is the quintessence of China, and Peking Opera art is the quintessence of China. We calligraphers and calligraphy lovers can be like Peking Opera actors in the practice of creating couplets. They might as well make a guest appearance (cross-dressing), that is, calligraphers cross-dress couplets, which are both calligraphy and couplets. There is also a saying called "amphibious artist" and "amphibious artist". For a calligrapher, the more you know or even master, the better. As the saying goes, "more art does not weigh you down." Only in this way can we enrich ourselves, improve ourselves and surpass ourselves.
Couplet calligraphy can also be an artistic practice of cooperation between calligraphers and couplets. In recent years, many friends in the calligraphy field have established regular contact with me. They send me their own couplets at any time, and I make some necessary touches on the words before sending them to my friends, which greatly improves the level of my calligraphy friends. In the contemporary book world, many calligraphers like to choose my couplets, such as the late calligrapher Xie,,,, Gu,,, Fu Jiayi, Zhao Zheng and so on. There are also calligraphers and calligraphy lovers who write to me specially and let me write. So I gave them couplets and calligraphy, which was a bit "tailor-made". My eight-character couplet "Du Fu Caotang has a fine breeze and bright moon, and Shi Tao paints a water peak". This is specially written for a calligrapher. After his writing, this couplet won the first prize in the national couplet calligraphy and seal cutting competition with high specifications. The joint cooperation of calligraphy art of couplets is a beautiful talk between calligraphy and couplets.