To write Chinese calligraphy well, two basic conditions must be met. One is to have a solid skill in using pen and ink, and the other is to choose a suitable brush, ink, paper and inkstone, both of which are indispensable.
the writing brush is one of the great inventions of the Chinese nation. As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Chinese ancestors invented the writing brush. At that time, the hair used in the writing brush was all-encompassing, and all kinds of animals had hair. People had not mastered the essence of making the writing brush, which led to the poor writing performance of the writing brush.
According to legend, in the Qin Dynasty, Meng Tian, a general, improved the writing brush with rabbit hair. Unexpectedly, the writing brush made of rabbit hair was soft and easy to use, and the written font was round and full, with smooth lines and eye-catching.
This originated from the common script of the Qin Dynasty, Xiao Zhuan. The font of Xiao Zhuan is tall and straight, the structure is symmetrical, and the strokes are horizontal and vertical. It is a standardized standard font, which is slow to write, and the soft hair made of rabbit hair can just play a good writing effect.
It can be seen that when learning to write Chinese brush, you must choose a brush according to the font you write, in order to get twice the result with half the effort.
there are three kinds of brushes: soft brush, doubled both brush brush and hard brush.
Soft hair is made of wool or rabbit hair, which has a soft pen end, a large amount of ink storage, poor elasticity and difficult to control the stroke. It is suitable for writing some fonts with round and thick strokes and little change in brushwork, such as seal script, official script and regular script.
Hard hair is made of the hair on the weasel's tail, which has strong elasticity at the end of the pen, small ink storage and easy control of the brush stroke, and is suitable for writing some fonts with smooth and neat lines, such as running script, cursive script and zhangcao.
doubled both brush is a brush made of a mixture of half sheep hair and half wolf hair, with wolf hair inside and a circle of sheep hair outside. The end of the pen is moderately soft and hard, and its performance is between soft and hard. The lines written look flexible and neat, and running script, lower case and official script are all suitable for writing in doubled both brush.
In fact, Soft Millie, Hard Millie and doubled both brush can write any font, but only if they have solid pen skills.
For beginners of calligraphy, it is advisable to use soft hair first, because soft hair is difficult to control. If soft hair can be used well, it will be easy to write with hard hair or doubled both brush in the future.
As for ink, I think beginners can use ready-made ink. Grinding ink is quite troublesome, so there is no need to make trouble for themselves.
before using the ink, shake it well, and then pour it into a plate or a small bowl for later use.
If you write seal script, official script, regular script and lower case script, you can directly dip in ink to write. The amount of ink dip should be determined according to the size of the font you write and the speed of using the pen.
If you write running script, cursive script, zhangcao and other fonts, it is best to add some water to the ink to dilute the ink and facilitate the fluency of writing. Because these fonts are faster in the rhythm of writing, if they are written in thick ink, it is not conducive to showing a refreshing and chic writing effect.
what kind of paper is used to write calligraphy? Actually, it's not that particular.
Raw rice paper is suitable for writing all kinds of calligraphy fonts because of its strong water absorption and water permeability.
However, beginners in calligraphy are slow in writing and weak in kung fu. If they don't master the brushwork well, and don't grasp the time and strength when lifting and pressing, it is easy to form a black "ink pig" on raw rice paper. Therefore, I think it is more suitable for beginners to write with fringed paper.
If a beginner of calligraphy learns to write in lower case letters, it's better to write in semi-cooked or cooked script, and the effect will be better.
in ancient times, the main function of inkstone was to grind and store ink, but nowadays, there is finished ink, which is convenient to use at any time, so the value of inkstone has been greatly reduced. Nowadays, inkstones are basically treated as decorations and collectibles.
I don't think it's necessary for beginners of calligraphy to use inkstones, just come as convenient as possible.