What posture should I use to practice calligraphy for the first time?

Hello, the choice of standing or sitting posture for writing is mainly related to the size of the written characters. Usually, the standing posture is used when writing larger seal script, official script or regular script, and the standing posture is used when writing medium or small characters such as medium The sitting position is used in regular script, small regular script, running script, or small-character official script, iron-line seal script, and grass script.

Share the key points and precautions for sitting and standing postures for your reference.

Sitting posture

1. Keep your body straight and relaxed, and avoid excessive inclination of the thoracic and cervical vertebrae.

2. Keep your shoulders even and do not shrug.

3. Lean your body slightly forward naturally. Don't lean back in your chair.

4. Holding the pen in one hand, it can be used in three ways: pillowing the wrist, raising the wrist, and hanging the wrist. Depends on personal habits and character size. The other hand is relaxed on the table or pressing the paper.

5. The body should be about a punch away from the table, and there is no contact.

6. Land your feet naturally on the ground. If the seat is high, you can put a footrest on the ground to help your body stay comfortable and relaxed.

7. When sitting and writing, the body should be straight and neither the thoracic nor cervical spine should be tilted at an excessive angle. When writing with your right hand, your left hand should be relaxed or pressed against the paper to keep it straight. Your body should be relaxed at this time, not tense or stiff. Make sure there are no obstructions on both sides of your hands so that you can write smoothly.

Standing posture

1. Keep your body straight and relaxed, and lean forward slightly naturally. Do not bend your spine excessively and do not bend down to write.

2. Keep your shoulders level and do not shrug. Keep an appropriate distance between your body and the edge of the table, neither touching nor too far away.

3. Hold the pen in one hand, with your elbow hanging over your wrist, so that the pen is vertically downward. The free hand rests naturally on the table or presses the paper.

4. Place your feet flat on the ground so that your center of gravity is evenly distributed.

5. When standing, you need to relax your whole body, put your feet flat on the ground, and distribute your center of gravity evenly. When writing, your center of gravity moves between your feet. Over time, you will find a balance, and the more force you bear, the more On average, the more comfortable it feels.

6. Do not bend your spine excessively, and be careful not to bend down when writing, as this is very bad for the lumbar spine. Therefore, the height of the table should be appropriate. The desk for writing is usually about 10 centimeters higher than an ordinary table. When you first stand and write, you can raise the table higher.

As for the posture of holding the pen, let’s first talk about whether it is necessary to hang the wrist when writing. You may have heard some related sayings. For example, you must hang the wrist to be effective when holding the pen. In fact, it is not necessarily necessary. It seems to be related to the size of the universe we wrote.

The ancients made a summary and said that "within an inch, the method is in the palms and fingers, and beyond an inch, the method is in the elbow and wrist." This means that if the size of the word is within an inch, the fingers and palms are basically used. In kung fu, if the font size is larger, you have to take into account the control of the wrist and elbow.

As for the wrist, there are three ways: pillow, lift, and hanging. Pillowing the wrist is to rest the wrist of the writing hand on the back of the other hand; lifting the wrist is to lift the entire wrist so that the arm still has a supporting point on the table; hanging wrist is to connect the wrist with the elbow All are suspended and not associated with the desktop.

When writing large characters, raise your wrist and entire elbow so that the brush is steady and vertically downward. At this time, the hand has more space to move and can easily write a one-meter-long line. If you write in small regular script, you need to rest your wrist on the paper or the other hand, or lift it slightly, because at this time we need more fine control and focus on the tip of the pen, which does not require too much space. action. The same principle applies to the height of the writing. The larger the characters, the higher the writing; the smaller the characters, the lower the writing.

When I first started to lay the foundation, I felt that I should start from difficult to easy, starting from standing with a hanging bowl, first to improve the stability, and then start to write small characters, practice raising the wrist and pillowing the wrist, and gradually improve the accuracy.

The same goes for writing. Depending on different writing situations, the ancients had different ways of writing. For example, in the past, ancient people sat on the floor, and sometimes the paper was not placed flat on the table, but tilted. The three-finger holding method is more helpful to ensure that the pen tip is perpendicular to the paper surface, which is more suitable for this situation. Tables and chairs appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. With the development, they became more and more popular in the Song Dynasty, and people began to sit with their feet down. When the paper is lying flat, the five-finger holding method makes it easier to keep the pen tip perpendicular to the paper surface, so it has become a more common way of holding the pen at this writing angle.

The key points of the most commonly used five-finger writing technique are the five words "stroke, pressure, hook, grid, and resistance".

1. Pick up the brush with your thumb, index finger and middle finger;

2. Use your ring finger to hold the back of the pen, hold it gently with your little finger without any force, and relax your wrist . Finger is solid and palm is deficient: When the fingers are bent to hold the pen, a space for movement will naturally be formed in the palm, so the brush can move flexibly in the hand when writing.

Su Shi said, "There is no fixed method for holding a pen. It must be empty and wide." "Void" can be understood as the space in the palm, and "wide" means that the wrist can move widely.

From the shoulders, hours, wrists to fingers, a flexible axis is formed, and finally settled on the paper, it is expressed as our pen power.

To write freely, it takes a long time to practice to achieve this tacit understanding. The best situation is probably that we don't feel the pen in our hands. When the hand and pen are used together, the pen becomes a continuation of our body when expressing.