First, use a pen
Calligraphy, as a unique traditional art, the materialized form of its art is to write lines with a pen and form characters. It is through this materialized means that the art of calligraphy has realized the functions of creating artistic conception and expressing feelings. As Kang Youwei said, "The beauty of calligraphy lies in using a pen." Kang Youwei realized that the key to the quality of a calligraphy work lies in his mastery of pen skills, which is also the basis for writing a good work. Mrs. Wei in Jin Dynasty also fully reflected her emphasis on using pens in her pen drawings. At the beginning, she discussed the use of the pen: "People who are good at writing are bony, but those who are not good at writing are fleshy." The meaning of this sentence is: a person who is good at expressing the sense of stroke lines with a pen will show strong bone strength in his words; People who are not good at using pens can easily make lines weak. Wang Xizhi even thought: "A little loss is like a beauty disease, and an out-of-line painting is like a strong man's broken humerus." It means: a sentence with bad points is like a beauty's eyes are broken, and a bad line is like a strong man's arm is broken.
Second, the structure
In a successful calligraphy work, brushwork and format are the main and foundation of calligraphy beauty, but the beauty of strokes alone cannot directly constitute the beauty of calligraphy. If the text is arranged like a pile of firewood, it will inevitably make people see things in a blur. The art of calligraphy with Chinese characters as the object of expression appears in the whole character, so the beauty of Chinese characters with strokes as the composition material is extremely important. "It is difficult to write with a pen, and gathering and dispersing vertically and horizontally is the most important thing." . This sentence appeared in Mr. Qi Gong's Poem on a Book, which means that when writing, how to master the structure of words is the most difficult, where to put each stroke and how to structure each stroke are the most important. The reason is simple: no matter how beautiful the strokes are, they can only be "icing on the cake" if they are attached to a reasonable "skeleton". If the structure is "abnormal" first, even if the brushwork of Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing is used, the characters cannot be combined into beautiful shapes. "As soon as I got Huang Jinlv from the certificate, I felt that the whole cow bone was wide." Once you master the rules of structure, you will be as handy as a cow expert when writing. Huang Jinlv is a set of methods summarized by Mr. Qi Gong, which is different from the traditional method of taking the center of Mi Zige as the focus of words. It draws thirteen small squares on a square, and the center of gravity of the word is at the four intersections of "left five right eight".
Third, composition
Composition is an important part and means of expression of calligraphy works. Composition, brushwork and structure together constitute the three elements of calligraphy art, which is an important symbol that calligraphy is different from daily writing as an art category. Composition is to arrange the harmony and unity between words and lines in the whole calligraphy work; And rich and diverse, so that a word presents the law of overall beauty. Different fonts have different beauty. For example, Sun said in Shu Pu: "Seal script is elegant and smooth, official script wants precision, grass is expensive and smooth, and chapter work is convenient", which means that seal script advocates roundness, official script needs refinement and rigor, but today's grass is bold and unrestrained, and chapter script needs simplicity and convenience. Different styles of writing have different forms and feelings. Su Shi said, "True books are difficult to fly, and cursive scripts are difficult to be rigorous." It means that when writing regular script, not only the stippling should be accurate, but more importantly, the stippling should be harmonious, beautiful, interesting and dignified, and the real book should be smart.
Fourth, "form" and "spirit"
The unity of "form" and "spirit" in calligraphy is one of the essences of calligraphy art, and form is the birthplace of god. Therefore, in the process of calligraphy creation, the sages of past dynasties paid great attention to the description of form. For example, Mrs. Wei mentioned that "every word is tangible" in "Pen Map", that is, every time you write a word, you should reflect the image characteristics of those objective things that the word should reflect through its shape. Mrs Wei defines the essence of calligraphy as the formal beauty of objective things, which is the embodiment of a typical Taoist natural person.
Five, rhyme
When it comes to the beauty of calligraphy, we can't help but talk about the dynamic beauty of cursive script. Suo Jing's cursive script describes the dynamic beauty with the change of structure as follows: "The horse is angry and forced to fall, and the sea is full of stormy waves", "Xuanxiong is on the mountain, the swallow is chasing after it, and the pool is poor". The cursive structure is like a runner, trying to break the flat and stable body, or leaning forward and leaning forward.