2011March15th, Beijing Calligraphers Association held the fourth session of the fifth session of the Council, and Ding Jiageng, a military calligrapher, was elected as the vice chairman of Beijing Calligraphers Association, which was a happy event for the military calligraphers.
The mountains are beautiful and scholarly, and the rooms are elegant and heavy. The reporter had a heart-to-heart talk with Mr. Ding Jiageng, director of the editorial office of the Political Department of the General Logistics Department. The character and soul of military calligraphers have formed a tacit understanding with nature and life, but they have formed a corresponding but not antagonistic harmony with this bustling and noisy era, which makes people feel "leisurely seeing the South Mountain". Listening to Mr. Jia Geng's profound understanding and subtle feelings about calligraphy and life, art and life is like burning incense and tasting tea, and stepping into the realm of "I will walk until the water stops me, and then sit and watch Yun Qi".
There is great beauty in heaven and earth without saying anything.
-Between art and the city
Reporter: Some people regard your calligraphy on the streets of Beijing as a "cultural card" that complements tradition and modernity in this ancient civilized capital, and study the artistic function, urban culture and comparative aesthetics between China and the West with European urban sculptures. They think there are not only similarities, but also unique oriental charm. How do you know the relationship between calligraphy and the city where you live?
D: I'm flattered I hope that the streets of China City will become the corridor of calligraphy art, and China calligraphy will become a landscape of China people's daily life, and it will become one of the beautiful impressions and core memories of foreigners observing China. China has China's beauty and China's aesthetics, China has China's philosophy and China's life, and China's calligraphy, as an art, is the epitome of China's spirit and emotion. Calligraphy, Mo Yun's flowing brushwork, is one of the art forms that can best represent China and convey China people's understanding of beauty and harmony to the world.
In my opinion, calligraphy culture is of great benefit to beautify the soul and improve the taste of the city. In the 20 years after the founding of New China, all the cities in China, large, medium and small, are fragrant with calligraphy, and plaques made of various calligraphy are all over the streets, which is amazing. Due to the influence of the internet and other new cultural forms, a large number of stereotyped "computer words" have appeared in our city. Why does calligraphy attract so much attention in Beijing? That is, more and more people realize that the fixed pattern and unchangeable calligraphy are boring. The pursuit of individuality and change is the most distinctive feature of this era. Because of this, people have an unprecedented thirst for the traditional calligraphy art in China. China city, especially the ancient city of China, needs the embellishment and beautification of calligraphy. Just as life without introspection is blind, daily life without aesthetic popularization is easy to slip into the misunderstanding of ugliness appreciation. Our city can't just admire "suits" and forget "Hanfu". Modern cities need the prosperity of fashion and the massiness of traditional culture.
Reporter: You mean that apart from its pure artistic function, calligraphy also has a unique social responsibility and national cultural responsibility in terms of aesthetic cultivation, moral education and the revival of civilization?
D: that's what it means. Calligraphy, as a traditional culture in China, has been endowed with a brand-new era connotation in the great era of national rejuvenation. In addition to cultural attributes, it also has profound political, contemporary and mass characteristics. To understand calligraphy from this angle and height means not to talk about calligraphy itself in words, but to experience and practice the contemporary significance of calligraphy in contemporary political atmosphere, social environment and cultural background. In this sense, calligraphy not only undertakes the mission of protecting and carrying forward the national spiritual culture, but also undertakes the responsibility of resisting the impact of foreign culture and the infiltration of decadent culture.
China is a big cultural country with numerous cultural types. Only China's calligraphy can completely decorate a city with antique, culture and Chinese flavor. This is not only the aesthetic feeling of China elements, but also the transmission and dissemination of values. Every civilization, including political civilization, material civilization and spiritual civilization, contains its profound philosophical system and cultural symbol carrier with core symbolic significance. I think calligraphy is one of the core cultural symbols in China.
Get on the horse and kill the tiger and dismount the grass
-between ink and firm but gentle
Reporter: You are a professional soldier and a calligrapher, which really answers the saying of the ancients that "mount your horse to attack Hu and dismount to attack grass". From the outside world, your "civil and military way" is full of charm and even a little mysterious. What kind of state is it?
Ding: The way of "civil and military" is integrated in the depth of philosophy and the height of thought. Calligraphy art is a compulsory course for me outside of 8 hours. Eight hours, I have a lot of work to deal with, and I have no time to take care of calligraphy. And I am the chief officer of a department, so I must concentrate on the overall situation and plan my work. But no matter how busy I am at work, it will not affect my pursuit of calligraphy art, but it will be of great help to my work. Because all kinds of culture and art are of the same origin, excellent artists need to have profound Chinese and foreign cultural heritage and profound personal artistic accomplishment. Their roots are linked together, and they have drawn the same cultural essence from the long-standing cultural origins; They are thriving, displaying the characteristics and personalities of various arts. Because learning calligraphy requires learning literature, philosophy, aesthetics, history and other knowledge from calligraphy. Some of this knowledge has a direct effect, and some have an indirect effect on the military and political work I am engaged in. At the same time, learning calligraphy needs to be indifferent to fame and fortune, cultivate extraordinary perseverance, and cultivate the mentality of "sitting on the bench for ten years", which is interlinked with doing things for the people and the officials. In particular, calligraphy knows the art of war, and many philosophies in calligraphy are exactly the same as the application of the art of war. Therefore, people have always advocated the cultivation of elegant taste. Calligraphy is an elegant and interesting artistic activity that is beneficial to work, life and cultivation, and should be a compulsory course for military political workers.
Reporter: There are many military calligraphers and poets in the history of China, such as Yue Fei and Xin Qiji. Most of them have profound opinions on The River of No Return and Shen Xiong's broad writing style, which has become a model of our military culture. We know that you are not only one of the representatives of contemporary military calligraphers, but also a famous military prose writer and calligraphy theory scholar. How do you evaluate contemporary military culture?
Ding: In my spare time, I engage in calligraphy and writing, basically out of the understanding that I should cultivate my noble spirit and a traditional and modern way of civil and military affairs in the immersion of culture. I always think that writing books and compositions should be an externalized way of thinking and behavior, which will accompany me all my life, not necessarily as a profession. As a professional soldier, I have experienced the ups and downs of military culture and military culture in the years of writing and writing. In my calligraphy and articles, I project and spill my personality and interest as a soldier, and convey my pursuit of two kinds of aesthetics, namely, broadness and openness, calmness and self-adaptation, indifference and simplicity, and one martial art and one article. The classic military science "Wei Liaozi Bing Ling" said: "Soldiers take weapons as their plants and literature as their species. Wu is the table and the text is the inside. " This is a very profound understanding. Where does the fighting spirit of an army win the battle come from? Where does the will of soldiers to die come from? It can be said that the true soul is deeply rooted in the culture of an army.
Calligraphy and articles are important carriers of this spirit. Many of our officers and men have read the word "Man Jiang Hong" by Yue Fei, and have also seen the vigorous calligraphy of this ancient general. The spiritual temperament and heroic heart conveyed between the lines have the power to penetrate time and space and history, which has still stirred for thousands of years. I think this is the power of culture and this is the soul and charm of our military culture.
Simple and the world can't compete for beauty.
-between calligraphy and life
Reporter: Your calligraphy is "connecting the past and the future, Chen Zhong brings forth the new, elegant and vigorous, with a moderate degree in the longitudinal direction", which has achieved the unity of simplicity and elegance, strength and strength, massiness and naturalness, fluency and boldness, and the organic combination of beauty and magnificence. "Ten years of loneliness can be polished and washed, and a piece of paper is amazing." How do you evaluate the current calligraphy and its development?
Ding: For the understanding of calligraphy, I like to borrow a sentence from Zhuangzi: "Simplicity is beyond the reach of the world." . Exquisite calligraphy realm, whether it is the majestic storm like a rock or the beautiful Liuxi Bridge with apricot blossoms and spring rain in the south of the Yangtze River; Whether it is the boldness of "watching swords after drinking" or the grace of "Yang Liuan Canyue", the highest artistic standards all point to the same goal of "gorgeous and plain".
Calligraphy kung fu, in thinking, washing and polishing, accumulates over time. Looking back on my 30-odd years of studying, I didn't take shortcuts, but I did stupid things, really, really, and worked hard. The so-called "taking the law first, elegance and novelty" is the result of hard work.
Calligraphy Kung Fu, the ancients said, "Kung Fu is beyond poetry." First of all, you should study thousands of books. After years of study and search, the profound cultural background is the earth and soil where all arts take root. Confucius said that "if you don't learn poetry, you have nothing to say", and that "learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is dangerous", which is to educate us how to cherish word paper from the heart and apply what we have learned. Secondly, you have to break through Wan Li Road. Wan Li Road is sometimes more important than reading thousands of books. Well-informed, can cultivate the noble spirit in the chest. The heart is infinite and there are thousands of paintings. Without this experience, you will not realize anything, let alone write a cloud of smoke, and you will never reach the realm of "elephant, university, atmosphere and self"
When it comes to the development of calligraphy in China, it can be said that spring is blooming. However, at any time, it should be the calligrapher's unchangeable initial heart and the eternal incense of the calligraphy world to stick to the artistic position in removing the false and preserving the true, to stick to the spiritual highland in innocence and clumsiness, and to refuse kitsch in looking up to the sublime.
Reporter: Calligraphy is not your occupation, but for you, calligraphy seems to be a mountain and a high water in your life, which deepens the thickness of life and expands the width of life. There is a certain harmony between you and calligraphy, that is, "heaven and man are one, and things and I forget each other." How to understand the relationship between calligraphy and calligraphy, calligraphy and calligrapher, and calligraphy and life?
Ding: Calligraphy is the window and reflection of the soul, and the continuous lines are the track of the calligrapher's soul. 1976 In February, my tutor, Mr. Sha Menghai, said to me, "Books are for the heart. How can you write beautiful words if your heart is not beautiful? " Therefore, the first lesson that Sha Lao taught me was "If you want to write well, you must be a good person first".
China has a saying since ancient times, and the word is like a man. Liu Gongquan has a famous saying that "the heart is right and the pen is right". Fu Shan, a great calligrapher in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, also said, write a word and be a man first. If your personality is not high, your character will be kitsch. Let's look at the history of China's calligraphy. Apart from the four masters in the Song Dynasty, whether it is the innocence of Su (Shi) or the sudden emergence of Huang (Tingjian); Both the ups and downs of the word Mi (Guo) and the gentleness of the word Cai (Xiang) have a striking coincidence with their character and personality, which further explains the saying that "the word is like a person".
Therefore, I often refuse to show off and use the aura to warn myself. I encourage myself and my friends who like calligraphy with the words "Sweat into the pool to continue ink, moss falling off paper, grinding hair and spitting smoke, and painstaking sublimation of spirituality and consciousness".