? In class, I often tell students that when going to Longmen Grottoes, in addition to going to Fengxian Temple to pay homage to the Lucena Buddha, you must also go to Guyang Cave—— This is the first grotto in Longmen. According to historical records: "It was excavated in the 17th year of Taihe (493 AD), the 17th year of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty." Nineteen of the twenty representative dragon gates of Wei stele are located here (and one is in Cixiang Grotto).
The ancients said: "The person who makes the stele starts from the humble stone, takes the strong stone and uses humility. The original meaning is to use the solid stone to engrave important events for a long time. The stele means "preparation". Once it has been put on the stele, it will be ready." Record for history." Therefore, it is not only a treasure in the art of calligraphy, but also provides a broad resource for studying history. "Twenty Products of Longmen" refers to the inscriptions on twenty square statues from the Northern Wei Dynasty in Longmen Grottoes. It is a typical "Wei stele style". Most of these statues are of princes, nobles, senior officials and eminent monks of the Northern Wei Dynasty. They sang praises to Emperor Xiaowen or opened niches and statues to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters. The title "Twenty Grades" was first seen in "Guang Yizhou Double Collection" written by Kang Youwei and "School Stele Essays" written by Fang Ruo in the Qing Dynasty. The so-called "pin" comes from Liang Yu Jianwu's "Book Pin" in the Southern Dynasties: "That is, to give grades to calligraphy that can be made into French style." This shows how high his achievements are. "Twenty Pins of Longmen" is the representative of Wei stele calligraphy. It inherits Han Li and Tang Kai at the bottom, and has the charm of both Li and Kai scripts. It is the essence of calligraphy art in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the artistic crystallization of the ingenuity of unknown calligraphers in ancient my country.
Going out from the south gate of Longmen Grottoes, on the wall west of Manshui Bridge, I finally saw the stone rubbings of "Twenty Products of Longmen". Seeing it up close for the first time, I can see that it has a square structure and thick brushwork. It is completely different from the Junxiu of Tang Kai script, and reveals the unique vigor, vigor and heaviness of the spirit of the northerners. Its large and clumsy beauty gives the calligraphy world an unconventional and fresh air, showing a grand and universal image. Kang Youwei praised the "ten beauties" of the Wei stele: "strong courage, vigorous atmosphere, leaping brushwork, thick stipples, strange and elegant moods, flying spirit, full of interest, penetrating bones, natural structure, and rich flesh and blood." It is also said that "if there are no bad inscriptions on Wei stele, if you choose to learn from Wei's statues and inscriptions, you will be able to write on your own." It can be seen that to learn calligraphy, one must write traditional classic stele inscriptions, which is the only way.
Kang Youwei said that the Longmen stone carvings are "all majestic and majestic, with extremely expressive ideas and extremely regular brushwork." Among the "Twenty Products of Longmen", I especially like "The Statue of Shi Pinggong" and "The Statue of Yang Dayan". The former is a representative work among the Longmen stone carvings. The difference between this stele and other stele is that the entire stele is carved using the Yang carving method, with word-for-word boundaries, which is the only one seen in stone carvings in the past dynasties, and is unique among statue records. The inscription on this stele is square and cut, with heavy and square strokes at the folds, a flat and square structure, thick and full dots and strokes, and a sharp edge, which makes it appear majestic and majestic. It is regarded as a representative of the vigorous style of Wei stele's square style. The calligraphy style of "The Statue of Yang Dayan" is very similar to that of Shi Ping Gong. In terms of calligraphy appreciation, the brushwork is square and sharp, and the structure is condensed in the middle and outward. It is just that the degree of tightness is slightly lighter than that of "Shi Ping Gong". This may also be Yang Yang The reason for the difference between engraving and negative engraving. These inscriptions on the statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty make people feel at ease and feel at peace when reading them. No matter how many new changes in calligraphy styles are contained in it, the atmosphere and spirit in the inscriptions really make us yearn for it.
Wei Stele is the transition from official script to Tang Kai script. The Wei stele is somewhere between the two: simple and clumsy, with strong muscles and bones, and a sense of flexibility despite being strong. It is soaked in the simple and simple style of the northerners, as well as the upright and energetic spirit. Just like the Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties, it is euphemistic and delicate, with deep emotions. The folk songs of the Northern Dynasties sound clear, vigorous, rough and heroic.
However, being a human being is like Wei Stele, as clever as clumsy, as humble as grain, simple and majestic, and powerful and heroic~