Is Kang Youwei's "reform" in the field of calligraphy too extreme?

Kang Youwei was a famous person in the late Qing Dynasty. This article mainly talks about his controversial "body-building" calligraphy.

Kang Youwei

In 1889, his book "Guang Yi Zhou Shuang Tan" comprehensively and systematically summed up a work of stele study in theory, put forward the theory of "respecting stele", vigorously praised the stele study in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, completely denied the post study, and put forward "belittling the Tang Dynasty", which wiped out the creation of calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty for hundreds of years. I always think Kang Youwei is too extreme.

In "Two Boats in Guangyi", he grossly praised the calligraphy achievements of the powerful Weng Tonghe and his son to please Weng. Kang Youwei did not hesitate to flatter the powerful in order to seek advancement. This also makes me doubt that Kang Youwei's calligraphy theory is not purely academic.

Kang Youwei advocates the study of steles, and looks closely at the strokes between words. He is full of tension, expansion and struggle in the dry, dense, dull and turbid changes and wanderings, much like this late Qing revolutionary who struggled, hesitated and struggled in chaotic times.

The words in stele study are neat and rigorous, but the traditional official script and block letters are omitted between strokes, so it seems that it is not traditional calligraphy.

Kang Youwei's words not only have the shape of epigraphy, but also have the meaning of epigraphy in the font structure. To put it simply, the whole article looks neat, and the words are beautiful and free and easy to open.

The writing is based on a flat arc, and the turning point is mainly round, and the pen is often dark, round and thick. The unique rough, muddy and thick effect of Changfeng Yanghao is unique to him.

In terms of creative form, Kang Youwei's couplets are the most wonderful, with long strokes and big strokes. They are full of ancient Chinese meanings and show the masculine beauty of the muddy atmosphere. It can also be seen that his brush strokes despise the method of posting, and his lines bring out the structural turmoil and deny the steady creation.

Liang Qichao, Emperor Guangxu and Kang Youwei took a fake photo

Some people think that this is a superficial bluff, and Mr. Pan Boying commented that Kang Youwei's words are "like a rolling straw rope." It is considered that Kang Youwei's lines have no sense of texture, and he abuses flying white, which is very vain. Kang Youwei advocates a round pen and opposes the opponent's pen in his brushwork, which is a very important reason for his monotonous brushwork. He often has no sharp point in starting and closing the pen, and there is no setback. The lifting and pressing are not obvious, the lines are single and there is no change. When you are sketching, you will see a loose void, which is not urgent enough. It is a disease. There is a lack of change in the use of ink, the form of expression is insufficient, the pen is full of thick ink, and the pen is white, that's all. Judging from his nave's works, there is often a sense of constraint in writing style, which is caused by the denial of post learning. In essence, his early day classes were mainly about Ou Yu.

On the whole, Kang Youwei's "Guang Yi Zhou Shuang Tan" launched a profound "reform" movement in the field of modern calligraphy. Comparatively speaking, his calligraphy creation is better than that of Ruan Yuan and Bao Shichen, but as far as he is concerned, there is still a gap between his creation and his theoretical achievements, and he is not the most outstanding practitioner of epigraphy.

You can't be a calligrapher if you don't know the word "rhyme", even if you study the inscriptions all your life, it's in vain. What exactly is "rhyme"

Six full-page reports of the central-level dailies with the headline Han Jinyuan's painting and calligraphy

Interview with the original author "Han Jinyuan's painting and calligraphy" with the headline number.