Hao Jing, a scholar in the Yuan Dynasty, said in Lingchuan Collection: "Uncle Fu had skill ears, and the ancients combined archery with imperial power. Therefore, in the Three Dynasties and the Pre-Qin period, regardless of whether Fugong was stupid or not, he did not regard it as learning. Instead, he said that there was no calligraphy ... If you didn't have enough knowledge, you would learn books, and then you would have temperament, openness and style. Only when he sees this man can he learn calligraphy. From this article, Hao Jing thought that in the pre-Qin period, writing was the same skill as archery and driving, and "calligraphy" had not yet formed, that is to say, people had not clearly recognized the concept of "calligraphy" at that time. Calligraphy became an independent art, which was clearly put forward later. Liu Yin, another scholar in the Yuan Dynasty, also said in his "Analysis of Classics and Pens": "Calligraphy and painting are clumsy, and the pre-Qin dynasty did not take things seriously ... Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, their academic development has flourished. From emperors and ministers to scholars everywhere, they often behave abnormally in the name of being able to write books and make statements, so they are professional. "Two people are consistent.
But the handwriting handed down from the pre-Qin dynasty was not "clumsy" at that time. Why do later calligraphers regard it as a model? Why does the "ancient meaning" that marks the level of calligraphy attainment refer to the artistry of pre-Qin characters? How to understand this problem seems to be discussed from the following two aspects.
First of all, we know that the ancient working people in China had high artistic creativity and aesthetic concepts, such as the unearthed cultural relics in Yangshao Village, Mianchi, Henan Province and Chengziya, Longshan Town, Jinan, Shandong Province. The culture represented by the former is called "Yangshao culture", while the culture represented by the latter is called "Longshan culture". Pottery and stone tools representing these two cultures are exquisite works of art. On some pottery, there are pictures of fish hitting the water, birds and Mercedes-Benz deer, which are vivid and artistic.
Ancient people used this method to color pottery. Therefore, when they carve inscriptions on Oracle bones or engrave or engrave on metal with a knife, these Oracle bones and a part of Zhong Ding are souvenirs with the value of "eternal treasure", and of course, their artistic creativity should be brought into full play.
On the other hand, it is the writing characteristics of our country. Chinese characters are square characters. A word has many shapes and changes greatly; More importantly, the creation of Chinese characters is pictographic. Zhang Huaiguan, a calligraphy theorist in the Tang Dynasty, said when evaluating Cang Xie's word-making: "(Cang Xie) looked up at the round curve of Kuixing, looked down at the image of turtle and bird, absorbed all kinds of beauty, and composed words, which is ancient prose." Most people know that the generation of ancient Chinese characters is transformed from the shapes of all things in nature. In fact, it also has a very important point, that is, "learn from all good things."
After deep observation of natural phenomena and life phenomena, human beings began to make Chinese characters and then began to "resemble". In-depth observation, their aesthetic concept has been reflected, so they can "learn from all the beauty and combine it into words." Art is the concentrated expression of natural beauty and the beauty of human life. The characters created in ancient times are not only synthesized by "absorbing all kinds of beauty", but also naturally have considerable artistry.
There was also a scholar named Han Xing in the Yuan Dynasty. In his book Rules, he said: "In the Three Dynasties, books were used to record things. Before that, stippling was clumsy; And these exquisite works of determination, yi, Ming and Zhi are intended to be clumsy? Also do your best, you have to work hard. Here, Han Xing's "try your best" is consistent with Qin Xiang Reese's "think carefully and see for yourself". This "reason" is the "reason" created from natural beauty to artistic beauty, but the ancient people did not clearly realize this "reason" despite their high artistic creativity and aesthetic concept. Any problem is dialectical. It is precisely because people in the pre-Qin period "don't pay attention to handwork" and "calligraphy and painting are clumsy" ... and ignore things "that the words written or engraved are not artificial, but simple and natural, with an" ancient meaning "that future generations can't reach.
From the calligraphy practice and calligraphy criticism of later generations, we can also see the importance of this "reason". Calligraphy criticism in past dynasties mostly described the characteristics of a certain calligraphy style or everyone's calligraphy style with the beauty of nature and life. Such examples can be said to be numerous. In the practice of calligraphy, Lisi's theory of "using pen" can explain the problem quite well. He said: "When a husband uses a pen, he will retreat first and then get sick. If the eagle wants Peng to die, it will naturally believe and cannot be changed. If you are full, you will get water if you swim; Dancing pens are like mountains and clouds. Or roll or relax, be light and heavy, think carefully and see for yourself. " Here, he asked "to use a pen" to look at "reason" with words such as "eagle watching Peng die", "swimming fish to get water" and "scenic mountains to promote clouds". Of course, you have to "think carefully" a lot of calligraphers in past dynasties. It is precisely because you feel the beauty of nature and life that calligraphy has changed suddenly. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu saw her husband fighting for the Tao, heard the advocacy and got the brushwork, and saw the sword dancer get its spirit; Huai Su watched the clouds and realized with the wind; Wen Tong of Song Dynasty saw fighting snakes on the road and got a wonderful result. When Lei heard the waves on the Pingqiang River, his thoughts welled up from his pen and he said with emotion, "Hey! Bird Path was originally a school of calligraphy, all of which were tangible. " These anecdotes also inspire us to understand how the art of calligraphy was formed.