First, what is calligraphy?
Most people can tell at a glance whether a word is kung fu or not. Calligraphy is a kind of inheritance and a kind of cultural accumulation. There are two ways to do whatever you want. One is that primary school students scribble casually. The other is to reach the level of one's will after years of practice, which is a high level. They learn regular script first, then running script, and then cursive script. Regular script is the foundation. Everyone who has practiced knows that writing is horizontal and vertical.
In addition to the original note-taking function, Chinese characters also have the beauty of their own rules. How to change from ancient times to the present, but the beauty of rules has never changed. The beauty of this rule lies in its basic rule and aesthetic feeling. Aesthetic feeling is artistic feeling. There is nothing to talk about aesthetic feeling, and any art needs to pay attention to the beauty of rules.
The beauty of rules is the essence of art, of course, art should also pay attention to the beauty of personality. Personality is reflected in being a single author, right? Three views? Got it. And then what? Three views? It also belongs to the category of philosophy. Therefore, a good calligraphy work must be a work with aesthetic feeling (beautiful brushwork and beautiful structure) under the guidance of correct philosophy.
Ordinary people think that neat words are good words, which is good enough. Perhaps such words are not called calligraphy in the eyes of experts, but they are more grounded, closer to the masses, closer to life, and easier to inherit and popularize. Ordinary people can't understand it, but experts think it's calligraphy, because without the masses, it can only be circulated on a small scale, which has become a self-entertainment for a small number of people. It is inevitable that there is a deep meaning. Just like the ancient eight-part essay, only intellectuals can master it, which is obscure and incomprehensible to ordinary people, so it was eventually eliminated.
Calligraphy is indeed an art, but it is incomprehensible. The kind of prescription prescribed by doctors is really divorced from the masses, and we can't blame the masses for not seeing beauty. The written words must be understood first, and then appreciated. Is it beautiful or not? It is suggested that calligraphers try to create some works that are easily accepted by ordinary people in order to better inherit calligraphy.
Many folk calligraphy lovers write well and are deeply loved by the masses. But when it comes to some judges, the result of comments is either Jianghu or art. This may be a contempt for scholars. Although there is no standard answer to beauty and ugliness, everyone always has a steelyard in his heart. This steelyard is based on habitual cognition and empirical judgment of ugliness and beauty. The so-called eyes of the masses are discerning, and the masses also know words and beauty and ugliness.