Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is a must in Chinese history. Why do some people say that it is performance art and not practical?

Wang Xizhi used the word "Miao" to evaluate Zhang Zhi's cursive script in Fu with Pen. Wang Xizhi used such a seemingly illusory word when commenting on other people's calligraphy, but these two words are the evaluation criteria of good calligraphy. This is a good point for calligraphers to look at calligraphy works.

Zhang Huaiguan, a calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, once said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Those who know the depth of a book only look at its spirit, not its shape." The explanation is that people who really understand calligraphy only look at the spirit (Wang Xizhi used the word "supernatural"), and what you write is not important. Does calligraphy have nothing to do with practicality?

This subverts our understanding that the quality of calligraphy is only related to the impression, but not to the content written. Zhang Huaiguan is right. The mistake is that we confuse the concepts of calligraphy and writing. What is real calligraphy? Cai Yong said in the first sentence of On Pen: "The book is scattered." Real calligraphy is used to express the heart, not practicality. In other words, real calligraphy has nothing to do with practicality.

Calligraphy has a look, but it does.

Charm. It's like saying that this person has temperament. If someone comments that someone's calligraphy is bookish, then this bookish is what this person's calligraphy looks like.

Because calligraphy is used to express the heart, this person must have culture in his heart, and the calligraphy written will have a look (inner bookish). If this person is uneducated and has a bad stomach, his calligraphy will definitely not look good (bookish). If it looks good, it can only be tacky.

The so-called "words are like people" is the truth. Writing bookish calligraphy can only be a person with profound culture. A man who pretends to be a scholar by copying poems will never be bookish in his calligraphy.