020202 Mr. Wang Xuezhong said kindly and clearly that there are many people in society who call themselves calligraphers. In fact, it is not easy to be a qualified calligrapher. The standard issue of today's qualified calligraphers can be discussed as a social academic issue, but in my opinion, they should have at least four aspects:
Solid traditional skills
020202 The issue of traditional skills has always been an important issue that calligraphers must first possess and solve. In the thousands of years of Chinese calligraphy history, you can't find a talented calligrapher who doesn't learn from tradition, doesn't have any traditional skills, and "creates" entirely on his own. From Wang Xizhi to Yan Zhenqing, from Mi Fu to Zhao Mengfu, from Dong Qichang to He Shaoji, from Yu Youren to Qi Gong, Sha Menghai, etc., all of them have profound traditional skills. Traditional skills are equivalent to the foundation of a building. If the foundation is not firm, the mountain will be shaken. Adolescence is a golden age for learning and mastering traditional skills, but even in old age there is a problem of continuous learning and deepening. Wang Duo, a great calligrapher in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, insisted on creating and writing every day throughout his life. Some people are eager to be famous and make money, and are afraid that learning traditions will take up too much time. They want to be "short-term and quick" and become talented quickly. This is a wrong understanding. It should be noted that sharpening the knife will not waste time chopping wood. The career of calligraphy can be said to be a late bloomer. If you want to become a famous person and everyone, you have to endure loneliness for a long time, and you can't be impatient. No matter how smart you are, you can't do it until it is ripe. There is no shortcut to learning calligraphy, and there is no quick fix, only perseverance in climbing. Some calligraphers openly say that they have never copied an ancient family's famous calligraphy or famous steles in their lives, but they still achieved success. Don't take this seriously. A few years ago, a young man happily told me that he had only studied calligraphy for less than two years before he went abroad to hold an exhibition and achieved sensational results. I said, you also shocked me, you are really a genius!
Profound cultural literacy
020202 Ancient Chinese calligraphers were basically writers, poets and scholars, and these writers, poets and scholars were basically good at calligraphy. In these aspects, the serious problem for today's calligraphers as a whole is that their overall quality (including literature, philology, aesthetics, etc.) is relatively poor. However, there are still many modern and contemporary calligraphers who have profound knowledge and are admired, such as Guo Moruo, Qi Gong, Zhao Puchu, Sha Menghai and so on. The stamina of the art of calligraphy lies in knowledge and accumulation. Mr. Sha Menghai once said insightfully: "In calligraphy, youth is a competition of talent, middle age is a competition of skill, and old age is a competition of knowledge." A person's education is not innate, it all depends on long-term hard study , what you strive for diligently. The connotation of pen and ink, artistic taste and written content are inseparable from education at any time. In many calligraphy exhibitions, you can't copy Tang poems and Song lyrics every time. Why can't you express your emotions and create some poems and couplets? There is a big difference between calligraphers who are knowledgeable and uneducated. I sincerely advise young and middle-aged calligraphers to participate less in pen conferences and do more learning; socialize less and read more. Only by reading can one realize that knowledge is shallow; only by looking at the sea can one realize that the world is vast.
Bold innovative spirit
020202 Innovation in the art of calligraphy is an indispensable skill for every calligrapher. I have always supported bold innovations by young and middle-aged calligraphers. In the 1980s, I wrote an article "In Praise of the Birth of "Modern Calligraphy"", which clarified my views and attitudes. Innovation is the life and development driving force of all art, and it is also the ultimate goal of inheriting tradition. A history of Chinese calligraphy is a history of inheritance and innovation. If you stick to tradition all your life and stand still, you can only become a book slave. It is also a big mistake to despise tradition, regard tradition as a burden and obstacle, and think that "innovation" can be achieved by overthrowing the predecessors. We still need to persist in scientific innovation. Any innovation in art is a kind of exploration and experimentation. In this case, there is the possibility of success and failure. Therefore, we should have an understanding, supportive and tolerant attitude towards anyone's innovation. Even for those works that are deviant, fragmented, topsy-turvy, snarling, and weird, you don’t have to be frightened, and you don’t have to be so arrogant, but you still have to allow others to give it a try. If he fails, there may be another successful exploration. The exploration of various calligraphy styles and the coexistence of various calligraphy styles should be accommodated, and innovators should be given a free space, so as to form a prosperous situation where a hundred flowers bloom and compete with each other. But the innovation I am talking about refers to scientific innovation, not random "innovation".
Everyone among calligraphers wants to innovate, but everyone finds it difficult.
Noble personality charm
020202 Mr. Wang Xuezhong emphasized that in addition to the above three requirements, a qualified calligrapher must also have a noble personality charm in order to gain widespread recognition. The respect and love of the people. The outstanding calligraphers in Chinese history all had noble personalities. Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Su Dongpo, Zheng Banqiao, Fu Shan, etc. have been praised for generations, which has effectively enhanced their calligraphy status. However, problems with national integrity and personality of people like Cai Jing, Zheng Xiaoxu, etc. have greatly affected their calligraphy status. In order for today's calligraphers to show their personality charm among the broad masses of the people, they must first treat fame and fortune correctly, and have a sense of artistic mission, national responsibility and a sense of obligation to serve the people. Some people bargain with each other as soon as they pick up a pen, ask for money as soon as they ask for money, and count RMB as soon as they appear on the stage. Even when it comes to public welfare undertakings and poverty alleviation activities, they compete for every inch of profit. I heard that some calligraphers showed their rubrics first when inscribing plaques for schools and libraries in old revolutionary areas. They turn the pens in their hands into cash cows and treat calligraphy institutions as a fame and fortune fair, so they go around building connections, looking for backers, and working in the calligraphy circle, with the sole purpose of gaining fame and fortune. In recent years, the book world has engaged in false packaging and promotion, such as "fake photos", "fake underwriting", "fake apprenticeships" and other strange phenomena, which are all shoddy products in order to gain fame and reputation. If we do not eliminate these bad "strange situations", we cannot return a benign "ecological environment" for the normal development of the book world.
020202 Finally, Mr. Wang Xuezhong said happily and excitedly that the "Eight Honors and Eight Disgraces" recently proposed by General Secretary Hu Jintao plays an extremely important role in standardizing and establishing the socialist concept of honor and disgrace in our calligraphy circles. . 020202 (The author is the Party Secretary of China International Art Exhibition Center, a famous calligrapher, and a literary critic)