Every line has a head and a tail. Externalization into action has a beginning and an end. Calligraphy is a pure line art, and we must not ignore the norms of origin and destination. As early as the Cai Ba era in the post-Han dynasty, there was a saying that "hiding the head and protecting the tail, the strength is in words". But so far, the norms and brushwork are all discussing the beginning and end of the line.
The simplest reason for the discussion of hiding the head and protecting the tail should also be related to the performance of the brush itself. With a soft brush that can be spread over a large area, an inexperienced person will inevitably show his head and tail when drawing an inch, but it is well-trained to make this sharp natural form converge and hide. In order to show the depth and difficulty of calligraphy skills, of course, it is hard to give up easily. In addition, the sharp and exposed shape of the brush is bound to be too grand and lacks a calm and implicit aesthetic feeling, so it is not popular in the appreciation of calligraphy art. In short, the principle and center of hiding the head and protecting the tail are the same. People (calligraphers) automatically look for constraints and regulations in artistic creation; Another attempt to express self-worth in such restrictions and regulations. If there is no constraint, artists can be equated with ordinary people, and their uniqueness is not shown at all.
It's certainly a valuable research topic to compare hiding the head and protecting the tail with the ancient aesthetics in China and even with the closure of the classical cultural form in China. But this is far from pure technicalism, it is an ideological proposition rather than a technical norm proposition. However, in China's theory of ancient calligraphy techniques, other theories of diagnosing and explaining hiding the head and protecting the tail may be more effective. For example, the dialectical relationship between Tibetan front and exposed front is discussed in ancient calligraphy. The Tibetan front is bound to return to the front, while the exposed front deliberately reveals the linear movement and development direction. The former is implicit and the latter is explicit. The former is one of the important principles in calligraphy line technique, while the latter is the natural form and general variation form of technique. Just as in the contrast between China people and Ba women, we take the center as the basic type and the flank as the application type.
What is the basis for saying that the Tibetan front is the principle and exposing the front is the state of change? If the center is the basic guarantee of the beauty of lines, it cannot be said that only the Tibetan front is the only way. In fact, the test of ancient inscriptions is completely exposed. Therefore, the understanding of Tibetan front as a technical phenomenon should rise to the understanding of its characteristics as a technical type. First, what Mi Fei said, "No matter where to go, no matter how to shrink", is a summary of line termination (including the next starting point, of course): whether it is actually hidden or exposed, we must follow the principle of closing and shrinking, so is the horizontal pen and vertical pen, and so is the left and right pen, even in. The second is the "meaning beyond the pen" handed down from ancient times. When connecting two lines, the actual connection is the arrival of the pen, and the unconnected but powerful is the intention. The "pen beyond meaning" can be clearly explained by revealing the front or implied by hiding the front, but as long as it does not pursue the actual connection phenomenon, it must belong to hiding rather than revealing in aesthetic character.