The font for writing has been formed. Can it be changed and how to change it?
Answer: It can be changed, and it won’t take long. Many comrades believe that writing has already taken shape and cannot be changed as we get older... This view is wrong. You know, writing well is not difficult, nor is it unattainable, but it is extremely easy to learn, as long as you use the right method and correct your old writing habits. Specifically, when you practice writing, you must correct your writing posture and method of holding the pen. This is the first condition.
Now I will list two examples of calligraphy practice by our ancestors and discuss this issue based on my own experience.
As we all know, Wang Xizhi, the sage of Chinese calligraphy, first learned calligraphy from Wei Shuo. Later, he read more famous works by famous writers such as Zhong Yao, so he changed his learning. It was he who carried on the past and opened up the future, turning the ancient calligraphy style into the beautiful and smooth modern style, and making creative contributions to regular script, running script and cursive script. This is Wang Xizhi's historical contribution in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
Let’s talk about Yan Zhenqing. He first learned from Chu Suiliang and later learned from Zhang Xu. He adapted the style of seal script and wrote dignified and majestic regular script. It was he who created a new style other than Erwang.
I first copied the regular script of Zhong Shaojing, and then the regular script of Ouyang Xun and Huang Ziyuan. I followed Huang Ruozhou's calligraphy in running script. I felt that there was still a long way to go and I still had to work hard. But no matter how many years it takes for your handwriting to take shape, it can be changed.
Some comrades asked: Is it okay to write pen calligraphy and imitate calligraphy calligraphy? Practice has proven that yes, the effect is the same.
Write pen and calligraphy well, no matter your age, no matter whether your writing is in shape or not, as long as you write diligently, make up your mind, realize the importance of work and future, after some hard work, It can be written well.
Even if you start late, you can still catch up. Throughout the ages, there have been many famous teachers who became successful after studying in their thirties. Liang Hao of the Song Dynasty was admitted to Jinshi at the age of eighty-two. He chanted: "We also know that it is better for young people to pass the exams, but it is the mature people who compete for the leading position." Li Zhi of the Ming Dynasty abandoned his official position to study and was already fifty-four years old when he determined to write a book. His famous works "Book Burning" and "Collection of Books" were completed when he was sixty-four and seventy-three years old respectively.
Achievement does not depend on age, the key lies in ambition and perseverance.
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Where should I start learning to write?
Answer: You must first select your ideal copybook, and also consider whether it is similar to the glyphs you write. After you have selected it, read it several times to analyze the key points of the glyphs and the rules of the structure. This is called "the intention lies in the words first", and then use transparent white paper to trace first, then copy, and memorize the key parts of each word. The specific steps are described as follows:
Writing posture and writing
(1) Sit upright, shoulders flat, back straight, body and head not tilted, let alone lowered. ; The distance between the eyes is about one foot from the table, and the distance between the chest and the edge of the table is about three inches.
(2) Hold the pen upright, and the pen tip should be straight forward. Do not tilt it inward (as long as the palm of your hand is flat, the pen tip will naturally move forward); the tip of the index finger should be about an inch away from the pen tip. If you hold the pen incorrectly or the tip of the pen is tilted inwards, you will not be able to write smoothly, you will not be able to write horizontally, you will not be able to write well, and you will not be able to write smoothly. You may even have to move your right hand every time you write a stroke. At the same time, the written lines have no spine and no rhythm, and the glyphs cannot be said to be relaxed and generous.
(3) The inclination of the pen barrel. To write large characters, hold the pen upwards and the inclination of the pen barrel should be slightly larger. To write small characters, hold the pen downwards and the inclination of the pen barrel slightly smaller. The general slope should be at the joint of the index finger. If it exceeds this position, the strokes written will be either rigid or dull. If the inclination of the pen barrel is inappropriate, the pen speed will be limited, and it will be impossible to write elegant and charming glyphs, so the "tiger's mouth" should not be tilted.
(4) Hold the pen lightly so that you can move the pen freely; if you hold the pen too tightly, your writing will not be broad and generous. According to what I saw during lectures in middle schools, in a class of fifty students, forty-five students held their pens incorrectly or their pen tips were tilted inward. This is also the case in universities. It is for this reason that the characters written by these students are not hooked properly. It looks like a hook, but the 捺 does not look like a 捺. The strokes are all flat and piled up.
As mentioned before, the quality of writing is absolutely related to posture and writing.
Just like a carpenter sawing wood, if your posture and holding the saw are not correct, no matter how straight the "line" is, you will saw it crookedly. This is the same as writing good calligraphy.
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How should the steps of learning calligraphy be arranged?
Answer: Start by learning the basic strokes of regular script, namely dot, horizontal, vertical, left, hold, lift, hook and fold.
A character is like a machine. Practicing the basic strokes is like processing the "parts"; practicing the radicals is like starting the "assembly"; practicing the entire glyph is like entering the "final assembly" . That is to say, learn "decomposition" first, and then learn "coherence". Therefore, regular script is the foundation, and basic strokes are the foundation of the foundation.
When practicing basic strokes, practice them in categories. For example, when practicing writing "丶", you should practice 丶,丿,丶,丨, etc. separately, and then write "continuous" and combine them.
The general rules: when practicing regular script, you should first practice basic strokes; then practice the order of strokes; thirdly, practice radicals; fourthly, practice glyph structure; fifthly, practice branch layout.
The "dots" of Chinese characters should be emphasized when writing, like a stone falling to the ground. What kind of points are needed for what kind of parts, it is necessary to "concentrate on the writing first". For example, the writing method of Zhong Shaojing and Ouyang Xun above "倀" is more powerful when written in short vertical strokes.
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Why is it said that to learn calligraphy, you must first practice regular script?
Answer: As we all know, when a child starts to walk, he must first learn to stand. After standing firm, he can learn to walk. When the steps are familiar, he can walk quickly and then run.
This is the same as the three steps of practicing calligraphy, first practice regular script; then practice Xing; third, practice cursive. Calligraphers of all ages have unanimously maintained that only by practicing regular script well and having a solid foundation will it be easier to write in regular script and cursive script. Only by practicing regular script well can the writing be smooth and the body not fragmented.
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How long does it take to learn regular script first?
Answer: As long as you choose a good copybook and insist on writing two pages every day, you can achieve results in two months. As for the method of practicing writing, it is still best to trace first, then copy, and then compare to find differences. For difficult words, write them down separately and make special breakthroughs.
When your practice is effective, you will naturally become interested: the more you write, the more you will love writing, and the more you read, the happier you will be! This is the beginning of your success.
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In order to write each word well, what key points should be mastered?
Answer: The first thing is to master the pen strength. This means that you should use force when making strokes; when you should not use force, you should use light strokes to make transitions. For example, if you write the words "国", "红", "真" and "steel", you can clearly distinguish the importance, which will give people a sense of beauty.
Generally speaking, when writing strokes such as "丶,一,丨,丶(捺)", the strokes should be written with more force, and other strokes should be lighter. But each stroke in a word cannot be made with force. For example, when writing the words "人,大,天" and other characters, the strokes should be light and the strokes should be heavy. On the contrary, it can be written as "heavy" if the strokes are left, and "light" if the strokes are held back. In short, the force cannot be evenly distributed.
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Some people say that basic strokes are easy to practice, but frame structures are difficult to write. Is this true?
Answer: It sounds difficult to say, but in fact it is very easy as long as you find the right method and the right path.
For example, after you first practice the basic strokes, you will have basic skills. The method to find the correct way and the right path refers to structurally distinguishing whether it is a single character or a combined character.
If it is a single character, you must grasp the center and center of gravity of the character. For example, the characters "Shang, Xia, Qian, Shi" and other characters are all single characters, so it is necessary to grasp its center of gravity: the horizontal strokes are slightly longer, the vertical strokes are slightly shorter, and the vertical strokes must be centered down (regular script).
If it is a combined character, it is necessary to distinguish whether it is a left-right structure;
Clarify these six differences, and then master them according to the definitions and organizational rules of the words. In this way, you can write a perfect and beautiful glyph.
For example: "Hao" and "Mom" belong to the left-right structure; "Xing" and "Su" belong to the upper-lower structure; "Chang" and "Zhang" belong to the upper-middle-lower structure; "Carpenter" and "Yi" belong to the half-package structure. Structure; it is easy to distinguish between these different structure definitions.
For example: the two characters "Xing" and "Su" are vertically aligned up and down, pay attention to the center alignment; the character Changzhang has a long shape, don't write it too long, just tighten it slightly; the character "Hao Ma" has a left-right structure, with the left side Slightly smaller, slightly larger on the right. As long as the density is properly controlled and the unevenness is orderly, wouldn't it look good? On the contrary, there is no distinction between font shapes, improper density, one wide and one narrow, and the weight of lines.
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Some people say that if you want to write well with a pen To write, you must first practice calligraphy with a brush, right?
Answer: No. Practice has proved that this requires many detours. Why? The reason is very clear: because the structural rules of Chinese characters are exactly the same, but the size of the fonts, writing tools and techniques are different, it doesn’t matter which one you learn first.
When inheriting and copying ancient works, we should strive to be similar in form and spirit, but we should not lose sight of our personal style.
Some people are too mystified about how to write well, and some people say that good handwriting is innate... In fact, it does not take ten or twenty years to write calligraphy with a brush or a pen. To put it bluntly, I have only practiced calligraphy for two years. When I showed the calligraphy couplet I wrote two years later to a calligraphy editor, the first comment I got was: "Your handwriting must have taken at least ten years of work." The editor asked me: "Who have you learned from?" I said: "No one has learned from". Three months later, the couplet I wrote was published in a magazine.
This incident reminds me of how many people and calligraphy materials have repeatedly claimed that if you want to write well, you can't practice it for more than ten years and more... He also said that good handwriting is a genius and so on. These assertions are unrealistic. In fact, as long as you choose the copybook well, use the right method and are determined, you can achieve results in less than a year. Please give it a try.
Some people advocate that you must first practice brush calligraphy to write well with pen calligraphy. This is actually not necessary because you cannot master both calligraphy skills at the same time in a short period of time. If they don’t, it would be ugly.
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Writing pays attention to echo. What does this mean?
Answer: If you want to write vividly, you have to pay attention to the movement of lines and the response of strokes. There are echoes between strokes, and the beginning and end of sentences also pay attention to echoes. This writing method is to avoid mechanical and stacking phenomena. The "broken pens and connected ideas" we often mention make the movement between the stipples and paintings coherent. This movement is like the movement of a child reaching out to call his mother, and the mother reaching out to pick up the child.
It is said in "Shu Raft": Starting the pen is to call, and closing the pen is to accept. On the contrary, if you finish one stroke and then think about the next one, interrupting the potential energy between the pens, that is what the "Sequel Book of Books" criticizes: "The shape is written in pictures, but it cannot contain it. It is all fragmented and incoherent, and the result is mostly beads. , of course the glyph cannot survive."
Therefore, in order to make the writing lively, interesting and attractive, the word echo cannot be ignored.
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It is said that there is a principled way of writing, is this true?
Answer: Yes, this is what the contemporary calligrapher Deng Sanmu said. Mr. Deng makes sense. When writing "horizontal", it should be slightly slanted, with the left side lower and the right side higher. The slope is about 5-7 degrees. Do not go below 5 degrees. No higher than 7 degrees. This is because human eyesight is not balanced. If the "horizontal" drawing is written as straight, then due to the illusion of the two eyes, it will seem that the end of the right end has fallen down, which is very unnatural.
The "vertical" painting of Chinese characters is more important and plays a pillar role in a character. Yu Shinan said in "Bi Sui Lun Commentary" (quoting Wang Xizhi's words): "A crossbow is necessary for vertical painting, and fighting is important for heroism." Therefore, writing vertical paintings must be vigorous and powerful. Such as Zhong, Niu, Qian, Shan, etc.
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Does the speed of writing matter?
Answer: It has a lot to do with it. The speed of writing has a great relationship with the writing speed. The beauty of the glyphs and the charm of the lines are mostly reflected in the fast writing.
The echoing and coherent gestures are also reflected in the rapid movement of the brush. Words written with a slow pen have no charm.
As we all know, the glyphs and chapters written by some people who write quickly are not rigid, not rigid, and have high momentum! This is the good effect of their use of "all in one go".
If you want to write quickly and achieve satisfactory results, in addition to having a good understanding of the structure of the glyphs themselves, it is more important to hold the pen correctly and as high as possible.
When writing each word, you should conceive it according to the basic definition of the word, write it with faith, and act with faith. Don't be artificial or modify it. "The pen is powerful and penetrating, with beauty and rhyme; the book is expensive, thin and hard, so it has spirit." This is what the speed of writing should reflect.
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What should you pay attention to when writing basic strokes?
Answer: (1) When writing "point", it is as heavy as a stone, broken in shape but connected in meaning; (2) When writing "horizontal", it should be slightly slanted. There are two "horizontal" characters in a word. The upper "horizontal" should be written in an upward posture, and the lower "horizontal" should be written in a downward posture;
(3) "Vertical" should be drawn thick and strong, and should not be written crookedly;
(4) The stroke of "Bi" is sharp, the stroke of "捺" is vigorous;
(5) The stroke of "Zhe" is slow, and the stroke of "Hook" is sharp.
Practice slowly at first and gradually. You must know that in order to achieve success in calligraphy, you must first practice the basic strokes of regular script well, which is the starting point for writing all calligraphy well.
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What should we pay attention to in writing in the future?
Answer: We should pay attention to the four aspects of "knowledge, simplicity, continuity and beauty". This is advocated by Comrade Zhu Chuan, the former deputy governor and honorary president of Liaoning Calligraphers Association. These four words will play a vital role in the future. The standardization of hard-tipped calligraphy has important guiding significance.
"Knowledge" means that the written words must be accurate, clear and legible. Since words are symbols that represent silent language and express a person's thoughts and actions, then this symbol must be written so that people can recognize it. If it is written in a messy way, no one will recognize it, and as time goes by, even you will not recognize it. What is the use of such words?
"Jian" refers to writing in simplified characters prescribed by the state. You must know that the development of Chinese characters from complex to simple and continuous evolution is no longer a thing today. After Qin Shihuang unified writing and standardized it, Xiaozhuan became official script, cursive script became regular script, and cursive script in the late Han Dynasty turned into cursive script of regular script. The continuous simplification of fonts is the law of the development of Chinese characters.
Today, we are building material civilization and spiritual civilization, and people have higher requirements for the efficiency of writing Chinese characters. Therefore, the abbreviation of Chinese characters is very necessary. But advocating for writing simplified Chinese characters is not random.
"Lian" refers to characters written in a continuous style. Simply put, it is a fast-writing connected character.
Regardless of running script or cursive script, there must be normative constraints, and it should not be random. I repeat that the words you write must be understandable and understandable, without causing embarrassment to others.
"Beauty" refers to the highest requirement after a word is written. The beauty of calligraphy is expressed through the beauty of lines, not the beauty of pictograms.
For example, if you write the word "fish", if the appreciator judges whether the word "fish" looks like the "fish" in nature and whether it is beautiful or not, this will confuse the meaning of beauty.
To evaluate the beauty of glyphs, we should abandon the ancient prototypes of Chinese characters and instead rely on the "shape and spirit" embodied in their line shapes.
In the long historical development, the ancient pictographic writing method of Chinese characters has been ignored by people. If some people think that oracle bone inscriptions with strong pictograms are beautiful, then regular script without pictograms is not beautiful. This is obviously not in line with the actual situation of the history of Chinese calligraphy.
The beauty of the lines themselves comes from the shape. Brush calligraphy is expressed in "tendons, bones, blood, flesh, spirit, energy, rhyme and taste" (Zhu Chuan language), and the same is true for fountain pens.
This kind of beauty is not procrastinated or far-fetched, but the overall natural beauty of the lines, which is expressed through the concretization of "shape and spirit".