The form of calligraphy art is the simplest-only Chinese characters, only the combination of black and white, plus the change of paper color and mounting form and the collocation of red seals at most. However, in this simplest form, it contains infinitely varied and infinitely rich forms.
First, the complexity of fonts. The historical forms of Chinese characters themselves are rich and colorful. From the initial Oracle Bone Inscriptions, to the bronze inscriptions in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, to the official script cursive script in Qin and Han Dynasties, and then to the running script after Han Dynasty, there are various transitional bodies among these forms. There are differences and connections between various historical forms and transitional bodies, and there is a great possibility of mutual communication. It can be said that there are many forests, which constitute a complex and changeable system. Calligraphy takes Chinese characters as the artistic creation material, which has a superior foundation and rich forms of expression. At this point, Japanese, Korean and linear western languages derived from Chinese characters are far behind.
Secondly, the plasticity of the structure. As a recording tool, Chinese characters have their basic requirements in configuration to ensure the accuracy of word meaning recognition. However, this requirement is not rigid. As long as the relationship between the dot and the structure is basically stable, skew, length, Fiona Fang, etc. There is great flexibility in operation. Therefore, specific to every writer's pen, the form of Chinese characters is always ever-changing rather than one-sided, even in the Qing Dynasty.
Third, the diversity of points and strokes. Each Chinese font has its own basic standard of stippling form. But this, like the structure, is not rigid. In the process of writing, its concrete form has great plasticity. The writing tool of China's calligraphy, the brush, has a superior performance in shaping the form of stippling. The combination of the two makes the image of stippling, the basic formal element of China calligraphy art, infinitely rich.
Finally, the comprehensiveness of this chapter. Chinese character texts composed of single words and words, like other texts, always have the possibility of infinite combination on the premise of conforming to grammar. However, the structure and punctuation of Chinese characters are changeable and complicated. After being combined into words, the relationships between them are more complicated than ordinary words.
In addition, as a part of a complete work, the forms of seal cutting and mounting art are also rich and diverse.
It can be seen that in this simplest form, there are complex formal relations! Based on China culture, China's calligraphy refined a series of concepts about formal beauty, formed a set of concept system about formal beauty, and radiated it to other art forms. Lin Yutang said: "Although Chinese characters are square in theory, they are actually composed of the most peculiar strokes, which makes calligraphers have to try to solve those ever-changing structural problems. Therefore, through calligraphy, China scholars have cultivated their appreciation of all kinds of beautiful qualities, such as rigidity, fluency, richness, subtlety, quickness, elegance, grandeur, roughness, preciseness or free and easy, harmony, symmetry, contrast, balance, length, compactness and sometimes even lazy or uneven formal beauty. " He even thinks that in the process of solving these problems, "the art of calligraphy provides a set of terms for aesthetics" and "the concepts represented by these terms can be regarded as the basis of China's aesthetic concept". These concepts (as well as the principles of form and structure) have also influenced "the lines and thoughts of China's paintings", "the form and structure of China's architecture" and "these rhythms, forms and ranges (explored through calligraphy)".
Second, be quiet and move.
China's calligraphy is an artistic form that appeals to vision, and his works are finally embodied in the form of paper. Whether hanging on the wall or on the desk, it is a static appreciation.
However, good calligraphy works always give the viewer a sense of movement. Any work of art is the materialization of the creative process, and it is possible to find traces of the movement process from its final form. However, the dynamic process of Chinese character writing is unique: it has clear directionality, non-repeatability and irreversibility. There are basic norms for the beginning, line and collection of stippling writing, as well as the stroke order and composition arrangement of font writing, and its movement direction is clear to any writer who has been trained in Chinese character writing. Its motion process is often not allowed to be repeated and irreversible, so its directivity is quite clear. This feature is very close to music and dance.
In this way, viewers often read the movement process of writing from fixed works and feel the movement rhythm on paper more. Jiang Kui said in the Southern Song Dynasty: "The characters are different from the hidden front, and they are radiant. It is best that their beginning and end correspond to each other and are connected up and down. What I learned later ... was fragmented and didn't run through each other. I have tasted ancient masterpieces, and they are all shocking, such as when waving. " He also specially put forward a set of contradictory concepts about writing speed-"late speed"-to discuss, saying: "late beauty, fast strength." You must hurry, or it will be too late. "Sheng has the same feeling as Jiang Kui. He said: "Every time I look at Gu Mo, it is exquisite and shocking. "Obviously, in their eyes, calligraphy works are full of rhythm changes.
The creator also has profound observation and conscious attention to this feature of the work. Chen Xianzhang is a philosopher and calligrapher. He said: "every time I give a book, I seek peace, let it go, and stay." This is why I am wonderful. " I'm surprised at my success, but I'm not worried. That's why I'm still. "In his view," motion "is the first, and the" quietness "he pursues is not the static result of the work, but an aesthetic quality, a quiet and serene temperament embodied in the form of the work and the embodiment of the author's spiritual cultivation.
In China's calligraphy, cursive script gives people the strongest sense of movement. Xiao Yan's cursive script said that cursive script "has the potential to fly away", and Song Cao said: "Cursive script is expensive in fluency. ..... People who sit and lie, stand, rush, bow, sing and dance, smash, get drunk, fall, etc., will gain something. " Zhang Xu, a famous cursive script writer in the Tang Dynasty, once watched the dancer Gong Sundaniang perform sword dance, thus realizing the essence of cursive script. Du Fu has a poem praising this matter, which is passed down as a much-told story in the history of calligraphy. There are also rumors that he once saw the princess arguing with her husband and understood the gist of cursive script from their mutual actions. Therefore, in the minds of later artists, Zhang Xu's calligraphy has fully demonstrated the movement essence of all things in the world, so Han Yu praised him: "Xu Shu, which changes like ghosts and gods, is unpredictable."
However, cursive script is not the only one that can reflect the beauty of sports. In fact, even the most neat regular script can (should) show movement. On the one hand, Liu Xizai's Outline of Qing Dynasty says that regular script is "detailed and quiet" and cursive script is "simple and dynamic", on the other hand, it says: "Regular script is static braking, cursive script is static braking." It is believed that the relationship between "dynamic" and "static" is dialectical, not unilateral. Shen said: "the vividness of letters is mostly taken from lines;" The vividness of printing is mostly taken from the official. " It is pointed out that regular script often gets dynamic from running script, while seal script often gets inspiration from the circulation of official script.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Huaiguan equated calligraphy with music, and thought that it would be impossible to talk about the "silence" of calligraphy without "listening alone". Modern scholars also agree with this view. Zong Baihua said: "China's calligraphy is rhythmic and natural." Xu Beihong said, "China's calligraphy ... is like the beauty of music. Point painting makes it turn, and it looks like a stone. " Shen also said: "(Calligraphy) is silent, and there is harmony in music." The three people compared calligraphy with music, and they saw the beauty of "rhythm" contained in calligraphy as Lin Yutang said.
Third, there are images both vertically and horizontally.
Chinese character is an abstract symbol, and its structure and stippling are unrealistic from the beginning. After the gradual transformation of characters, various writing forms have been developed, especially after cursive script, official script and regular script, the remaining "things" in seal script have completely disappeared. Although the horizontal, vertical, left and right sides of regular script have their own images, they are not replicas of natural images. As for each word, it is more likely to contradict the appearance characteristics of the object itself. For example, the word "sun" has become a square, which is completely different from the circular characteristics of the sun image.
However, the original glyph of Chinese characters was established on the basis of pictographs, and in the concept of ancestors, Chinese characters were created by saints who "looked up at the round curve of Kuixing, looked down at the image of turtle and bird and absorbed all the beauty". This concept has a far-reaching influence, which has aroused people's demands for calligraphy art: writing images with shapes. I hope to show or appreciate the great beauty of nature in abstract points, structures and even rules.
In the stage of ancient Chinese characters, especially before the seal script, Chinese characters followed the glyph, and the form of natural images remained in the appearance of Chinese characters in a relatively intuitive way. This feature is easy to make people associate with the beauty of nature when reading, so it is possible to go beyond the meaning of words and directly enter the appreciation and pondering of formal beauty, and then require the expression of natural beauty in words.
The requirements for natural beauty are embodied in two levels. First, from the modeling of works to various modes of natural objects. This level of performance is mainly concentrated in the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Cai Yong, a famous scholar at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, said: "As a book, it must be in its shape. If you sit and walk, if you fly, if you lie down, if you are sad and happy, if you eat wood leaves, if your sword is long, if your bow is strong and your arrow is hard, if it is fire and water, if it is like the sun and the moon, it can be called a book. " Wei Heng's four-body calligraphy style and ci style in the Western Jin Dynasty praised the ancient prose and said, "His prose ... is very organized. Full of princes, full of ministers; The cloud is on the snake and the cloth is on the cloth. This star is far away from light ... just observe it if it is natural. " He also quoted Cai Yong's "Shi Zhuan": "Or a turtle's needle is cracked, which is better than Long Lin's. If the millet droops, it will be like a snake. The waves are shaking, the eagle is shaking, and the neck is stretched out to go to Lingyun. " Quote Cui Yuan's "Grass Potential" cloud: "Cursive script ... suppresses the left and promotes the right. If it stands upright, animals stand upright and are determined to fly, but cunning rabbits are violent and do not rush." As the "Bi Tu" handed down by Mrs. Wei, it even puts forward writing requirements for seven basic strokes of Chinese characters: for example, it is required to be "horizontal" like a thousand miles of clouds, but it is actually tangible; "Point" is like a falling stone, but it is as real as a collapse ... Of course, the "image" here is not a direct description of shape, but a similarity of texture, force or potential.
Cai Yong's "Nine Potential" philosophized the above expression and refined it into the theory of the generation of calligraphy art, saying that "books come from nature. Naturally established, yin and yang are born; Both yin and yang are born, and the situation is out. " Natural beauty is the source of calligraphy beauty, which is expressed through the "environment" of works.
Secondly, after the popularization of calligraphy in Li Kai, abstract strokes completely replaced the lines of seal script with the outline features of objects, so it is not easy to directly understand the beauty of objects from images, so the experience of natural beauty of calligraphy turned to the deep spirit and momentum.
According to Zhang Huaiguan's Comments, calligraphy "contains all kinds of differences and is cut into one phase", which is an "intangible phase" and a calligraphy image that is integrated with the ever-changing natural meaning (not form). Han Yu praised Zhang Xu and said, "Looking at things, we can see mountains and rivers, cliffs and valleys, birds and animals, insects and fish, flowers and plants, the sun, the moon and stars, storms and fires, thunder and lightning, singing and dancing, and the changes of everything in the world, which is gratifying and within one book. Therefore, Xu Zhishu has become a ghost and has no clue. " Weng Fanggang even said: "There is nothing in the world that does not cursive." At this level, Han Yu's "Yu" is a very important term. "Capacity" means sustenance, and the spirit of nature is reposed in the image of calligraphy and is perceived by people. The unity of form and image is not in the morphological modality of the object (objective), but through the perception of the mental state of the object (subjective) by people (subject).
Liu Xizai, a calligrapher in Qing Dynasty, said, "Books should be made of nature. As Cai Zhong Lang said, "Books are in nature", the heaven can set man up, but it has not reached the point where man can resurrect the sky. Emphasize that the behavior of "people" should reflect the spirit of "heaven". On the one hand, it is "from nature" (from object to subject), and on the other hand, it is "from nature" (from subject to object). China's ancient concept of "the unity of heaven and man" was perfectly expressed in the field of calligraphy.
Fourth, books draw for the heart.
Yang Xiong said: "Words are also sincere; Books, heart paintings. " This sentence was originally used to describe the meaning of the article, but later it became a classic exposition of the relationship between calligraphy and people. Liu Xizai's "Book Outline" said: "The Yangtze River takes books as its heart, so books are also learned." Raise it to the definition of the aesthetic essence of the whole calligraphy art.
Art is the creation of human beings. Calligraphy, like all other arts, inevitably reflects the characteristics of the creative subject's mind, temperament, cultivation and even technical ability. As early as the end of the Han Dynasty, when the artistry of calligraphy was initially recognized by the society, Zhao Yi had already pointed out this point: "Every mortal has different qi and blood and different bones and muscles. Close-minded and clumsy. The ugliness of books lies in the heart and hands. " Zhong You's Handwritten Calligraphy is even more concise: "The handwriting is also bounded; Beauty is also a person. "
However, the performance of calligraphy art in this respect shows quite obvious particularity. Zhang Huaiguan in the Tang Dynasty said: "A few words in a text are its meaning, and a sentence in a book has been seen in his heart, which can be described as simplicity." The article is lyrical, but it can still be faked, and calligraphy can't be hidden.
Articles can be imitated, while calligraphy is imitated in the process of learning, and even some classic works handed down from generation to generation are planned; But even the strictest manual reproduction will leave clues about the author's own characteristics. Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, Sun's "Yue Ji" said: "Although learning from one family has become a multi-body, I think it is related to sexual desire. Who's straight? #92; If stubborn, just stubborn people make every effort to lack water, arrogant people are harmful to restraint, easy-to-get-rid people lose their rules, gentle people are hurt by softness, brave people are too arrogant, suspicious people are addicted to stagnation, late people are heavy, and finally dull and trivial people are infected with vulgar officials. "
Articles can be processed and revised repeatedly, while calligraphy creation is unrepeatable and irreversible, which can capture the writer's current mood and mentality. Sun analyzed Wang Xizhi's works and said: "Writing is full of melancholy, while calligraphy and painting praise is full of profound meaning, Huang Tingjing is full of nothingness, and Taishi is full of vertical and horizontal disputes. Similar to Lanting Jixing, the calmness of thought is superb; I swear in private and feel miserable. The so-called music-related party laughs and sighs. " Therefore, he believes that calligraphy can "express its feelings and form its joys and sorrows." In Qing Dynasty, Wang Shu completely agreed with his analysis and extended it to judge Yan Zhenqing's works: "The sacrificial manuscript was torn to pieces, and his book was frustrated. This "Gao" has a peaceful heart, so it is graceful and smooth, and there is no such thing as "offering sacrifices to nephews". The so-called music-related party laugh has been sighed. Things are different, so is calligraphy. It should be reasonable. " Xiang Mu's Calligraphy Elegance makes a concise summary of this, and clearly regards the "phase" of the book as the "heart" of people who have appeared. He said: "The book heart advocates calculation and imagination, which means the end of the pen, and it is also shapeless. The book's twists and turns are advanced, the sound is brilliant, and the pen is freely sent, which is both the heart of form. "
Since calligraphy is a human heart, in theory, it also puts forward various requirements about human heart and stipulates the aesthetics of calligraphy. Liu Xizai said, "Books are like this. If he studies, if he is talented, if he is ambitious, in short, he is like a person. " Although he did not explicitly mention "virtue", "virtue" is an extremely important aspect of "being a human being". Yan Zhenqing's position in the Tang Dynasty was mainly established in the Song Dynasty, and one of the important reasons that made him the top calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty was his image of "loyalty and filial piety". Huang Tingjian believes that the fundamental reason why Su Shi is outstanding among calligraphers in the Song Dynasty lies in his excellent academic articles: "I said that the spirit of Dongpo's academic articles is gloomy and sandy, which comes from pen and ink, so others can't compare with it." Morality, study and writing are all part of personality. How to transform it into the image of calligraphy is actually a very complicated problem, not such a simple relationship. However, this emphasis has closely linked the art of calligraphy with many ideas about the relationship between man and society in China culture, which has played an important role in improving the social value and significance of the art of calligraphy.