Critical calligraphy emphasizes that the quality of a calligraphy is the quality of a person. Books are often valued by people, and books will be discarded because of people. But after all, art may transcend politics, ethnicity, religion and even country, and its beauty is appreciated by mankind. Because of this, although Zhao Mengfu, a calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty, was reputed as a "traitor", his calligraphy was deeply loved by the public. Why is this? It is because he fully secularized the ancient methods of the Jin and Tang Dynasties of the "Two Kings", especially his regular script, which simplified the complex and difficult, and created a graceful appearance that is loved by everyone and easy to learn.
The dots are divided and wrapped smoothly, whether long or small. The strokes of calligraphy are dots. It can be said that all strokes of a word start from dots and accumulate dots to form lines. Therefore, "one point becomes the rule of one word", dot painting is the master stroke, and it is very important to write dot painting well. The starting strokes of Zhao Ti's dots can be divided into those that follow the exposed front and those that are against the wrapped front, and they are often written as long side dots. For example, the dot of the character "高" in "Qiu E's Tombstone Inscription" is the long side dot written along the way; the dot of the character "Yi" is the long side dot written backwards. The writing method of Zhao Ti's dot paintings is to use the strokes evenly, and turn the strokes to the left at the end of the stroke, so that the strokes are connected with the starting stroke of the next stroke, such as the dots of the characters "市" and "visit". . He often goes to extremes when writing dots, sometimes making the dots very small. For example, the dot of the character "zi" is lightly tapped, making it look even more small and exquisite against the long painting below.
Horizontal painting, long straight strokes, and opening strokes. The artistic treatment of horizontal strokes, strokes, and strokes in Zhao style is often regarded as the main stroke of characters, so it is not only thick and heavy, but also long, straight, and opening strokes. , which is obviously different from the writing methods of other calligraphers. For example, in "Qiu E's Tombstone Inscription", the horizontal line of "Li" is unusually long, beyond the norm, and appears simple, majestic and powerful. When he wrote the strokes and strokes, he did not drag them downwards, but stretched them to the left and right sides. For example, in the word "合" in "Dengba Stele", the closing points of the left and right strokes are beyond the left and right sides of the square, which can be said to be extremely open. Written in this way, a lot of space is left for the strokes covered by the strokes, so that they can fully express their respective postures, enhance the relaxed momentum, and appear free and generous.
Refining the essence and carrying it forward. He followed the "Two Kings" approach and paid attention to refining the essence and carrying it forward. For example, he memorized many ways of writing "ye" and "zhi" in Wang Xizhi's calligraphy and applied them to his own calligraphy. The word "left" in "Lanting Preface" is lifted horizontally to the left, and the pen is turned upward to make a small circle. This was not obvious in the original post, but he learned it carefully and made a point of emphasizing it by making the circle of the pen larger. Another example is the word "you" in "There is a clear current and rapid turbulence". The beginning of the stroke is to draw the pen with a bare edge, press it to the lower right side, and then turn to the lower left side to draw the pen. Zhao Mengfu grasped this writing method of left first and right first, straight and curved, and changed it more obviously into a horizontal fold at the beginning, so that it became a major feature of Zhao Ti's writing style.
Making difficulties easy, transforming the past into the present. From the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the development of calligraphy brushes became increasingly sophisticated, and the three major brushwork systems of translation, lifting and pressing, and shifting and turning were very complete. In particular, the regular script of the Tang Dynasty developed the strokes to an unprecedented level. Each word or even every stipple must pay attention to the changes in strokes, strokes, strokes, and strokes. In this way, the difficulty of using a calligraphy pen was greatly increased, which frightened calligraphers of later generations. Faced with the unsurpassable peak of Tang Kai, Zhao Mengfu cleverly adopted the method of taking refuge in the easy and cutting out the complex and simplifying it, boldly changing the ancient method and finding a new way. When writing regular script, he tried to reduce the strokes and strokes of the pen, but comprehensively used the "translational movement" of seal script and the "turning" of cursive script. He used more translational and turning strokes, which naturally made Zhao style calligraphy appear more distinctive. Smooth, smooth, rich and graceful. Although it seems to lack variety in the use of the pen, it is loved by everyone and gives people a relaxed and happy aesthetic enjoyment.
Zhao Mengfu tried his best to restore the Wei and Jin calligraphy traditions that had been abandoned by the Song Dynasty, and at the same time made it accessible and easy for everyone to learn. It would be a wise move for beginners to learn calligraphy to use Zhao style characters as a model for practicing and then go back from there. In the early Qing Dynasty, Fu Shan had been writing "Lanting Preface" for many years but with little success. He turned to follow the example of Zhao Mengfu, and within a few days he had written something very similar. He couldn't help but sigh: "It is difficult to learn from a good person, but it is easy to learn from a bad person!"
Is this it?