Question: The earlier a child learns calligraphy, the better. How old should he or she start?
Answer: As long as he can read. You give him ancient and classic words. You teach him what word this is and what word that is. When he starts to recognize each word, you can trace it with your hand. This will be very beautiful. When a child practices calligraphy, it’s not about how similar he is, but that this thing enters his mind like taking a picture.
When he grows up, he doesn’t know how to write this word beautifully, just look through his memory. He can remember it, but adults can’t. So why does it start when you are young? A good way for adults to practice calligraphy is called "reading posts". For adults who have never practiced calligraphy when they were young, a good way to practice calligraphy when they grow up is to put posts in their schoolbags and use them whenever they have time, such as waiting in line or waiting for the bus. Take it out when the time comes. Just watch and play, force yourself to stare at it, and stare at it for five minutes every day. In less than two months, you will have the glyphs in your mind, and it will look good when you write it. (Q: Do you need to use your brain?) No need to use your brain. Just stare. People are not stupid. Staring stupidly means that the conscious mind is running away, but in fact the subconscious mind is watching. Just like the advertisements on the street, you pass by them without noticing and remember them without even realizing it.
Therefore, when children practice calligraphy, they must put the posts lower at home. Children can see it as they pass by. Don't buy posts with boxes or squares. The worst thing about this kind of post is that it is a cheap trick that we have come up with in modern times. It is like reading vernacular texts instead of reading scriptures. In the end, they cannot figure out which one is the most beautiful. It seems that writing must have a frame. In fact, these are all thought up by adults. After you are good at writing and have mastered many perceptual things, then you can analyze the works of the ancients and analyze them using square meters or something like that. In order to gain some rational experience, It is useful at this time, but for beginners, you cannot use this thing. Beginners must not learn these things.
Don’t study those so-called candidates’ works. This is like using "How to Write a Hundred Essays" to teach children to write articles, and that's it. You must see the original work. The ancients said that it is inferior to the original work. If you always look at characters with a square meter, they are designated for you, as if every character is originally the same size.
But if you take a closer look at ancient calligraphy, for example, let’s look at Ouyang Xunyan Zhenqing’s regular script. Look at these words. Is this Yong the same size as that Yong? Isn’t it the same size? Some are long and some are short, some are big and some are small, some are crooked and some are slanted. Regular script also has its upright and slanted forms, which makes it interesting. Therefore, you cannot forcefully lay out the grid and fill in the words. You have to look at the master directly. This is the easiest way to learn. The same goes for learning Western painting. You should copy the masters directly, not the candidates' works. To learn how to draw apples, you should directly learn how Cézanne painted apples and follow his example. Cézanne's paintings may not appear to have a clear structure.
Candidates’ works may clearly range from warm to cold tones, and then the structure is cut out stroke by stroke, and the painted apples look like they are poisonous. That is all false. If you teach these skills, you will mislead children’s appreciation of art. So if you use the works of masters to show your children, this thing can tell your children what the distance relationship between words is like, and what the overall feel of the text is like. If you draw the grid well, then there will be no such concept, and all the overall feeling will be gone. If every word is beautiful, but if you write one word here and there, will the whole thing look good? Will it look good if you completely frame it with a grid and fill it in, and make it wider? It doesn’t look good. So education is all-round education, holistic education. We can't think of our children too stupidly. There is another way to practice calligraphy. Give the child a pencil and double-tick it. Just cover the copybook with paper and let the children trace the hollow words and draw them out. Children especially like to do this. If the child ticks five words a day, he will memorize the word. When he writes with his own pen, it looks good naturally. Because the words in the copybook and the relationship between the words have been engraved in my mind.
This seemingly stupidest and simplest method can improve children's calligraphy. However, how can you write real calligraphy well? Just practicing calligraphy is not enough. Real calligraphers put their writing first. People who can’t write articles can’t write calligraphy either. Nowadays, there are calligraphers who specialize in writing the poems of ancient people. Today they write one: "The sun is shining over the mountains", and the day after tomorrow they write: "The moon is setting, the crows are crying, the sky is full of frost, and the rivers are filled with fish and fire are facing melancholy." They write other people's poems all day long.
If you just became a calligrapher, then at most you are now a "calligrapher", maybe very popular. It is difficult for such a person to leave his name in history, because the written records cannot agree with him. Because when writing, his articles and calligraphy have the same meaning. Why does Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy write: "To commemorate my nephew?" The manuscript is the best because his calligraphy is vigorous and magnificent. So when his nephew died due to the war, he could use this style of writing to express his grief and anger. It's like a person singing with colorful faces, singing about the majesty of ancient heroes.
As for Wang Xizhi, he was a dashing celebrity in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, so the most suitable thing for him to write was "Lanting Collection". If you ask Yan Zhenqing to write "The Elegant Collection of Lanting", then you are asking a big-faced person to sing a niche role. Do you think it is strange? Therefore, the calligraphy cannot be consistent and the calligraphy cannot be written well. Therefore, to write good calligraphy, the article must be good. Once the article is good, the calligraphy will naturally be good. It's really good if I don't speak words, but I can't write articles. Nowadays, the so-called people who are good at writing but not good at writing are just technicians at most. When no one in the world writes, you may become a calligrapher. No one can write, but you can become a calligrapher by practicing.
This is the situation today. Because no one can write, you will become a calligrapher after practicing. However, if everyone can do it, actually you can’t. But the filtering of history is very strict. Just practicing calligraphy alone is not enough, because "kung fu lies in calligraphy". But how to practice calligraphy? Wang Xizhi said: "It takes a hundred days to practice calligraphy." It is not difficult to practice calligraphy. It does not take a hundred days to practice calligraphy. As long as you put in the effort, you will grow with the wind.