Calligraphy foundation: the essentials of word structure in regular script

The last two sections talked about the writing methods of basic strokes and the writing skills of radicals, which are the basis for writing well with pen. Mastering these two aspects does not mean that you can write regular and beautiful regular script. The ancients emphasized that "the pen is the first and the structure is the second", while the pen is the opposite because of the limitation of the nib. We advocate "structure first, pen second". Generally speaking, the structure of Chinese characters can be divided into two categories: one is a single word and the other is a combined word. Here, their different structural points are introduced respectively.

First, the structural essentials of single words

Monograph is an independent structural unit. Monographs are easy to write unsteadily or loosely because of their few strokes and simple structure. According to the stippling collocation and structural characteristics of a single word, it can be divided into the following nine types.

1. It tends to be square with a wide top and a narrow bottom.

These characters are basically square, but the vertical lines on both sides are not vertical, and the overall shape is that the top is slightly wider than the bottom.

2. Dense on the top and sparse on the bottom, keeping the middle of things straight and vertical.

This kind of characters, vertical as the main pen, tight on the lower sparse, vertical in the row. It should be straight, strong and long.

3. The bottom span should be long and the whole should be stable.

The upper part of this kind of characters should be narrow and horizontal, and its pen and shape should be changed. The horizontal pen at the bottom should be long and slightly microwave-like, so that it can reach the width of the word and be stable as a whole.