For example, in calligraphy, you can teach yourself and practice hard, but you can't think of many profound skills behind closed doors. If you study hard under a famous teacher for a few years, it may be worth ten years of self-study.
Of course, there is another advantage of learning from the master, that is, you can enjoy the shadow of the master's aura. The ancients attached great importance to learning from the masters and were born in famous families. Naturally, they can also put gold on their faces, but this can only be regarded as "added value". How many skills they learn is the essential purpose of learning, so the real "high disciples" even disdain to move out the master's name from time to time.
Just like Qi Gong, a world-famous calligrapher, if he didn't mention it in his later years, few people would know that he actually had a teacher-student relationship with Qi Baishi. If it was someone else, I'm afraid Qi Baishi was already talking about him before he was named, so as to increase his face.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Qi Gong became fascinated with calligraphy and painting. At that time, he lived far away from Qi Baishi, but because of a distant relative, he met Qi Baishi, who was over sixty years old.
Qigong, a distant relative, specializes in longevity wood business. When people are old, they should prepare a coffin in advance, and Qi Baishi is no exception. Qi Baishi, who is in his sixties, also prepared a coffin for himself early, which was decided by this distant relative looking for Qigong.
Knowing that Qi Gong likes writing and painting, the relative told him: Not long ago, a famous old man made a coffin here. I can introduce you to the old man if you want to learn.
In this way, the life intersection of Qi Gong and Qi Baishi began. Qi Baishi likes Qigong very much and thinks he is a studious "child". When I was a teenager, Qigong also worshipped Qi Baishi, thinking that he was the kind of master he wanted to be.
Soon after, Qi Baishi accepted the child as a disciple, and Qigong was free to go in and out of his house. As long as he comes, Qi Baishi is always happy.
Qigong wanted to learn calligraphy well first, so he pestered Qi Baishi to teach him to practice calligraphy. Qi Baishi asked him how he studied now, and Qi Gong told Qi Baishi all his posts.
Qi Baishi was speechless after listening for a long time, and finally slowly said that he disagreed with posting blindly. He told Qigong to write, that is, you can write as you like. ...
At that time, Qigong was really just a child interested in painting and calligraphy. For Qi Baishi, it is estimated that he was completely confused at that time-didn't he just scribble how to write? Then how can we learn calligraphy well?
Maybe it sounds like Qi Baishi's teaching him calligraphy is just a perfunctory thing. He dare not ask more questions, but he didn't think much about Qi Baishi's teaching.
Later, on another occasion, Qi Baishi taught Qi Gong to appreciate painting. He told Qi Gong that the tree painted by Shi Tao has one characteristic, that is, it is straight without bending.
Qi Gong is not familiar with Shi Tao's paintings and believes Qi Baishi's words.
Later, he saw Shi Tao's painting in other people's places, and when he saw that the trees in the painting were not straight, he said it was a fake painting, because the trees in the painting were not straight, and as a result, he made a joke. People think this is the original.
Then I began to wonder if Qi Baishi was "deceiving" himself-how could everything he taught be wrong?
Later, due to various reasons, Qi Gong did not study with Qi Baishi, but fortunately, Qi Gong never gave up his love for calligraphy and painting, and finally found his own way to learn calligraphy and became a generation of famous artists.
When Qi Gong told the story that Qi Baishi taught himself calligraphy in his later years, people realized that he had been a student of Qi Baishi.
Nowadays, some netizens lamented: Fortunately, Qigong didn't learn the methods taught by Qi Baishi. Otherwise, I am afraid that the way I like to write and learn calligraphy will not reach the realm of Qigong.
However, I think Qi Baishi was not really perfunctory at first. Perhaps in his position, he just said, don't be bound by the pen in your hand, don't stick to the pen and ink of the ancients, and write your own style spontaneously, but for Kai Gong, who was only a teenager at that time, the sentence "follow one's inclinations" seems a bit ahead of schedule.