First of all, let’s talk about whether you need to hang your wrist when writing. You may have heard some related sayings. For example, you must hang your wrist to be effective when writing. In fact, it is not necessarily true. Whether it is hanging is related to what we think. It depends on the size of the written characters.
The ancients made a summary and said that "within an inch, the method is in the palms and fingers, and beyond an inch, the method is in the elbow and wrist." This means that if the size of the word is within an inch, the fingers and palms are basically used. In kung fu, if the font size is larger, you have to take into account the control of the wrist and elbow.
As for the wrist, there are three ways: pillow, lift, and hanging. Pillowing the wrist is to rest the wrist of the writing hand on the back of the other hand; lifting the wrist is to lift the entire wrist so that the arm still has a supporting point on the table; hanging wrist is to connect the wrist with the elbow All are suspended and not associated with the desktop.
When writing large characters, raise your wrist and entire elbow so that the brush is steady and vertically downward. At this time, the hand has more space to move and can easily write a one-meter-long line. If you write in small regular script, you need to rest your wrist on the paper or the other hand, or lift it slightly, because at this time we need more fine control and focus on the tip of the pen, which does not require too much space. action. The same principle applies to the height of the writing. The larger the characters, the higher the writing; the smaller the characters, the lower the writing.
When I first started to lay the foundation, I felt that I should start from difficult to easy, starting from standing with a hanging bowl, first to improve the stability, and then start to write small characters, practice raising the wrist and pillowing the wrist, and gradually improve the accuracy.
The same goes for writing. Depending on the writing situation, the ancients had different ways of writing. For example, in the past, ancient people sat on the floor, and sometimes the paper was not placed flat on the table, but tilted. The three-finger method of holding the pen is more conducive to ensuring that the pen tip is perpendicular to the paper surface, which is more suitable for this situation. Tables and chairs appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. With the development, they became more and more popular in the Song Dynasty, and people began to sit with their feet down. When the paper is lying flat, the five-finger holding method makes it easier to keep the pen tip perpendicular to the paper surface, so it has become a more common way of holding the pen at this writing angle.
The key points of the most commonly used five-finger writing technique are the five words "stroke, pressure, hook, grid, and resistance".
1. Use your thumb, index finger and middle finger to pick up the brush;
2. Use your ring finger to hold the back of the pen, hold it gently with your little finger without any force, and relax your wrist . Finger is solid and palm is deficient: When the fingers are bent to hold the pen, a space for movement will naturally be formed in the palm, so the brush can move flexibly in the hand when writing.
Su Shi said, "There is no fixed method for holding a pen. It must be empty and wide." "Void" can be understood as the space in the palm, and "wide" means that the wrist can move widely.
From the shoulders, hours, wrists to fingers, a flexible axis is formed, and finally settled on the paper, it is expressed as our pen power.
To write freely, it takes a long time to practice to achieve this tacit understanding. The best situation is probably that we don't feel the pen in our hand. When the hand and pen are used together, the pen becomes a continuation of our body when expressing.