The pinnacle of calligraphy

Up to now, hard-pen calligraphy has basically followed the theory and method of Chinese calligraphy, so the evaluation of a hard-pen work or students' writing assignments is more measured by the standard of Chinese calligraphy. There are several important concepts in the brushstroke technique: lifting, turning and returning to the front, and this concept and writing technique will inevitably continue in hard-pen calligraphy. Only by truly understanding the principles of lifting, turning and returning to the front can we express "pause" and "returning to the front" more reasonably in hard pen writing!

Lift and press: As the name implies, it means "lift" and "press". Lifting is to lift the pen tip, and pressing is to press the pen tip onto the paper, which is "Dun". When writing with a brush, lifting can make the strokes thinner and pressing can make the strokes thicker. However, when the hard pen "presses", the change of stroke thickness is quite subtle.

Turning point: Many strokes of Chinese characters are compound strokes. For example, strokes such as folds and hooks need to change the writing direction when writing, so there is a "turning point". There are also two kinds of turning points, turning (circle) and folding (square). In the theory of ancient books, "Fiona Fang's corresponding turning point" refers to this point.

"Back before": a continuous action that often follows "strokes", usually appearing at the "folding" and closing of some strokes (such as horizontal). Mainly plays the role of adjusting the direction of strokes and connecting the next stroke. The brush is soft, and you must adjust the direction at the turning point to continue writing. However, in hard pen calligraphy, in order not to affect the fluency of writing, the action of "returning to the front" becomes very slight, even negligible.