A few years ago, people always thought that the books written by pens could only be pen words, not calligraphy art. In the upsurge of pen calligraphy, China pen calligraphy and China pen calligraphy art were born one after another. They echo the brush calligraphy magazine from a distance, as if the world of calligraphy is being divided into two strokes; Brush calligraphy.
However, only in the world of pen calligraphy can there be the titles of "pen calligraphy" and "brush calligraphy". In the world of calligraphy, it is enough to call yourself calligraphy. For the other party, it is politely called "pen calligraphy", otherwise it is called "pen calligraphy", which shows that calligraphy is still in a unique position in the book world. Even though critics admit the existence of pen calligraphy, they think it must be "attached" to brush calligraphy. How can we get rid of this dilemma of pen calligraphy? There is a way to get rid of it-all kinds of reasons in the world have always grown in the mountains and plains according to everyone's needs, and waiting for people to benefit depends on your ability to discover them.
Pen calligraphers first put forward the concepts of "hard pen" and "soft pen", and then made the pen a member of the hard pen family and classified the brush into the category of soft pen, so pen calligraphy is superior to brush calligraphy for a reason:
First, ancient calligraphy was spread by stone, the mode of casting gold was "hard" and the chisel of carving stone was "hard pen". It can be seen that the inscriptions in the past dynasties were named after "hard" rather than "soft". Although the tablet is not pen calligraphy, it belongs to the legacy of the hard pen family. And because this heritage is an indispensable food for calligraphy today, brush calligraphy must go to the hard pen museum for dinner-brush calligraphy is attached to pen calligraphy, just like a son can't live without Laozi.
Second, Oracle Bone Inscriptions used a "hard pen" more than 3,000 years ago, and the original writing remains on painted pottery in Anbanpo, Xi 'an more than 6,000 years ago. Therefore, it was originally considered as the originator of brush calligraphy, but it became the originator of pen calligraphy. If you go back along the "hard" line, you will gain more. Scholars believe that characters germinate from animal footprints, and calligraphy and characters are produced at the same time. Therefore, it can be said that wolves can hunt the "hard pen calligraphy" provided by deer hooves, which shows that hard pen calligraphy has sprouted long before human beings. In this way, the long-standing advantages of soft pen calligraphy have been further deprived. Although the soft pen can be "strange", it is not as hard as the hard pen from generation to generation.
However, it is easy to find a reason to refute the "soft" brush calligraphy:
First, ancient calligraphers generally only wrote without engraving. Carving every stipple bit by bit according to the calligrapher's book trace is a technical job. This, like "double hook contour filling", is not a calligraphy art creation. So the inscription has nothing to do with hard pen calligraphy. It seems that the legacy of the inscription is still named after "soft" rather than "hard".
Second, the deer can of course leave the "hard pen calligraphy" of the deer's hoof to the wolf to hunt, but the wolf has no hard hoof, so can it also leave the "soft pen calligraphy" to the deer to avoid! Moreover, life on earth is soft first, and then hard-soft life can crawl in a softer environment, leaving "soft pen calligraphy". Even if the words left on painted pottery in Anbanpo, Xi 'an are hard-pen calligraphy, who can guarantee that our ancestors didn't dip their fingers in water to write bud words on stones before! (The ancestors had a hard life, so they must have had their nails polished. In this way, soft pen calligraphy has a long history.
In fact, it is impossible for ancient calligraphers to care which of the "hard" and "soft" schools came first, and which calligraphy heritage should belong to. The purpose of the debate between the two sides is nothing more than the ranking of living calligraphers in the book world. However, I think that the descendants of "hard" and "soft" families only praise their ancestors and their inheritance-only praise their family background and not their own performance, which is the most promising. Since both sides are calligraphers, we should compare them from their own "calligraphy".
What is calligraphy? Zhao Mengfu can tell the truth. He said: "There are two ways to learn books: one is brushwork, and the other is font." Exquisite brushwork, although good and evil; The shape is wonderful, although it is still cooked. Learning books can solve this problem, and then you can tell books. "Calligraphy" is the artistic image of stippling itself, which has a historical progress process from primary to advanced, that is, from seal cutting, official brushwork to truth, line and cursive script, and the "eight methods" must be observed together. After the Eight Methods, until now, I have never heard of anyone who can innovate other brushwork. What about Zhao Meng? He also said, "Throughout the ages, it is not easy to use a pen." "Glyph" is the artistic image of stippling organization. In addition to glyphs, there are larger stippling organizational artistic images such as lines and chapters, so I think the word "knot" can better explain the overall situation of the problem than the word "glyph".
In my writing practice, I realized (see Preface to Lanting Collection, No.1 1 of this journal for details) that there is no difference in the expressive force between the pen and the brush, but there is a difference in the expressive force of the brushwork-strokes. The endless stippling artistic image caused by "brushwork" is, in the final analysis, a change in form and state. The same shape has changes such as upright, inclined and lying flat, which is the change of stippling "state"; The same state has the changes of length, straightness, Fiona Fang and fatness, which is the change of stippling "shape". There is no difference between pen and pen itself in the expressive force of stippling "state", but there is difference in stippling "shape", and there is no difference in the length and shape of stippling between pen and pen itself; In stippling Fiona Fang's "shape", if the pen holder can't always be "soft", then its expressive force can't compare with the brush in the calligrapher's hand. If brushwork, knot and brushwork are equally important, then according to the above analysis, even if the writer can't make the pen "soft", the expressive force of the pen is only one-eighth less than that of the brush, so we have no reason to doubt that the pen can produce "calligraphy art" Besides, pens can actually be "soft", especially those dipped in water. Calligrapher Mr. Wang Jienan is especially good at this, so under his command, there is almost no difference between pen calligraphy and brush calligraphy, even in stippling Fiona Fang and being fat and thin.
There are many reasons for stippling Fiona Fang's image, one of which is the pen action of turning the square into a circle. Because the brush can be folded and rotated in a square shape, and at the same time, the pressure is greatly increased, so the turning point can be hidden in pointillism and become the image of Fiona Fang's pointillism. When I turn a corner with my pen, if I press it hard, I can't produce the ideal Fiona Fang effect, so the image caused by the square turning round will be exposed at both ends of pointillism-the image of Fiona Fang in pointillism will be transformed into a straight image. Song Huizong's thin gold book is actually this kind of thing, and its brushwork is quite strong. Or think that this small turning point in pointillism is unnecessary, but I think it is indispensable, because the ancients said that pointillism should be "everywhere". Or think that it takes too much time to express these small twists and turns, but I don't think so, because art is not aimed at speed. On the small stage, the actors have to walk for a long time, and the speed is really slow because it is too tortuous. However, only when actors take twists and turns can they play, and only when calligraphers take twists and turns can they have considerable brushwork. In calligraphy, the way to write quickly is not to abandon these twists and turns, but to write some cursive scripts with simplified pictures and twists and turns.
The reason why stippling is fat is the strokes that are lifted up and pressed down. Because the pen is hard, stippling does not change as much as the brush. The remedies are as follows: First, put more pieces of paper-if the pen can't be "soft", the paper will be "soft". Second, press hard-how can only a pen tip "hard" pass through our hands? So the hard pen is also "soft". Pen calligraphy really needs "pen power". Once, Mr. Sha Menghai asked me to make a copy of his speech to be delivered at the Lanting Book Fair. Then he said, "I write with a brush. Even if it takes a long time, my hands don't hurt, but writing with a pen will hurt." So I thought: the hand that writes calligraphy will not hurt, so it can be seen that Wang Xizhi's pen power is not like what Cai Zhong Lang said, "it is hard to write"; It hurts to write with a pen, because Mr. Wang is used to lifting a pen and pressing it, so he uses too much force. If you press it with a hard pen, you have to write hard, write hard, write hard. Therefore, if you let Wang Xizhi handle this pen, your hand will also hurt-this pen really needs the author to use some "pen power". Or I think pen calligraphy should give full play to the advantages of pen, and there is no need to pursue the rise and fall of brush. I think this is an argument that pen calligraphy is willing to lag behind brush calligraphy. Mr. Wang Jienan has developed a pen that can be pressed a lot and can write the same calligraphy effect as a brush. I think only his efforts can really give full play to the advantages of pen.
The expressive force of the pen itself is very close to that of the brush. The question is whether the author is willing to give full play to it. Some people worry that if pen calligraphy is on an equal footing with brush calligraphy, it will inevitably be suspected of "attachment" and lose its meaning of existence. However, I think this fancy fashion will only make pen calligraphy more meaningful. The calligraphy is brilliant and worthy of "attachment". However, the calligraphy written with a brush is attached, not all pen containers. Brush calligraphy without calligraphy is not only unworthy of pen calligraphy, but also has reason to persuade it to quit the calligraphy stage. Because the hard pen is "hard", it must be easier to master than the soft pen, because the finer the "force", the higher the sensitivity requirements of the opponent-holding the hard pen is like a doctor directly taking the pulse; Playing with a soft pen is like a doctor taking a princess's pulse through a thread. On the premise of the same writing effect, it is easy for people to avoid the importance, so there must be more people in pen calligraphy than in brush calligraphy; If pen calligraphy abandons the true meaning of calligraphy and stands still, then under the premise of different writing effects, real calligraphers will certainly advance despite difficulties and leave the so-called pen calligraphy to work hard on brush calligraphy.
The expressive force of the brush is extremely rich. However, if the holder of the brush does not understand the true meaning of calligraphy and is unwilling or unable to give full play to its expressive force, then the stippling of the brush calligraphy becomes the stippling of the ordinary pen calligraphy. This kind of situation is actually quite a lot. The works of Badashanren and Master Hongyi, who are considered to be of high style, are actually like this!
Pen calligraphy and brush calligraphy are almost the same thing, so I hope more brush calligraphers can confidently admit that they are also pen calligraphers; As for those calligraphers who regard "the meaning of seal script" as supreme, I hope more such calligraphers can admit that they are actually ordinary pen calligraphers today.