Well, I have been in contact with Yu Youren's calligraphy since I was four or five years old, and it has been 70 years now. Strangely, the older I get, the more obsessed I am with Youren's calligraphy, and a number of ideas are born in my heart. Yu Youren named his study "Lao Xue Zhai", and I laughed at myself as "Lao Xue Weng", which really coincides with mine. Because his father Liu Juemin opposed the Qing Dynasty in his early years, he shared life and death with Yu Youren since the Revolution of 1911, and forged a profound revolutionary friendship. My parents also deeply admire Yu Youren's knowledge and calligraphy art, so they have countless calligraphy works by Yu Youren and many famous elders. When I was five years old, my father was seriously ill and returned to his hometown in Beishankou Village, Gongxian County, Henan Province. There is no decent house at home. The only outstanding thing is that the walls of the house are covered with Yu Youren's calligraphy, the most conspicuous of which is Song Zhengqi. So when I open my eyes every morning, I see Yu Youren's calligraphy like Song Zhengqi and Yu Youren's calligraphy getting better and better every morning. Although I know these words very well, I don't know what they mean in my young mind. I just feel beautiful, and when I look at them, my impression unconsciously deepens. When I was a child, I watched people write couplets. An adult jokingly asked, "Maotou (my nickname is Maotou), can you write?" Because I am fascinated by adults' handwriting pairs, adults will naturally pay attention to asking me if I can write and recognize it.
In fact, I can't recognize it either. It's just a hazy hobby, which likes to read, showing the difference from other children. So, my mother invited Zhao Peixian, the best writer in the village, to teach me. Zhao Mengfu's handwriting was written by Mr Zhao. He is famous in the village, and his handwriting can be seen everywhere. I studied with him for more than a year, and when I was seven, I went to the third grade of primary school. Because, when I was five years old, my mother taught me to read four books and five classics. My father works in Nanjing Supervision Institute all the year round. His position is the Central Supervisory Committee of the National Government and the envoy of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui. My mother often helped my father in Nanjing in her early years. My mother taught me to read ancient books when my father came home for illness. My mother's handwriting is also good. She wrote Wang Xizhi's seventeen posts, so I was very happy when I found myself infected by Yu Youren's calligraphy since I was a child. I learned to write regular script under the guidance of teacher Zhao.
Slowly, I also understood the meaning of "Song Zhengqi" and learned to imitate it myself. At that time, no one said that learning Chinese characters also required learning regular script. As for me, I learned both regular script and cursive script. At that time, I didn't follow the path of calligrapher, and thought that learning to write was one of the compulsory subjects for learning culture. So, I have to stop studying. I don't know why, I may reflect on writing faster and write the details in a little time. This enlightening study has brought me an unforgettable hobby. When I was nine years old, I went to middle school very early. The Chinese teacher in middle school looked at the homework I handed in for the big-character poster, and was surprised that the police wrote, "The pen is strong and commendable!" The art teacher teaches everyone to draw plum blossoms. This is the beginning of my hobby of painting and calligraphy. I went to Luoyang to live and go to school at the age of ten. At the age of twelve, I met Li Zhenjiu, the most famous and only calligrapher in Luoyang. When his youngest son Li Shuhuan was sixteen or seventeen, his calligraphy was very similar to his father's. Our classmates are four or five years apart, but because of my strong imitation, I can also write a font similar to Li Zhenjiu, so we get along very closely. When I was fourteen years old, I went to Nanking to go to Yu Youren. My mother asked Yu Youren to take care of me, so I formally took Yu Youren as my teacher. She went to Beijing alone for business, thinking about our future life.
Today's calligraphy art, what the younger generation talks about most is innovation, and I think the right way of China's calligraphy is how to inherit the exquisite calligraphy art of the predecessors. The "respecting Wei and belittling Tang" advocated by Kang Youwei and others is actually misleading. Kang Youwei's words come from the calligraphy style of Tang Dynasty, and his slogan of "horizontal and vertical" just shows that he has no ability to beautify the structure of words. Because Tavi
New failures and frustrations are mysterious calligraphy. How many people in ancient times used the Han and Wei Dynasties to flaunt their respect and belief in ancient times. Many people exaggerate. Mi Fei said: Books don't go into gold, but they end up in magic. In fact, all his calligraphy works handed down to this day have no taste of Jin people. In a poem by Su Dongpo, it is mentioned that Mi Fei's calligraphy is inclined. Miffy himself is full of praise: there is only one good reader, but I have four unique aspects. I recently looked at all of Mi Fei's works and found that he was a braggart at that time, and his handwriting was ugly. But later scholars regarded the word rice as the tradition of the two kings and the flavor of the Jin people. A Qing calligrapher said in his article that calligraphy should have its own characteristics. What is your own style? People who can't write are also their own styles. I read this man's handwriting, which is very vulgar. And Fu Shan of Amin Dynasty, who advocated that "it is better to die than to die". In fact, he made a lot of efforts in learning traditional calligraphy. His cursive script is not cadence, but it is fluent with a pen, even with grass. What is desirable? And their calligraphy theory just gave the so-called cutting-edge calligrapher an excuse and scribbled. To put it too far, the so-called new calligraphy today is simply ruining the art of calligraphy. Calligraphy does not inherit the predecessors, does not learn the basic traditions, or forgets the ancestors by counting the classics. Yu Youren's calligraphy absorbs the essence of predecessors to decorate his own style. Li Yong's Li Sixun Monument in Tang Dynasty is the most perfect running script copybook since ancient times. So far, it is second to none. Yu Youren has made great achievements and written more abundant words, among which Mr. Zhong Mingshan analyzed many unique words of Yu Youren as early as "Music Score" magazine. To be a master of calligraphy, you must have enough natural intelligence. In the past, the ultra-left trend of thought dared not mention the word "genius" alone, but only recognized Marx's "practice makes true knowledge." In fact, it is impossible to practice without genius. There are differences between people, otherwise, since ancient times, where those teachers, prophets and pioneers came from is endowed by the earth. This is a fact, not boasted by theorists. Mozart, for example, lived for 36 years and wrote more than 600 works. According to the research of western musicians, it takes 36 years to copy Mozart's works, which is determined by one's genius.
Yu Youren's life is mainly about reading and pasting. In fact, only when he reads clearly can he really learn something. Many people can't read and write correctly when they swing from side to side. Therefore, it will take many years for people to make some achievements. I learned Mr. Yu Youren's thoughts on reading, so I learned every post several times, and then read it carefully after I finished it, so that I could make a move. In fact, writing is a movement between the mind and the brain, and the so-called intentional writing is truth. Writing is also a process of thinking and feeling. After the completion of a sentence, the heart is constantly understanding and feeling. This is called "the word behind the heart". This is why everyone in calligraphy can have their own outlook on life, values and philosophy, and why they can understand the changes of ancient and modern times and study the opportunities of heaven and earth. If genius is regarded as the starting condition for achieving everyone, enlightenment is a great personal accident. Today, we commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the standard cursive script society advocated by Yu Youren, just to study how to learn Yu Youren's calligraphy better. At the beginning, the standard cursive script was established to promote the China cursive script to facilitate the use of this writing tool by all the people in China and Chinese people all over the world, thus promoting the rapid development of various social undertakings. So far, this study still stays on the result of the tenth revision. Even students majoring in calligraphy have not made full use of their achievements, let alone promoted them among Chinese people all over the world. It can be said that there is a long way to go. The people who work in this institution are not officials who get paid by cars, but part-time workers who don't get paid. Grass grew in the year of friends.
Everyone in the book club is part-time. Hu Gongshi is probably a clerk. When I first met him, he was a teenager in his twenties. Liu Yantao is a person who takes dictation from Yu Youren. He was just a clerk at that time. He was brought by my father from my hometown. However, I have a good command of calligraphy and painting, and I studied painting with Hu at Peking University. Calligraphy was gradually learned after he came to Yu Youren. Standard cursive script should provide suggestions for major projects of Chinese character reform. I wrote to Sun, Minister of Culture, and suggested that the country must implement the improvement of cursive Chinese characters in order to turn Chinese characters into a language tool of "printing with letters and cursive" in the future. Britain, the United States, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and other countries in the world use two letters in parallel. Why do we still use regular script in printing and writing? Although some characters are simplified, there are still many time-consuming and pen-consuming Chinese characters that hinder our use. I think it should be presided over by the State Language and Character Committee, inviting people who are familiar with cursive script to brainstorm and give the words in the Dictionary of Chinese Characters to the people one by one in a standard cursive script. From the beginning of primary school literacy, all newspapers and periodicals should mark the cursive script separately and gradually make the recognized successful cursive script into type. Font style is taken from ancient calligraphers, and easy-to-learn, easy-to-recognize, accurate and beautiful characters are selected for gradual experiments. Included in the five-year plan and urged by governments at all levels. I estimate that if it is popularized in a generation, it will take only one or two decades to form a climate. In this way, the spread of China culture is more convenient and the world communication is more rapid. The speed of cursive script is three or four times that of regular script, and even more complicated characters can be completed in just one or two seconds. The writing speed of traditional Chinese characters and regular script characters takes four or five seconds. After proficiency, cursive characters can be completed in a quarter of a second. This is of great benefit to the construction and development of the country. Of course, calligraphers can use it better.
This is the original intention of Yu Youren to create standard cursive script. History can conclude that what the Kuomintang failed to achieve will be realized by the * * * production party. Mr. Ding Yunqing, an underground party member near Yu Youren, is highly valued by Yu Youren. Teacher Ding is high flyers from the Archaeological Department of Imperial University in Tokyo. He is so knowledgeable that people in the procuratorate call him "dialectics". He only knows that he is radical and doesn't know his true identity. It was under his guidance that I learned the truth of the revolution and took part in it. Yu Youren wrote many words, poems and notes for him, which were kept by Mr. Ding. Later, Mr. Ding was going to fly to Beiping. Knowing his movements, Chiang Kai-shek quickly sent people to mobilize and left.
Fifty years ago, when I was studying composition in Haizheng Cultural and Art Troupe, Teacher Li told me that the essence of art lies in contrast, balance and unity. These six words are deeply imprinted in my mind and have been affecting my calligraphy creation. Contrast is compared with ancient calligraphy. Calligraphy is the quintessence of China. Any calligraphy work should draw nutrition from the experience of the predecessors. If we leave the foundation of our predecessors, any innovation we make is naive and ridiculous. Observing the balance from the font structure of calligraphy. The art of balance lies in your understanding of the creation principle of Chinese characters, so as to skillfully move the structure and show the beauty of Chinese characters. Without this rule, fonts will become dry and withered. Unity is the harmony and integrity of space, the individual obeys the whole and the writing obeys the inspiration, thus reflecting the connotation of the whole structure, which is not only the realm of China's philosophy and harmony, but also the basic condition for calligraphy to become a work.
At the age of 70, I look back on my own journey and firmly believe that the pursuit of artistic truth must be forged by adversity. All the fun of my life comes from learning Yu Youren's calligraphy. Not discouraged in the face of adversity, not surprised in the face of humiliation, choosing a goal, holding a firm belief, not seeking fame and fortune, but seeking inner clarity and transparency, this is my greatest experience and experience in pursuing calligraphy art in my life.