Calligraphy art includes two basic components. One is the intelligibility of words, the other is the artistry of lines (including composition and typesetting). No matter what changes have taken place in calligraphy since ancient times (including the evolution of calligraphy style and calligrapher's style, etc. These two factors have never changed. Taking these two factors as the starting point, knots and pens appear. The structure is based on the identifiability of words, and the pen is based on the artistry of lines. Symbols of characters are various combinations of lines, and artistry puts forward beautiful requirements for the lines themselves. This is our basic understanding of calligraphy.
With the ideographic nature of writing symbols, it is extended, so there is the content of calligraphy, which constitutes its complete face-ideographic text content and beautiful lines after artistic treatment. The content of characters belongs to the category of literature, and the beautiful lines and laws reflect the artistry of calligraphy itself. Since ancient times, the art of calligraphy has always been a harmonious combination of literature and art, which is indeed the case. There is no form without content, and there is no content without form. This is a very simple truth.
From the artistic point of view, taking simple lines as the main means of expression forces calligraphy to put forward higher requirements for the connotation and expressive force of lines. A good calligraphy work must have some difficult characteristics: the lines must have strong strength and thickness; The operation of lines should have a three-dimensional sense; There should be smooth coherence and rhythm between the lines; The fiction and fact of lines should have an associative effect that can't be achieved with a pen. Furthermore, the ups and downs of lines should have certain emotional connotations to serve the expression of certain emotions; Lines should have rhythm and tendency, and produce "potential" according to the movement of established glyphs; It is also necessary to provide methods to correlate life phenomena. It is impossible for any visual art to put forward such high requirements for lines.
So we have the first understanding: the most important part of calligraphy art is line. Calligraphy art is line art, and shelf structure exists to better reflect the aesthetic feeling of ranking.
From Ping 'an to Meiji, or from Tang style to ink painting, the calligraphy of Menben has never been divorced from this point. The historical characteristics of "please" make it inseparable; Without this feature, calligraphy is difficult to establish.
Calligraphy is an abstract visual art, which does not directly reflect the external form of objective things, but expresses the shape of objects on paper through the feelings and skills of calligraphers. This process is the process of "taking meaning", which is the soul of China's traditional art, and Japanese calligraphy is indispensable. Han Yu, a great writer in the Tang Dynasty, said in "Preface to Master Gao Xian": "In the past, Zhang Xushan wrote cursive script, but he did not cure other techniques. His heart is full of anger, embarrassment, sadness, joy, resentment, homesickness, drunkenness, annoyance, injustice and emotion. He must look at things in cursive script and see mountains and rivers, cliffs, birds, animals, insects, fish, flowers and trees, the sun, the moon and the stars.
This record deserves to be written into a masterpiece. It vividly and concretely explains how ancient calligraphers tried to reflect their inner world and rich life with calligraphy. In calligraphy theory, it is one of the most valuable narratives of lyrical freehand brushwork.
Zhang Xu's own resentment, embarrassment and poverty, and what he saw in the cliff valley, etc. There is no direct visual connection with his calligraphy. How did he "get rich in cursive script" and "get rich in books"? How to "contain"? How did Han Yu see it? The key is this "meaning". Zhang Xu's eyes saw everything and couldn't help looking up and down.
"Meaning" becomes the feeling and intention in his heart, and then it is expressed in calligraphy through the emotional power of line structure. When Han Yu looked at Zhang Xu's calligraphy, it was through his understanding and pursuit of "meaning" that he captured the profound feelings contained in Zhang Xu's seemingly lonely lines and the refraction of objective foreign objects. The so-called "hair" and "meaning" are not the photographic reproduction of objective foreign objects, but are expressed after being digested by calligraphers and transformed into the unique language of calligraphy art.
Calligraphy is different from painting. Because calligraphy is based on abstract words, it provides a vast world for expressing feelings. The artist doesn't have to worry about whether the "meaning" of his intake and feeling of nature is completely consistent with the current situation. He just provided a general feeling. This kind of feeling can show different effects because of the different experiences, emotions and accomplishments of each audience. The artist's creation and the appreciator's understanding must follow the way of "meaning", otherwise, the two sides can't build a bridge of communication. We usually say that Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy is vigorous, Liu Gongquan's calligraphy is vigorous, Ou Yangxun's calligraphy is rigorous, and Zhao Mengshun's calligraphy is beautiful. All these conclusions are drawn by understanding the meaning in his works. Liu Xizai, a famous calligraphy theorist in Qing Dynasty, once shouted in "The Outline of Art": "Meaning is the foundation of books." Every word is a stone, and it falls to the ground with sound. After all, he has a keen eye and saw the importance of "meaning" in calligraphy art at a glance.
An interesting phenomenon is that in the history of China's ancient freehand brushwork, people advocated freehand brushwork and opposed sketching. But to really reach the heyday of freehand brushwork-the stage of writing painting, it still depends on the intervention of calligraphy art. This proves that the unique "meaning" soul of calligraphy art is not only an indispensable main factor for self-improvement, but also has a strong influence, which can exert influence on other artistic fields and is everywhere.
Another interesting question is: Why do Chinese characters have calligraphy art, but English and German don't? In addition to the square and round features of the text structure itself, it is very important that the origin of Chinese characters is hieroglyphics. Although there are no obvious hieroglyphics in Chinese characters nowadays, the hieroglyphics contained in them have not disappeared. Also, because pictographic characters are "images" rather than real descriptions, "images" have the characteristics of taking "meaning" from the "shapes" of all things in nature; Both painting and painting; Instead, it takes its "meaning" to summarize and form characters, which is the unique condition for Chinese characters to produce calligraphy art. Similarly, Japanese pen names are derived from cursive script, and some characteristics of Chinese characters are retained, so they also have the conditions for forming calligraphy. What about English letters? I'm afraid I can only look at the ocean and sigh.
So we can draw a second conclusion: another important criterion of calligraphy art is to write "meaning". Calligraphy is the art of meaning. All the expressions it has, such as stippling, lifting and pressing, and density, only provide a perfect way to better reflect this "meaning"