Throughout ancient and modern times, calligraphy has always been regarded as an art. Some people say that "words are like the person they are." From a person's words, you can get a glimpse of that person.
Why is calligraphy said to be a unique art in China?
I personally think the fundamental reason is the characteristics of Chinese writing. Chinese characters are square characters. A character has many shapes, and its changes are great; more importantly, the creation of Chinese characters is "according to pictograms." Zhang Huaiguan, a calligraphy theorist in the Tang Dynasty, said when he judged Cangjie's creation of characters: "Looking up at the circular curve of Kuixing, looking down at the traces of turtles and birds, absorbing all the beauties and combining them into characters, this is called ancient prose. "Most people know that the creation of ancient writing was shaped by the transformation of all things in nature. In fact, it also has a very important point, which is to "collect the beauty of all things". When human beings began to create characters, they had a profound observation of natural phenomena and life phenomena, and then they "followed the pictograms". In their profound observation, their aesthetic concepts were reflected, so they were able to "collect beauty from all over the world." Combined into words. "Art is a concentrated expression of the beauty of nature and human life. The characters created in ancient times are synthesized by "collecting the beauty of many people" and naturally have considerable artistic quality.
There was also a scholar in the Yuan Dynasty, Han Xing. He said in his "Book Rules": "In the third generation, writing was used to record things, and dot painting was not the first to be clumsy; however, tripod, Yi, inscriptions , Zhizhiwen, tilting his back, focusing on his hair, is it intended to be clumsy? It is necessary to do the best. "Here, the "principle" of "also to do the best", Han Xing said. It is consistent with the "principle" that Qin Prime Minister Li Si said, "If you are good at thinking about it, you should see it for yourself." This "reason" is the "reason" that creates artistic beauty from natural beauty. It's just that although the ancient people had a high degree of artistic creativity and aesthetic concepts, they did not clearly realize this "reason". Every problem is dialectical. Precisely because the people of the pre-Qin period "regardless of clumsiness in calligraphy and painting" when writing or engraving characters, "the clumsiness of calligraphy and painting...does not matter", so the characters they write or engrave are not artificial, but rather It is simple and natural, with an "ancient meaning" that is difficult to match in later generations.
At the same time, literati of all ages also attached great importance to the art of calligraphy and its artistry. Not to mention Yan Zhenqing, not to mention Liu Gongquan and not to mention Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is highly praised by the world. It is said that Emperor Kangxi recognized the notes of Yan Shengsun, a master of calligraphy and painting at that time, from many imperial examination papers because of his calligraphy, and specially promoted him to the third flower. This matter has been passed down as a scholarly legend for a long time. . It can be seen that our country has always attached great importance to calligraphy, giving it a perfect environment to become an art.
As we all know, Chinese characters are pictographic. Writing is like painting an abstract painting, in which personal color is fully integrated. Practicing calligraphy has become an art of self-cultivation, just like painting. Same. However, most of the writings of other countries do not have this characteristic and have not been paid much attention to in history. Therefore, calligraphy is an art unique to China.
The above are mostly personal opinions, please consider them carefully.