The earliest father-son calligraphers were his father Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi.
Wang Xizhi (303-361), courtesy name Yishao, was a calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He is known as the "Sage of Calligraphy" and can be said to be the greatest calligrapher in China. In his calligraphy, he studied the style carefully, imitated it with his heart, picked up the strengths of many people, prepared all kinds of styles, and cultivated them in one furnace, which had a far-reaching influence. The style is peaceful and natural, the writing style is euphemistic and subtle, and it is beautiful and graceful.
His son Wang Xianzhi is also a great calligrapher with far-reaching influence, and is collectively known as the "Two Kings". Wang Xianzhi (344-386), courtesy name Zijing, a minor official slave, Han nationality. A famous calligrapher and poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he was the seventh son of the calligraphy sage Wang Xizhi. He was smart and studious since he was a child, and specialized in cursive and official script in calligraphy.
He practiced calligraphy with his father since he was a child, and he had great ambitions. Later, he also adopted Zhang Zhi and created his own calligraphy. He is famous for his running script and cursive script, but he also has profound skills in regular script and official script.
The connotation of calligraphy mainly includes the following aspects:
1. Calligraphy refers to an art that uses the four treasures of the study as tools to express emotions. The particularity of tools is an important aspect of the particularity of calligraphy art. Using the Four Treasures of the Study as tools to fully reflect the performance of the tools is an important part of calligraphy techniques. Without the Four Treasures of the Study, the art of calligraphy would be out of the question.
2. The art of calligraphy uses Chinese characters as its carrier. The particularity of Chinese characters is another important aspect of the particularity of calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy is inseparable from Chinese characters. The shape of Chinese character stipples and the combination of radicals are all things that writers pay more attention to. Different from other pinyin characters, Chinese characters are a combination of form, sound and meaning, and the form has a strong meaning.
The so-called "six books" of the ancients refer to the six methods of creating and using Chinese characters: pictograms, referring to things, understanding, pictographs, annotations, and borrowings. It is a great guide for the analysis of the physical structure of Chinese characters. significance.
3. The background of calligraphy art is traditional Chinese culture. Calligraphy is rooted in the soil of traditional Chinese culture, and traditional culture is the background on which calligraphy depends for its survival and development. The calligraphy theory we can see today since the Han Dynasty has its own system, completeness and organization.
Like other literary and artistic theories, calligraphy theory includes not only the technical theory of calligraphy itself, but also its aesthetic theory, and the wisdom of ancient Chinese literati shines in these theories.
For example, the theory on how to express "spirit, energy, bone, flesh, blood" and other categories in calligraphy, the theory on brushwork, calligraphy, composition and other techniques, as well as creation theory, taste criticism, etc., are all It has its own system.
4. The essence of calligraphy art includes brushwork, calligraphy, structure, composition, inkwork, strokes, etc. Calligraphy brushwork is the core content of its technique. Brushwork is also called "pen use", which refers to the method of using the pen and the sharp edge.
Chinese calligraphy, also known as "character knotting" and "structure", refers to the relationship between the matching, interspersing, echoing, avoiding, etc. of stipples within the characters. Chapter method, also known as "clothing", refers to the overall layout of a piece of characters, including the processing of the relationships between characters and lines. Ink method refers to the method of using ink, which refers to the processing of thick, light, dry, dry and wet ink.