Chinese calligraphy, which has always regarded itself as the big brother, although it has a glorious history, seems to be awakening in a hazy state. It is facing a process of conceptual rebirth from classical to modern.
Originally, Bei Wan did not hesitate to pride himself on his painting, but now he sees the great progress in creation and theory of Chinese painting and feels ashamed*. This is one aspect. It used to be that it always thought of itself as a reflection of a great country and never stretched out its eyes to see the world, but now it has to deal with external influences calmly. There was once a popular slogan in the calligraphy circle called "Calligraphy Goes to the World."
However, this was not the case when calligraphy started in the new decade. At that time, due to the ignorance of the calligraphy community, most people did not understand the precious value of Japanese calligraphy (as well as Western calligraphy and painting) to us. People do not even understand the general situation of Japanese calligraphy and its most rudimentary characteristics. Therefore, all kinds of blind ideas flood the book world, which brings great obstacles to the normal development of Sino-Japanese exchanges.
In fact, Japanese calligraphy, as the most valuable frame of reference for Chinese calligraphy, will play an important role in the development of Chinese calligraphy. In the early Republic of China, because the development of Japanese calligraphy had not yet gotten rid of the general atmosphere of the entire culture's dependence on China, its independence was obviously not strong; but with the help of Yang Shoujing's inheritance of the Qing Dynasty's Northern Stele Style and the Japanese calligraphers' contributions to it Unique interpretation, the Japanese character of calligraphy has a more obvious outline. The Meiji Restoration introduced a large amount of Western culture, causing calligraphy to begin its first round of great introspection. After the Second World War, due to the humiliating status of the defeated countries and the forced infiltration of European and American culture, calligraphy underwent a second round of introspection in the face of an existential crisis. Such introspection and its shock to concepts, its stimulating effect on Japanese calligraphy, etc., are all contents that Chinese calligraphy rarely possesses. There is no doubt that the impact of the intervention of pen calligraphy and the elimination of classical culture as a structure, as well as the new attempts to pinyinize Chinese characters, the effects produced by these contents can only be equivalent to the introspection effect faced by Japan during the Meiji Restoration period. Without the experience of being defeated in war and forced to accept European and American culture, Chinese calligraphers rarely experienced the complex feelings and subtle moods of their Japanese counterparts. Naturally, few have a true understanding of the conceptual values ??and formal concepts embodied in contemporary Japanese calligraphy. This gap provides a broad research space for the development of calligraphy in the two countries to complement each other and inspire each other.
Due to the isolation for a long period of time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese calligraphy circle rarely had the opportunity to pay attention to the situation of Japanese calligraphy. Also, because the calligraphy circle was full of conservative and outdated consciousness of a big country, calligraphers did not bother to do it. It takes a lot of effort, and of course because calligraphy has just revived after its slumber, many enthusiasts are campaigning for the popularization of calligraphy. For popularization, understanding Japanese calligraphy is not important, so the Chinese calligraphy world also lacks urgent demand. . On the other hand, after Japan was defeated in the war, it successfully restored the status of calligraphy in the early 1950s, and as it gradually gained momentum in the 1960s, it continued to promote its own image to China. Several large-scale Sino-Japanese calligraphy joint exhibitions and exchange exhibitions from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s gave the calligraphy community a superficial understanding of the people, styles, and standards of Japanese calligraphy.
This is quite ironic. Initially, it was not a voluntary visit to the world but the world's tenacious penetration into the Chinese calligraphy world. Although Western art did not make a difference in the calligraphy world at that time, Japan, a calligraphy partner, tenaciously entered the Chinese calligraphy world with perseverance and determination. It fully proved the arrogance and laziness of Chinese calligraphy circles. The quality also proves the tenacious enterprising spirit of Japanese calligraphers. When Sino-Japanese calligraphy exchanges began to resume normally in the late 1970s, the calligraphy community began to pay the price for all kinds of irresponsible laziness - people had no knowledge of Japanese calligraphy, but Japanese calligraphers knew Chinese calligraphy well. The uneducated Chinese calligraphers are at least poor in knowledge. The sudden exchange made it impossible to make some academic preparation and deliberation in advance, which put Chinese calligraphers in an embarrassing dilemma. At the same time, it also seriously affected the quality and height of the exchange.