The relationship between Chinese painting and calligraphy, on the one hand, is the same in their tool materials, especially the writing brush, which has the same method of writing and carrying pens, on the other hand, it is about the requirement of using pens, which is the basic norm and concept based on the center since ancient times and has been upheld by calligraphy and Chinese painting. Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yanyuan said that "the names of calligraphy and painting are different but the body is the same". Calligraphy and painting have been interlinked since ancient times, and the ancients said that "calligraphy and painting are homologous". In Shi Tao's words, "it has two ends and its work is integrated." There are many people in history who have been painting and calligraphy for two sessions. There are people who paint with books, people who paint with books, people who are famous for their paintings, and people who are famous for their names, so there are painters' calligraphy and calligraphers' paintings. When a painter writes a book, he always puts his own pen and ink into the book, so the book is picturesque. Calligraphers are good at applying the brushwork charm of calligraphy to paintings when painting, so paintings are elegant. Whether it is a painter's book or a calligrapher's painting, high-level law and reason are interlinked.
In the history of calligraphy, painter's calligraphy is also a branch that cannot be ignored. To put it simply, from Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu in the Yuan Dynasty, Shen Zhou, Wen Zhiming and Dong Qichang in the Ming Dynasty to Shi Tao, Ba Da, Zheng Banqiao, Jin Nong and Zhao Qianzhi in the Qing Dynasty, in addition to their achievements in painting, they also had special attainments in calligraphy art, and their calligraphy was unique at that time. So that in the 20th century, Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Huang, Pan Tianshou and others were also famous calligraphers! Their achievements in calligraphy are clearly reflected in painting, which shows that calligraphy has laid a solid foundation for their achievements in painting. On the contrary, their calligraphy benefits from the inspiration in the formal beauty of painting, which makes calligraphy show its charm different from that of pure calligraphers.
Painters who are more accomplished in calligraphy often find a new way in the form of calligraphy, constantly creating new forms and vocabulary, with distinctive personality and highlighting the "artistic" significance. In Song Dynasty, Mi Fei was the most typical calligraphy style. Dong Qichang's landscape painting wins with lightness, painting with lightness, and applying it to books, which enriches the level of pen and ink in his calligraphy and creates a new way except brushwork in pen and ink methods. The Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a representative of painting with books and painting with books. He infiltrated and connected calligraphy and painting, which made his calligraphy full of painting meaning, and painting enhanced the meaning of calligraphy. In the past 300 years, the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China has been famous as a painter, but people often ignore that its painting achievements are based on profound calligraphy skills. In a sense, without the "Eight Generalities" in calligraphy, it is impossible to have the unique style of the Eight Great Paintings. Eight paintings, both calligraphy and painting, attach great importance to the internal relationship between calligraphy and painting. They not only infiltrated the spatial modeling of calligraphy and fonts into painting in their creative practice, but also clearly put forward the idea of "calligraphy and painting" in theory. The Eighth National Congress is not only a real cursive master, but also the earliest calligrapher who used a brush to enter cursive script. The eight great works are all painted with books, which are not a simple combination of painting and calligraphy, nor do they turn painting into pure abstract symbols. Instead, calligraphy language factors are organically infiltrated into painting, which enriches the painting language. Its use of books in painting is mainly reflected in two aspects. One is to use the rich and restrained central pen of calligraphy in painting and writing, and the other is to use the abstract space of calligraphy to form the shape of the picture. The strange and ancient shapes of his paintings, such as big stones and small stones, the bird's belly protruding and neck contracting, a foot exposed on the back of the bow, and the thick and thin trunk can all be found in the spatial structure of his calligraphy. Eight can be divided into two aspects: spiritual level and technical level. Spiritual level, the pursuit of calligraphy and painting, the spirit of freehand brushwork into calligraphy. Consciously integrate the sense of humor and childlike interest in painting into the lines of calligraphy to make its calligraphy lovely, humorous and interesting. On the technical level, the Eighth National Congress is good at infiltrating the characteristics of freehand brushwork and spatial graphics into calligraphy. Eight paintings, wash and practice dignified pens, and their calligraphy pens are also very concise. In the composition and layout, deliberately compressing or enlarging the space of his characters is also influenced by his painting space schema. Calligraphy developed to the early Qing Dynasty and formed various fixed patterns, and the research on calligraphy showed a rigid trend. The Eighth National Congress, full of individuality and innovative spirit, is not willing to follow the footsteps of its predecessors and adopt the method of calligraphy and painting to innovate. Jin Nong and Zheng Banqiao, among the Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou, also made innovations in calligraphy with their distinctive personalities and made outstanding achievements in the development of calligraphy in Qing Dynasty.
Another example is Wu Changshuo and Huang in modern times, whose calligraphy is more unique. Wu Changshuo's calligraphy can be traced back to Shi Guwen in the pre-Qin period. After repeated research, he is unique in seal script. He applied seal script to flower-and-bird painting, which made the flowers and birds in the painting look vigorous and powerful. Ren Bonian said that the flower-and-bird painting in Wu Changshuo is different from today's, and it will definitely make great achievements in the future. Throughout his life, Huang always thought that painting should be like calligraphy, and the pen should be clear. His efforts and achievements in calligraphy are no less than his achievements in painting, but his title is covered by the name of the painting. Nowadays, there is a "yellow fever" in the painting world. Most imitators only need to look alike, but they don't know the inner mystery of Mr. Huang's paintings. To truly understand Huang's painting art, we must study his calligraphy and the way of "painting with books". Huang's calligraphy, especially in his later years, has a great creation in calligraphy. He applied the "black and dry" pen and ink in painting to calligraphy creation, which was really "rich in ink and heavy in color". Regrettably, at present, the calligraphy and painting circles do not know enough about Huang's calligraphy achievements. I studied painting under Mr. Huang for many years. Although painting is not famous, calligraphy has its own style, which is famous in the contemporary era and has become a generation of cursive masters. His calligraphy achievements are directly related to his learning from Huang's calligraphy and painting. It is a major feature of Lin Lao's calligraphy that he has studied and studied the ink method of Huang painting for many years.
Calligraphy is extremely important to Chinese painting, whether it is the basic requirement of "using pen as the bone method" or the meaning of "writing" in the standard of pen and ink. This is not only a general understanding of the homology of painting and calligraphy, but also the fundamental reason why Chinese painting is different from foreign painting and the core of its development.
The special relationship between calligraphy and Chinese painting has become a special content that western painting does not have in aesthetics, and it is also an important legacy of China traditional culture. Unfortunately, this important internal relationship has not been really valued on the basis of our contemporary education in China. In the process of westernization of Chinese painting in the 20th century, along with the overall trend that calligraphy lost its publicity in the contemporary era, it gradually broke away from the foundation of calligraphy and established a modeling foundation suitable for contemporary aesthetics. The reasons are as follows: first, the painter does not pay enough attention to the importance of calligraphy in painting; Second, with the composition mode of western painting, calligraphy is no longer allowed in the picture; Thirdly, the aesthetics of contemporary Chinese painting, which does not seek artistic conception or less, does not need to "make up for the deficiency of painting". Chinese painting is not only divorced from calligraphy on the basis, but also divorced from the norms of calligraphy in aesthetics and evaluation. Then, the painter's calligraphy, which has been praised and appreciated by literati since ancient times, will gradually disappear in contemporary China culture. This is the sorrow of contemporary Chinese painting and the regret of contemporary China calligraphy. Perhaps both need to be reflected.
The alienation of China's calligraphy and painting appeared as early as 1950s. At that time, under the specific requirements of transforming Chinese painting and the realistic concern of requiring Chinese painting to serve the society, the appearance of new Chinese painting by newcomers brought a new look to Chinese painting, and in this new look, painting added more titles. However, the use of calligraphy in the picture and the level of calligraphy in the title have not been abandoned because of the transformation. It should be noted that in the process of transforming Chinese painting in 1950s, both pen and ink and form were transformed, among which serving the new content with the old form was also one of the achievements of transforming Chinese painting at that time, and the important thing was the inscription. Many old painters, with their accomplishments in classical poetry and calligraphy skills, used the content of inscriptions to "make up for the lack of painting", which became a highlight of the reform of Chinese painting at that time, and painter Qian Songyan was one of them.
The mainstream of contemporary Chinese painting no longer pays attention to the foundation, skills and level of calligraphy. Then when we look at the calligraphy of contemporary painters, it is difficult to have the overall level of the previous generation of painters. In fact, there are very few painters who write well. As we all know, the representatives of Zhejiang School, whether Huang and Pan Tianshou, or Lu and Zhu Lesan, are calligraphers of tablet school. Huang is good at three generations of inscriptions on bronze, Pan Tianshou is good at seal script, and the running script comes from Huang Daozhou and becomes a family; Lu also created a generation of tablet calligraphers, whose calligraphy was wild and uninhibited; Influenced by Wu Changshuo, Zhu Lesan has a unique calligraphy style. Their paintings can reach the realm of natural vitality, largely relying on the tempering of calligraphy. The loss of calligraphy on steles has fundamentally weakened the backbone of contemporary Zhejiang landscape painting and freehand flower-and-bird painting. There is no longer the vigorous pen and ink of Huang and Pan Tianshou, but the pursuit of elegance, ease, lightness and clearness, thus embarking on the old road of retro-ism. This is quite different from Huang and Pan Tianshou's pursuit of perfection, clumsiness and ambition, which will fundamentally restrict the future development and historical height of contemporary landscape painting and freehand flower-and-bird painting. Of course, the problem didn't happen in one day, and the efforts to solve the problem can't be realized in a short time. If Chinese painting still adheres to its own national painting style and aesthetic characteristics, then reconnecting the relationship between Chinese painting and calligraphy can lead Chinese painting from the wrong development path to the right one.