This article "Children's Calligraphy: Introduction to Calligraphy and Selection of Calligraphy" is compiled for everyone. I hope it will be helpful to everyone. The following information is for reference only! !
Getting started
1. Hard practice may not necessarily lead to getting started
As long as you are willing to learn and work hard to practice calligraphy, you will definitely be able to learn it. But the method must be correct, otherwise it will be counterproductive. There was once an old man who brought a volume of cursive works and asked Mr. Lin Sanzhi, a master of contemporary cursive calligraphy, for advice. Sanwen carefully looked through each piece one by one. After reading, he just nodded and returned the volume to the old gentleman. Not a word was said. After the old gentleman left, Mr. Lin said: "This man is still outside the door." What he said was quite surprising. An old gentleman like this has attended a private school since childhood and must have practiced calligraphy. He is already able to write "dragon and phoenix dancing" cursive script, but he is still a layman after practicing for a lifetime. If the visitor is a young man, Lin Laoding will not hesitate to tell him to brake, stop writing in cursive, and write in regular script quickly before he can save himself in time. But the old gentleman had taken a detour all his life and was "terminally ill". If he was asked to learn regular script from scratch, firstly it would be embarrassing, and secondly, he would have accumulated too many habits and it would be too late. Therefore, Mr. Lin is neither in a position to criticize nor willing to say compliments against his will.
This incident shows that hard practice alone is not enough to write calligraphy. You must also master the correct method. This is the same as learning martial arts. Once it becomes a habit, it is difficult to change it. Therefore, there is a saying that "it is easy to learn boxing but difficult to change it."
Einstein has a formula for success: success = correct method and diligence. This formula also applies to learning to write.
In any craft, there are differences between experts and laymen. An expert is an expert who masters the basic rules and regulations. The old gentleman mentioned above has not yet mastered the basic laws and regulations of calligraphy. He does not know which ones are right and which are wrong, which are beautiful and which are ugly. So Mr. Lin said he was a layman.
2. How to get started
The ancients said: "The master introduces the door, and the practice lies in oneself." Of course, it is best to have a teacher. If there is no suitable teacher, buy a book from Learning can also help you master the most basic rules and regulations of calligraphy. You can also learn from the ancients. This is called "taking the Dharma and calling up, and you can only get the middle; taking the Dharma and calling the middle, you can only get the lower part." This means that if you have a good teacher, you can achieve average results. , if you take a middle-level teacher, you can only get inferior grades. The ancient people’s best advice is of the highest quality, and you should worship them as your teachers. Ancient calligraphers have handed down countless famous steles and calligraphy. Those who can stand firm and not be eliminated are good teachers with personality and special skills who can help you get started. Of course, you can't just pick up a book and practice it. This is a matter of priorities and whether it is suitable for you. Just like the medicine in the pharmacy can cure diseases, but you cannot take it casually and you have to prescribe the right medicine.
What is suitable for beginners to learn? From ancient times to the present, there are seal script, official script, regular script, running cursive script and cursive script. Which font is best to learn first? Calligraphers also have their own opinions on this issue. Those who advocate learning from the seal script family believe that learning the rhythm of seal script is ancient and that we should start from the source to lay the foundation. However, many of us beginners do not even know the seal script and have to learn the seal characters first, which is a certain difficulty. Some people say that learning running script first is more effective. Is that possible? Su Shi, the great calligrapher of the Song Dynasty, once said that regular script is like standing, running script is like walking, and cursive script is like running. I have never seen anyone who can run without being able to stand firmly. This metaphor is very appropriate. He is opposed to learning cursive writing from the beginning. He believes that one must first learn to stand, then slowly learn to walk after standing firm, and then learn to run after walking smoothly. Therefore, learning calligraphy should start with regular script. After you have mastered regular script and established a stable frame, you can then learn running script and cursive script. Learning to write is like learning to walk. You must walk step by step, not jumping, otherwise you will fall.
Selection of calligraphy
1. Classification and selection of regular script
There are indeed many calligraphers in the past who are good at writing regular script. They can be roughly divided into four major styles according to their style characteristics. kind.
l. Jin regular script Jin regular script is represented by the regular script works of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi and their sons.
2. Regular script of the early Tang Dynasty The regular script of the early Tang Dynasty is represented by the regular script works of Ouyang Xun, Yu Shinan, Zhu Suiliang and Xue Ji.
3. Regular script in the middle and late Tang Dynasty Regular script in the middle and late Tang Dynasty is represented by the regular script works of Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan.
4. Wei stele regular script Wei stele is the general name for cliff stone carvings and epitaph stone carvings with similar calligraphy styles before and after the Northern Wei Dynasty.
The above four types of regular script calligraphy will be specially introduced in Chapter 9 and will not be discussed in detail here.
These four types of regular script can be said to be the best for everyone, but which one is more suitable for beginners? Let us make a comparison. Jin Kai is the origin of regular script. The ancient method is complete and it will not be vulgar when learned. However, the Jin Kai we see now is small script. It may be difficult for beginners to master small characters if they are learned at the same time. The regular script of the early Tang Dynasty belongs to the right way, and their structure is very perfect. However, the Chinese regular script that has survived to this day is not clear at the beginning and end of the strokes, making it difficult to learn. The Wei stele is also good. The body is strong and the rhyme is high and full of energy, but the stone tablet is broken. Beginners often cannot distinguish the damage from the stippling and find it difficult to figure out. Generally speaking, beginners should start with the regular script of the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The first one is all in regular script and the strokes are clear. The second one is less damaged and there will be no deviation.
2. Things to pay attention to when starting from Yan and Liu
Starting from the regular scripts of Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan is the experience summarized by calligraphers of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Yan and Liu's regular script writing has obvious lifting and pressing movements, and the method is relatively complete, which can correct the problem of casual drawing like writing with pen. The appearance, grandeur and grandeur are the correct way of regular script. The willow body is thin and strong, and the brushwork is particularly exquisite. Dong Qichang, a calligrapher of the Ming Dynasty, had the experience of "from then on, he could not abandon Liu's method and turned to the right army (Wang Xizhi)". Feng Ban in the Ming Dynasty also said that "Yan's calligraphy is better than Liu's calligraphy, but Liu's calligraphy is very good, so he started to learn it." Learning willow can gain bone strength, learning calligraphy is to gain bone strength first. Therefore, we can choose one of the regular script masterpieces by Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan.
Yan Zhenqing's masterpiece "Yan Qinli Stele" and Liu Gongquan's masterpiece "Mysterious Tower Stele" are popular among primary and secondary school students and beginners of calligraphy.
Before learning Yan and Liu characters, you must have a comprehensive understanding of Yan and Liu regular scripts, because everything is divided into two parts. It has good sides and shortcomings. place. Yan and Liu's regular scripts have strong bones, mainly square pens, and rigorous brushwork. However, some strokes also have shortcomings and disadvantages due to over-emphasis. For example, their turning points and heavy pauses in critical places are not only the style of Yan and Liu characters, but also what Mi Di, a calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, called "ugly". This is also something that must be paid attention to when practicing. We want to capture their brushwork without further strengthening their "ugly" characteristics. If you blindly pursue the similarity in appearance and develop the harshness, Yan and Liu will be written in imitation of soft, elegant and black characters. Beginners must take warning from this point. The purpose of our post is to acquire writing skills and develop a correct and good habit. There is a common problem in the teaching of brush calligraphy in primary and secondary schools today, that is, to imitate Yan and Liu, only to achieve similar appearance, and then it is difficult to learn running script, which runs counter to the purpose of learning Yan and Liu.
"Getting the fish and forgetting the trap" is an idiom that everyone knows. "猌" is a bamboo cage for fishing. If you want to catch fish, you must have the fishing tool "猌". But after catching the fish, you cannot cling to the "猌". The same is true for Lianyan and Liu. The shape is "猌", and its brushwork is "fish". It is necessary to learn Yan's brushwork, not just the shape.