There is a lot of business in the county government, but Yan Zhenqing still does not forget to practice calligraphy. Although everyone praised him for his great handwriting skills, he thought that as the saying goes, "There are mountains outside the mountains, and there are days behind them", and his kung fu skills were not at home, so he had to worship a brilliant teacher. Soon, he resigned from his official position, and with some words he wrote, he rushed to Luoyang to learn from the great calligrapher Zhang Xu.
After listening to Yan Zhenqing's purpose, Zhang Xu carefully read Yan Zhenqing's handwriting and said to him, "Your handwriting is already very good. Now, the country is the time to employ people. You are the pillar of the country's future. How can you spend so much energy on writing? As long as you practice hard, your handwriting will definitely improve, and you don't have to worship me as a teacher. "
Hearing Zhang Xu's remarks, Yan Zhenqing felt reasonable. Seeing that Zhang Xu was determined not to accept himself as a disciple, he set off for Chang 'an. Yan Zhenqing went home to be an official, but he was always uneasy about learning calligraphy from Zhang. Soon after, he resigned again and went to Luoyang to find Zhang Xu.
When Zhang Xu saw Yan Zhenqing quit his job for the second time to study calligraphy, he was moved by his sincerity, so he gladly accepted the apprentice.
After Yan Zhenqing took Zhang Xu as his teacher, his calligraphy improved greatly, and Zhang Xu was satisfied with such a good student.
One day, Zhang Xu and Yan Zhenqing were talking about calligraphy together. Zhang Xu asked, "During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhong You summed up the writing of twelve characters. Do you know which twelve words it is? " "It is flat, straight, uniform, dense, forward, strong, light, decisive, complementary, and loss, cleverness and symmetry. Do you think I'm right, sir? "
Yan Zhenqing replied. "yes! But do you know what this means? "
"I don't know, please advise!"
"good! These twelve characters are the essence of calligraphy. Now, I will pass on my years of experience to you.
The word "flat" means that horizontal strokes should be written flat, but uneven, imposing and not rigid;
"Straight" means that the vertical pen should be straight, and the writing should be indulgent and not crooked;
"Jun" refers to the interval between strokes of a word, which should be even and natural, not too far or too close;
"Dense" means that there should be no trace at the joint of strokes; "Feng" means that every stroke should be well written to make it powerful;
The word' strength' is easy to understand, which means that words should be written with backbone; Light' means that the strokes at the turning point should be light;
"Resolute" means that you must be bold and resolute when writing, and you can't be timid and hesitant;
Make up' means that the first few strokes have not been arranged well, so we should try our best to make up for them with the latter ones;
The word' damage' is very important, which means that in the writing of point-by-point painting, people should feel that there is still a aftertaste that can arouse people's imagination;
Finally there are' Joe' and' Wei'. "Qiao" is to arrange the shape and structure of words with changes; "Weight" means not only that the stroke structure of a word should be symmetrical, but also that the size and density of a word should be appropriate in the layout. So the words look symmetrical. When writing, as long as you pay attention to the requirements of these twelve words, you will be able to write well. "
"Sir, you speak so well, I understand the nature of the door and writing." Yan Zhenqing said happily.
It turns out that Zhang Xu has never told anyone about the explanation of these twelve words. Today, he passed it on to Yan Zhenqing. From then on, Yan Zhenqing's handwriting became better. Later, he combined the strengths of the previous generation of calligraphers and created a new font by himself. This font is full of energy, thick and simple, vigorous and magnificent, and is very popular with everyone. People call it "Yan Ti". Because learning to write Yan-ti characters can make people feel less guilty about lack of backbone, beginners love to write Yan-ti characters.