A square character with a periphery. Although a Chinese character has a peripheral boundary of a square, it is mostly invisible. There are no more than 5 square characters with edges around them, which is less than one-hundredth of the Chinese characters collected in common dictionaries. Fortunately, there are not many such characters, so the shapes of Chinese characters are so colorful.
structurally speaking, Chinese characters can be divided into single characters and combined characters.
Monographs refer to words with only one structure. The structure of compound Chinese characters is varied, including two parts (left and right parts or upper and lower parts), three parts (left, middle and right parts or upper, middle and lower parts) and enclosing structures (all-inclusive or half-inclusive).
whether it is a single character or a combined character, each character has a center of gravity or center. If this center of gravity is mastered, each stroke can be arranged properly when writing, and it will not be loose, expand as far as possible, and will not shrink into a ball, which will form a strong contrast with other words. In order to make it easier for beginners to master this center of gravity, a variety of copybooks have been designed for them, one of which is called "Mi Zi Ben" (named after the four red lines in its box are like the "Mi" of Chinese characters). It can help practitioners gradually master the center of gravity of each word and handle the relationship between centripetal force and centrifugal force of each component of the word.
how to make proper arrangements for words? The most important thing is to comply with the requirements of various formal beauty of words. It can be summarized in five aspects.
attention should be paid to the appropriateness, appropriateness and stability of the writing. It's ugly if it doesn't conform to the law, is arbitrary, stagger and fall apart. Therefore, when ancient calligraphers talked about the method of structure, they all emphasized that writing should be even on all sides, short and long, and appropriate in weight. The beauty of words is fairness, which is consistent with the general aesthetic psychology of people. To evaluate a person's beauty and ugliness, we must first look at the correct facial features. Indoor furnishings and courtyard layout are beautiful in order and ugly in disorder. To hang a picture, it is required to hang it horizontally and properly. Even if you stick a stamp, you should pay attention to sticking it correctly so that the recipient can see it pleasing to the eye, which is also a respect for him.
Symmetry is a sense of appropriateness and neatness between strokes and parts of a word. For words with few strokes, the lines should be a little thicker, and more attention should be paid between stippling; For words with many strokes, the lines should be thinner, compact and symmetrical.
among all kinds of calligraphy styles, seal script is the most symmetrical, and at the same time, it tries to reduce the white places in the characters and fill them with black. The requirements for symmetry in other calligraphy styles are official script, regular script and running script in the order of high and low; The most unsymmetrical ones are cursive script and wild grass, which emphasize a strong sense of movement and rhythm, regardless of asymmetry.
like many things in nature, jagged handwriting is beautiful. If the strokes of Chinese characters blindly pursue fairness and symmetry, they will be like words printed on paper, which will not be art. Even the seal script that pays least attention to unevenness shows signs of seeking unevenness. For example, someone writes a "three" character with the least strokes. Although the three horizontal paintings are roughly equal in length, the middle horizontal one bends upward. Later, in the official script, the top two horizontal lengths of the word "three" were equal, and the bottom horizontal length was "silkworm head and goose tail". The character "three" in regular script, with the top horizontal upward, the middle horizontal short, and the bottom horizontal extremely thick.
coherence refers to the care, reflection and even cohesion between strokes and components of a word. Coherence can make each flower part of a word become an organic whole, which is more dynamic, dynamic and rhythmic.
there are two methods of coherence: indirect and direct. The former, such as writing a monogram "Hua", was originally composed of four separate parts, and their connection point is in the center of the word. When writing, the four parts should be close together, or even two upper and lower parts should be connected together.
Direct coherence is mostly used in cursive and running scripts, and it is called tension thread. As far as Zhu Yunming's cursive "Ode to Luoshen" is concerned, two strokes are connected into one stroke. People will write a "point" like a "hook" or a "fold" to connect with the next stroke or the previous stroke; Write horizontal, vertical and vertical strokes, which are often combined with the strokes above and below.
flying is the most important way for calligraphy to have a lively image. Flying is more strange, flying is more interesting, flying makes people seem to see vibrant living things from static works of art, hear beautiful music, and generate all kinds of associations and imaginations.
The movement of calligraphy comes from two aspects besides the shape and connection mode of stroke lines: First, the flow speed of lines. It may take a minute or two to write a single word. Writing cursive script, running script, pen walking fast and even flying on paper, it only takes a few seconds to write a word. The second is the unstable and inconsistent space caused by the oblique side of the font. The same is the official script and regular script with strict fonts. Some people will write correctly and beautifully, and if they are quiet, some people will write obliquely, irregularly and vacantly, with a sense of movement and rhythm vividly on the paper; Not to mention running script, cursive script and wild grass. We can see the coherence and flying trend of cursive script from Zhu Yunming's "Ode to Luo Shen" in Ming Dynasty (146-1526), and the author's superb ability to grasp the charm of skills and speed rhythm. I wish Wen Zhiming, Tang Bohu and Xu Zhenqing, also known as the "Four Scholars in Wuzhong"-four great talents in Suzhou, who played an important role in the rejuvenation of calligraphy in the Ming Dynasty.