How to treat calligraphy theory's criticism and praise of Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy in past dynasties?

A: As mentioned earlier, Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy has been praised by many generations, and the praise is almost as high as or even higher than that of Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher. However, the wording of calligraphy criticism in past dynasties is also quite sharp and intense. Such as Ming Xiangmu's calligraphy elegant words, while affirming that Yan's book is "heavy and not smooth." The earliest critic of Yan Zi was Li Yu, Li Houzhu of Southern Tang Dynasty. He thinks Yan's words are like "the big feet of the village people", clumsy and scattered. Later, although Mi Fei's book history affirmed that his "running script is considerable", he thought that his real book (regular script): "There are too many celebrities to play, and there is no natural interest. Generally speaking, Yan Liu punched and kicked them and was the ugly ancestor of later generations. Since then, the ancient law has been completely eliminated. "

As for praise, as mentioned earlier, the aesthetic value of his calligraphy is undeniable, but due to political, ideological, ethical and moral reasons, it is inevitable that there are too many useful words. As for its criticism, it can be said that there are reasons. First of all, there are some comments about "impurity", "stagnation" and "clumsiness" in some stone tablets in Yan Zhenqing.

Secondly, due to the differences in people's innate quality, living environment, cultural upbringing and ideological sentiment, people's aesthetic standards are not the same, or even completely opposite. And no great artist can write every stippling perfectly. It is not surprising that some of his books are "rude and weird". We should pay attention to this when studying Yan Shu. However, Mi Fei's comments on "archaic and inappropriate" and "the father of ugliness and ugliness" are biased. The phenomenon of "collecting the ancient and forming its own family" (Mifei language) does exist, but it is difficult to become a master of open school art.