Calligraphy art, which symbolizes the spirit of traditional oriental culture, is regarded as the root of oriental culture by many people with reverence, and some even consider it as "the core of China cultural core". It "reaches its temperament and becomes its sadness and joy." The artistic function of "Li" enables calligraphers to discover infinity, enjoy infinity, revel infinity and place infinity in one flower and one grass, one stroke and one painting. If you want to understand the traditional culture of China, you must feel the art of learning Chinese characters and calligraphy. Only when you pick up a brush and run it on rice paper can you experience the mentality of ancient literati, get a glimpse of the traditional culture of China, feel how life blooms on rice paper strongly through the brush, and understand the practicality and entertainment of Chinese characters, as well as the special effects of self-cultivation and so on.
Calligraphy has gone through a glorious and long development process from simple use in the past to becoming a pure art now. None of us will forget the glory of "Tang poetry, golden ci and Chinese literature". Scholars in Wei and Jin dynasties were bold and broad-minded because of their trust, which made us admire, especially the peak of calligraphy art created by scholars in Jin dynasty, which made future generations stop at the mountain, even out of reach, and be proud of it. But nowadays, we may occasionally hear someone disdainfully say, "Is calligraphy an art?" This statement is unacceptable to people who have devoted their lives to calligraphy. However, why would anyone have such an idea? Perhaps, it is the function, usability and documentary nature of calligraphy symbols that robbed it of its artistic brilliance; Perhaps, it is too many norms and superb technology that intentionally or unintentionally hinder its original life spirituality; Perhaps, it is its own traditional national cultural significance; In the eyes of many people, it is still a matter of the cultivation of literati and poets, and it is not regarded as an independent art of writing Chinese characters. But is it an independent art? Can it become an independent art in the art world? This kind of reluctant questioning makes the inheritance and glory of calligraphy art in our hearts for thousands of years ... I feel painful when I think so.
Calligraphy undoubtedly has a long and glorious past. Many years ago, people regarded whether they could write well as a symbol of a person's inner wisdom and a standard to measure the level of communication with others. Even for such an important event as scientific research, the quality of writing has become one of the criteria for hiring their talents. Whether calligraphy is well written has become the symbol of ancient literati and the basic embodiment of a person's traditional cultural accomplishment.
Then, the only reason why Chinese characters can become a writing art is that they have different pictographs and abstractions from all the characters in the world. Originally, Chinese characters were only symbols and carriers of thoughts, but because of the artistry and pictographic nature of words, symbols and carriers became aesthetic objects.
Calligraphy is a unique art.
First of all, it is the pictographic nature of Chinese characters. The meaning contained in Chinese character symbols inspires the creator's thoughts and feelings. The ancients created characters in pursuit of the original pictographic meaning of things. Such as sun, moon, water, fire, wood, etc. It is closely related to objective things, beautiful in shape and vivid in image, and has touched the hearts of many people who love China traditional culture for thousands of years. However, thousands of years have passed, Chinese characters have become more and more mature and standardized in evolution, and writing techniques have become more and more refined and perfect in thousands of years of tempering, so that its exquisite and rigorous statutes are intentionally or unintentionally devouring its freshness. The natural attributes of Chinese characters are fading, the vivid signs of life in hieroglyphics are fading, the life state of "harmony between man and nature" is decreasing in the original writing process, and the life image conveyed by the characters themselves is replaced by practicality. However, a large number of traditional calligraphy theory have proved to us that the origin of Chinese characters and writing is natural and a reflection of objective things. For example, Cai Yong in the Eastern Han Dynasty said in "Nine Potential" that "the number of volts starts from sex." Sun also said that "the difference between watching a husband hang a needle and hanging dew, the wonder of rushing to the rocks, the awe of flying beasts, the state of dancing snakes and being surprised, the trend of falling peaks, the shape of crisis, or the trend of collapsing clouds, or as light as cicadas, the spring note of the guide, the mountain of rice; It's like the first month of the first month, it's like a river between stars. " They explained to us that not only Chinese characters come from nature, they are pictographic, but even every small picture in the process of writing Chinese characters is a symbol of natural image. What is natural is the most vivid and vital. I believe Berdyev said, "Exquisiteness is a sign of depravity." All perfection is the beginning of exhaustion. Can you find the freshness of the original text? What about finding the natural attribute of its life and calling back the unique spirituality of Chinese characters? I hope so.
In the ancient six books, Chinese characters also have special abstractness, such as referring to things, knowing, pictophonetic characters, transferring notes, borrowing and so on. It explains the meaning of this word through your experience. The abstract meaning in this modeling conveys a visual image to readers through pen and ink. This kind of pen and ink has enhanced the charm of China's calligraphy art by virtue of the unique image beauty conveyed by Xuan paper. This abstract artistic beauty coincides with the hazy beauty in modern art, which is why many westerners are mysterious and interested in it, and some even experiment and verify it as an element of visual art. Its pictographic and abstract nature undoubtedly reveals a possible information for the exploration and development of modern calligraphy art.
Secondly, it is its writing tools-soft and elastic brush, unpredictable ink, highly sensitive and soft rice paper, which allows the creator to express his inner life state as much as possible. The use of brush, ink and rice paper largely determines the characteristics of calligraphy as an art. Let's imagine that if there is no brush, just writing on ordinary paper with a very hard nib can't create so many unpredictable images and form its unique ink art effect. The use of brush makes the linear one-off writing process convey the richness of life moments, and makes the monotonous lines full of flesh and blood and fresh spirituality. For example, when Li Shimin commented on Wang Xizhi's calligraphy, he said: "Look at the slow work, the cut is beautiful, and the smoke is exposed, even if it is broken; The phoenix is like a dragon, and the trend is oblique and straight. " Liu Xizai's evaluation of Huai Su's calligraphy, "Huai Su's self-reported cursive script", refers to the wonderful peak of Xia Yunduo being watched and tasted by teachers. But how can a grass learner learn from Qifeng? Say: No, Gage Peak has a fixed mass, and Qifeng in Xia Yun is not without a fixed mass. "There are" Yan Gu Lun "and so on. These are all natural life images realized from pen and ink, which are living, changing and not "fixed". This is a living bone with blood. Sun said in "Book Score" that "true point painting is form and turns into temperament; "Grass takes stippling as its temperament and takes shape." Su Dongpo said in a poem, "Innocence is my teacher." In Chinese character writing, all lines and structures of calligraphy are expressed on the basis of life emotion.
In the traditional rules of using a pen before, there was generally only one brushwork-the center pen. Although Mi Fei once said that he used a pen to carry a pen, after all, he did not surpass the traditional brushwork. Then, in the future development of calligraphy art, can we use side front, lying front and leaning front? ..... What kind of pen-using feeling will it bring to Mo Yun with white rice paper? What is the difference between it and the golden mean humanistic feelings conveyed by the center in the past? All these need to be explored by contemporary artists. Whether we can broaden our thinking, no matter what brushwork it uses and what it will become in the future, as long as it is calligraphy and art first, and as long as it cuts into art from the standpoint of calligraphy, it is necessary for us to admit its existence and study its rationality and developability. In fact, people have been doing this all the time, but the road to exploration is always unknown and full of risks, and only in the unknown and full of risks is it necessary to explore.
Thirdly, in the process of calligraphy creation, it embodies the artist's life state and permeates the humanistic spirit inseparable from China's traditional culture. Zong Baihua once said in the article "The Nature of China's Calligraphy Art", "China's calligraphy is a rhythmic nature, expressing a profound artistic conception of life images and becoming an art that reflects life." The ancients said, "Words are the heart, and books are the heart." The beauty of China's calligraphy art always haunts the word "emotion". Everyone has feelings, but his literati expressed their feelings deeply and subtly. Calligraphers' fun "dancing on paper" conveys implicit, rich and meaningful poetry and painting in the extremely simple and simple artistic structure of black and white stippling. Ancient literati loved this, attached their feelings to it, took learning calligraphy art as a daily lesson, took fluency as fun, let passion flow at the bottom of their wrists, and the image was looming in stippling. Han Yu said in "Preface to Master Gao Xian": "If the cursive script is well written, other skills will not be cured. Embarrassed and poor, you will be sad, homesick, drunk and bored, and you will be moved by cursive script. Looking at things, you can see mountains and rivers, cliffs and canyons, birds, animals, insects and fish, flowers and fruits of flowers and trees, the sun, the moon and the stars. Wind, rain, fire, water, thunder, thunder, singing and dancing, heaven and earth change gratifying, all in one book. Therefore, the book of Xu is still a ghost, invisible, and named after later generations. " Zhang Xu's calligraphy not only writes his own feelings, but also expresses the images of various changes in nature. However, these images are all realized through his emotions. While expressing these feelings, he hinted at his various images of nature and used them to set off his feelings. Huai Su's autobiographical notes are full of paper, and Xia Yun Qifeng is flowing and swaying. In the ink dance with strong lyric rhythm, it shows the calligrapher's heroic spirit and extraordinary mind; Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrificing a Nephew" is also dignified and profound with grief and indignation. Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Lanting Pavilion is permeated with the artistic conception of spring, beauty and auspiciousness everywhere. Liu Xizai said: "A book is like its book, like its learning, like its talent, like its ambition, and in short, like its person." In the art of calligraphy, it inevitably reflects the life track of the creator. The study of China's traditional culture cannot avoid the art of calligraphy, which is an indispensable spiritual need for literati to express their feelings. In the appreciation of calligraphy art, we must not leave the artist. The creation of calligraphy art is not an ordinary craft. Robots and computers have been able to write for a long time, but they have no chance to write. This is because people's rich and varied emotions make the written symbols gain special vitality.
There is no doubt that calligraphy is an art, and it is not only an art, because it is also the product of national culture, loaded with rich cultural and psychological information. How should calligraphy develop in 2 1 century? After the birth of one master after another, how to continue on this road with no way out? How do we face one classic peak after another? The development of Chinese character modeling is almost perfect, the writing method is standardized and the skills are mature. Looking forward to the future of calligraphy art, how can we not be sad or happy? What else can or should contemporary calligraphy artists do?