Calligraphers in past dynasties often use vivid words to describe abstract calligraphy composed of lines, which is vivid and fascinating. "Book Spectrum" provides examples here: observing the difference between hanging needles and hanging dew, the wonders of thunder and falling rocks, the frightened posture of flying beasts, the state of dancing snakes, the trend of falling peaks, the shape of crisis, or the collapse of clouds, or as light as cicadas, the sound of spring guiding the time, and the mountain security in an emergency; Slim as a cliff in the first month, falling among the stars, like the beauty of nature, can not be achieved by force; Faith can be said to be smart and excellent, with a smooth heart and hands and a sincere heart. There must be a reason. Between a painting, the peaks and turns, within a little, extremely frustrated. How profound philosophy, how incisive judgment, how vivid literary talent, how hearty style and rich reverie!
In the process of writing, how to make full use of the dialectics of calligraphy? Xu Hao, a calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, gave full play to this point in Lun Shu. He said: words should not be sparse, dense, lively or small. It's a great experience to do small things, do big things, and do small things. The pen doesn't want to be fast, slow, flat or horizontal. If the edge is vertical, it will be flat. If the edge is flat, it will be safe and profitable, so it will be bigger. The dialectical relationship among density, size, fatness, agility and straightness is analyzed in detail. On the calligraphy theory, the Ming Dynasty developed forward. Feng Fang's Ji Shu further reveals the mystery of the relationship between good and evil in calligraphy. He said: the essence of calligraphy is positive and strange. The so-called upright people are indeed temperate in suppressing setbacks, revealing what they should do and imposing themselves. The so-called strangeness, ups and downs, soaring and shooting into the air, all kinds of customs, and gestures are also ingenious. Actively emphasize the spirit of structure; Strange people mainly talk about the connotation of change. With this "gist", a good structure is realized. Cai Yu's Shuo in Ming Dynasty is brilliant and full of dialectical views. He said: bold and heroic, fresh and blurred, scattered for a long time and difficult to pull out, tend to stagger and leisurely; If the patient is sick, he will wait. Sparse, dense, gorgeous, bald, self-motivated and interesting. Books of various styles are vividly depicted on paper. His own calligraphy is full of changes and changes. Learning from the "two kings" and creating new ideas just confirms his theory. In the Qing Dynasty, Da Zhongguang's foothold surpassed that of his predecessors, and the book Raft further clarified the relationship between the odd and the positive, the opposite and the complement. He said: I will follow my wishes; If you want to fall, you must stand up; If you want to turn it over, you have to fold it; If you want to stop it, you must stop it; If you want to extend it, you must bend it; If you want to pull it out, you must smash it; To bind, we must unfold; If you want to do it, you must stop it. Books are counted backwards. The theory that "books are also counter-counting" put forward by Shuijia is the positive result created by his philosophical summary of calligraphy art. The profundity and scientificity of the thought of "books also count backwards" are based on the concrete dialectical analysis of the process of writing. The so-called "inverse" is opposition, and "inverse number" is the law of unity of opposites and complementarity of opposites. This has something in common with Laozi's dialectical view that "if you want to take it, you must take it first". Let's expand the theory of water and say that "painting is also an inverse number", "dancing is also an inverse number" and "drama is also an inverse number", and so on. All sister arts are like this. Da Zhongguang profoundly expounded the regularity requirements of calligraphy art creation: ups and downs, setbacks anyway, going straight, giving way to each other and complementing each other, and finally entering a good situation. He definitely raised the aesthetics of calligraphy to the height of philosophy, which is really commendable. In the book "Raft", he gave full play to Laozi's philosophical thoughts and had many insightful opinions.
As mentioned above, I really don't know how much essence of calligraphy dialectics is contained in it from Sun's Book Score to Book Raft, which deserves our serious exploration and inquiry. By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, not only was the art of calligraphy on the eve of seeking change and innovation, but the study of calligraphy theory was also in full swing. In view of the beautiful writing style at that time, first of all, Ruan Yuan put forward a challenge. Ruan initiated the "North-South Book School" and "North Monument and South Post" in his library, which wrinkled a pool of spring water. Successors, before Bao and after Kang Youwei. Bao's "Two Boat in Art" advocates "stele study" (that is, "respecting stele" changes into "sticking study") and advocates the idea of seeking change. On the basis of Bao, Kang inherited and developed his thought of "respecting monuments" and wrote Tan, which made "respecting monuments" a trend and Weibei regained its glory for a while. The package added fuel to the flames, and Kang played an important role. The calligraphy thoughts of Ruan, Bao and Kang are beyond the scope of this paper, and they are only mentioned briefly above, not in detail. There are a lot of expositions about calligraphy dialectics in calligraphy theory in past dynasties. The cursive script of Liang Wudi (Xiao Yan) vividly describes the subtleties of dialectics embodied in the art of calligraphy. He said: if the disease surprises the snake, it is as late as swimming in the water. If it is slow, the crow will leave, if it is urgent, it will be sharp, smoking like a pheasant pecking and lighting like a rabbit throwing. At first, at first, it was stationed, and you could do whatever you wanted. Thick or thin, depending on the state. When the water is scattered, the wind will return. And its success, thick and muscular, like the spread of grapes, the complexity of female radish, the entanglement of Zejiao, the struggle between mountains and bears; If you raise your wings and don't fly, you want to go and stop. Hehan has mysterious jade in the shape of Yunshan and stars. Syncope is difficult, and its types are more tolerant. Graceful as a weeping willow, swaying like a roll. Jumping, the phoenix becomes a dragon. The infinite charm of calligraphy attracts people to such a magical, wonderful and profound realm. This passage by Liang Wudi profoundly reveals how calligraphy embodies the beauty of contradiction, and here we can also see the changing beauty of cursive script.