Teacher Zhong Xiaofo said that such problems are often encountered, and some even boast that calligraphers are not calligraphers if they don't know the words written by ordinary people. In fact, this statement is unreasonable and even absurd. Ordinary people's understanding of Chinese characters is only the work of popularizing Chinese characters. The following teacher Zhong analyzes it from two aspects (according to the interview record):
First, we might as well talk about reasoning first.
There seem to be many similar problems, such as mathematician's reasoning and calculus, which everyone can't recognize. Why can they still be called mathematicians? The research done by scientists is incomprehensible to everyone. Why can they still be called scientists? ......
In fact, as ordinary people, there are too many words we can't recognize, mathematical problems we can't reason out, scientific research we can't understand, and so on! So Zhuangzi said, "My life is limited and my knowledge is limited."
It can be said that people who can be called "XX clan" must have achieved something in a certain field. Of course, the fake "XX family" is another matter! We can't deny others' explorations and achievements just because we don't understand them.
People's understanding of Chinese characters is only the work of popularizing Chinese characters. Calligraphers certainly have the responsibility to participate in the popularization of Chinese characters and culture, but more should be done to inherit, develop and innovate calligraphy skills.
Second, let's talk about why many people can't recognize the calligrapher's handwriting.
Everyone should know every word written by calligraphers, which is still very difficult in terms of cultural popularization and artistic accomplishment of our masses at present! It will not be realized for a long time to come. Because:
1, epigraphy calligraphers should have a very profound ability to study and write ancient Chinese characters, such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, Dazhuan, Xiaozhuan and Han bamboo slips. This is a profound temple of ancient Chinese characters. Many scholars can study some achievements in their lifetime, that is, they have made great achievements. Not only to recognize, but also to write; You must not only be able to write, but also write calligraphy works, and the hardships can be imagined. Therefore, it is difficult for us people who eat melons to know these calligraphy works without the education of ancient Chinese characters. But why do people write when they don't know each other? It is to learn history, study history and carry forward Chinese culture.
2, there are also many people who say: I am not talking about ancient Chinese characters, but I can't even read regular script! Ok, how popular can regular script be? There are few official scripts in the early period of "regular script", with a slightly wider structure, long horizontal and short vertical, which were handed down from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, such as Zhong You's "Declaration Form" and "Recommended Season Table". After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the North and South split, and the North sent calligraphy, with the legacy of Han Li and Gu Zhuo, but the style was simple and square, and it was longer than the list of books. This is the so-called Weibei, and a typical example is the twelve kinds of Longmen, a monument and a gesture. How much can we understand? By the time the calligraphy style in the Tang Dynasty was mature, calligraphers came forth in large numbers. Yu Shinan, Ou Yangxun and Chu Suiliang in the early Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing in the middle Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty were all valued by later generations as models of calligraphy. For most people, you may know Tang Kai, but if you write regular script in Wei and Jin Dynasties, you may not understand it!
There is another problem, that is, writing "traditional Chinese characters" according to modern printing, which is not recognized by many people. We now popularize simplified characters, and we only know commonly used simplified characters and a few commonly used traditional characters. But calligraphy is written in traditional Chinese characters. A simplified character may correspond to more than one traditional character, and different traditional characters are used in different meanings and occasions. For example, the traditional Chinese characters "Hou" and "Ji" in the first grade of two primary schools are often confused and misused. Therefore, if the public does not understand traditional Chinese characters, there will definitely be some obstacles in reading calligraphy!
4, let's talk about cursive script, cursive script is divided into Cao Zhang and today's grass, and today's grass is divided into big grass (also known as weeds) and grass. Don't say so complicated, just say a little-cursive symbols! If you want to know or write cursive script accurately, you must know cursive script symbols. So what is a cursive symbol? Radicals are written in simple symbols, that is, cursive symbols, instead of regular script. According to the formation law of Chinese characters, it divides the combined characters into five categories: left, right, up, down and middle, and each category is divided into several representative symbols according to the radicals, which makes its ever-changing cursive script clear at a glance. How are these symbols formed? For thousands of years, calligraphers of all ages have summarized the laws of cursive script in the process of writing, and constantly developed and improved it. In modern times, Mr. Yu Youren classified these representative cursive methods into standard cursive symbols, which made his cursive methods have rules to follow. If readers can understand most cursive scripts, they won't say they don't know if they read cursive scripts again!
Well, we ordinary people certainly don't have so much time and energy to figure out so many problems. These are all things that calligraphers (I'm not talking about fake calligraphers or Jianghu calligraphers) should do! Nor does it affect our appreciation of calligraphy art.
Huang Yongyu once gave an example: Picasso was asked, "How can I not understand your paintings?" Picasso asked, "Have you ever heard birds chirping?" "yes." "Is it nice?" "Not bad." "Do you understand?"