The topic of cursive script and wine is very interesting. Cursive script is an encounter in the direction of free expression of calligraphy emotion. Since the Han dynasty, the history of calligraphy has entered a fission. At the beginning, the function of Chinese characters was practical. Seal script and official script were first used as official fonts. Such a font was restricted by structure, strokes and combination, so it was not carefree and lyrical when writing, so calligraphy was transformed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, cursive script and regular script were also reflected, but relatively speaking, cursive script matured earlier.
Zhao Yi wrote an article "Non-cursive script" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which vividly described the prevalence of cursive script learning at that time and sharply criticized this trend. The article said that many people were learning cursive script at that time, and cursive script became more and more perfect and mature. However, these people "do nothing" and don't work hard. They just get together every day to figure out how to write cursive script. This shows the novelty and charm of cursive script, so that so many people are crazy about it, and its artistry is incomparable to other calligraphy styles. First of all, its shape, structure and composition are wonderful, and its writing speed is fast, so there will be many uncontrollable factors, and the final effect is similar to "splashing ink" in Chinese painting.
? ? Many popular cursive scripts are often closely related to wine. For example, those cursive masters in the Tang Dynasty, such as Xu Wei in the Ming Dynasty, are often described as "drunken books with two or three lines" in some ancient book theories and previous poems.
So, what exactly is wine?
Drink the songs of the Eight Immortals
Don du fu
Riding a horse is like riding a boat.
Dizzy, fell into the well and slept underwater.
Ruyang's three fights began in the sky,
The road flows at the entrance of the car.
I wish I could not move the capital to Jiuquan.
It takes thousands of dollars for Zuo Xiang to get rich.
Drinking like a whale,
Cup winners are called the saints of the world.
A handsome and beautiful boy,
Look at the sky with white eyes,
As bright as Yushu before the wind.
Embroidered Buddha for a long time before Su Jinzhai,
When you are drunk, you often love to escape Zen.
Li Bai has a hundred poems,
Sleep in a restaurant in Chang 'an.
When the emperor called, he didn't get on the boat.
Call myself Brewmaster.
Three cups of grass in Zhang Xu,
Before you take off your hat and show your head,
Waving paper like a cloud.
Five buckets of rice with scorched ears are outstanding,
Talk about the four feasts of male discrimination and surprise.
In Du Fu's "Song of Drinking Eight Immortals", "Zhang Xu has three cups of grass, and his hat is exposed in front of the maharaja, like a cloud." It vividly depicts Zhang Xu getting drunk, regardless of all the rules, manners and personal image. He turned the piece on his chest into a wave at the bottom of the pen. When he woke up, he looked at his handwriting, which was amazing and could not be recovered. There is an anecdote. When Zhang Xu was interested, he even dipped his hair in ink to write. Cursive writing is fast, and the brushwork is natural and unrestrained, just like the brave swordsmen in ancient times.
Zhang Xu doesn't drink every time he writes, and he doesn't just write cursive script. The more pure art, the more you need to express it instantly with strong subjective feelings, and in fact, the more you need solid basic skills.
In Zhang Changshi's original "The Records of Langya Stone", Dongpo said that "the words are simple and profound, like people in Jin and Song Dynasties". Commentators think they know what they are talking about. However, those who study Cao Zhang often don't study law. They first mean madness. I'm afraid the grass is solid because of its truth, but what is the truth with a long history? Gu said: "Luo Jing people preach crazy and strange words, and those who do not join the father and son of the right army are not long historians." Looking back here, the length of history has really come out.
-Liu Xizai's "Book Outline"
We can see from Zhang Xu's representative works of regular script that Zhang Xu's cursive script has made great achievements and is magnificent. Regular script is also ancient, and he has learned some essence of Jin and Song Dynasties, and his kung fu is very solid.
This poem is four ancient poems handed down by Zhang Xu. Whether it is true or not, when learning or appreciating calligraphy, more attention is paid to whether the work itself is good or not. This work is full of vigor and vitality, and all kinds of contrast elements are rich, giving people a sense of overall generosity and harmony.
Xu said, "Novelty is irregular, while obsolescence is thin and semi-inkless. Drunk letters come in two or three lines, and books are not allowed after waking up. " Lun Yun, the uncle of Dai Zhi, said, "The relationship with bare hands has turned strange, so it is appropriate to be mysterious and embarrassed. Everyone wants to ask the mystery, and Huai Su doesn't know it. " When he spoke quickly, Dou Jiyun said, "There are dozens of powder-walled cloisters with small gaps in their chests. Suddenly I called three or five times, and the wall was full of words. " Dai Gong added, "Chihao suddenly fell to the ground and the room was full of voices." If you are stupid, there is a poem by your father, Si Xun, Yuan Wailang, Xing Wu and Qian Qi: "A distant crane (tin) has no companion, and it is too empty to send a lonely cloud. Crazy light up the world, really drunk. "
? -Excerpted from Huai Su's Autobiographical Post.
The rumors of Huai Su's self-narrative posts were imitated in the Song Dynasty, and some events in Huai Su were more exaggerated and story-telling, but they were not necessarily true. In this case, it shows that Huai Su's cursive writing should be similar to Zhang Xu's or drunken chic. The drunken letter is written in two or three lines, but he can't read the book when he wakes up, which also shows that he is relaxed when he is drunk, and he can't get back to that state when he wakes up.
The ancients had less paper, so when writing big grass, they often raised the wall. We don't know how the ancients wrote walls. After all, with the change of dynasties, many ancient buildings disappeared. "There are dozens of powder wall corridors with a small gap in the middle." Explain that the area is large. "All of a sudden, I can't call out three or five sounds, and there are thousands of words on the wall." It can be seen that Huai Su should be particularly fond of performing. There are also rumors that he also likes to perform live among some princes and nobles at that time.
Huai Su's "Bitter Bamboo Shoots Post", although only two short lines, is very wonderful and extremely in place.
We can know. They really have a deep relationship with wine. They used a pot of fine wine from the Tang Dynasty to write cursive scripts for thousands of years.
Li Bai said in "Into the Wine" that "those who are sober in ancient times, sages are forgotten, and only those who drink a lot will be immortalized". Artists, including writers, are more heroic in wine, which will make their works have some legendary colors.
? Zhang Changshi's cursive script will be drunk, or strange, and he will wake up naive. This has a long history, and there is still a difference between being drunk and being sober. If it's easy, why not send wine? Servants are not a problem.
-Su Shi's "Book Zhang Changshi Cursive"
Mr. Dongpo said in the last sentence of this paragraph: servant is not like this. In other words, Mr Dongpo thinks that he and Zhang Xu are on the same level. Many times, some good articles and works depend on wine, but Wang Xizhi doesn't need it.
Is Su Dongpo's statement correct?
Mr Dongpo mentioned that when Zhang Xu wrote cursive script, he would drink or get drunk, and some wonderful flowers would be born. After waking up, he didn't feel naive, natural and romantic, so Mr. Dongpo said that as a real top calligrapher Rainbow Xizhi, he didn't really need to rely on wine.
Wang Xizhi's cursive script doesn't need to rely on alcohol, but does Wang Xizhi drink alcohol while creating calligraphy? It should be drinking. Through some introductions of Preface to Lanting, we probably know that a group of people were drunk at that time, so in this relaxed and natural state, Wang Xizhi's first running script, Preface to Lanting, was achieved.
In order to respect Hao Han, Shao Youjun's Zagreb, though complicated and rough, may not succeed. The situation is to pretend to be immortal and be ashamed of worshipping home. It is even more difficult to learn from this! After I went to the capital Xi, I left the title wall. The son respects the secret and wipes it out. The book is changeable and private is not evil. When Xi came back, he sighed and said, "I was really drunk when I went!" " "Respect is a shame.
-Sun Shu Pu
We can see a passage in the book spectrum, which is also an anecdote in the rumor. It is said that Wang Xianzhi and Wang Xizhi were masters of calligraphy at that time, and their calligraphy level was very high. Later he secretly erased Wang Xizhi's words, and then he wrote a paragraph himself. When Wang Xizhi came back, he sighed: Alas, he seemed drunk when he left, and his handwriting was not good. At this moment, Wang Xianzhi realized that there was still a big gap between himself and his father. Through these words, we know that Wang Xizhi's calligraphy level is not the same as that when he was drunk, that is to say, the book saint is still a book saint after all, and he can show his delicate brushwork incisively and vividly without being drunk or slightly drunk.
Having said that, I have to mention the Five Dynasties, and he is called Yang Crazy. One day he woke up after taking a nap, and someone just gave him leek flowers, which were delicious. So he began to write "leek flower stickers" to express his gratitude. His regular script is solid, and cursive script is often mentioned. We see that these masterpieces of his are quite different in style.
From this point of view, wine can really play a regulatory role, so that artists can have a more relaxed and chic state when creating, but the most important premise is that the basic skills of calligraphy should be solid. Just like the teacher Wang Yijun said two days ago, no matter how good you take a pen, you don't have enough kung fu, which is equivalent to holding a sword or being killed by others empty-handed.
Although I like wine, I'm sorry I can't drink it well. I have a few drinks occasionally. I also made myself an unwritten rule about drinking: don't drink good wine without friends. The ideal drinking state is that several friends get together to drink good wine, and several people drink at will, without fighting or getting drunk. That temperature is suitable for chatting. If there is another poem, it will be wonderful.
In contemporary traditional calligraphy, my most respected teachers, such as Chen Zhongkang and Wang Yijun, including my Chinese painting teacher, Mr. Yan Fang, don't drink either. Therefore, in fact, there is no 100% relationship between wine and calligraphy, which varies from person to person. Some wines are not intoxicating, some are drunk, and some are drunk.