By Duan Honggang
Because of their scarcity, “prodigies” often receive much higher attention and praise than ordinary children. If a "prodigy" appears somewhere, he will immediately become the focus of everyone's attention, and everyone will want to see him.
In history, there have been various "prodigies". For example, Cao Chong, the third son of Cao Cao, was famous for his resourcefulness when he was young. He completed the feat of "Cao Chong weighing the elephant" at the age of 7. Sima Guang was also a smart and wise person in his childhood. When he was 7 years old, he saved his playmates by "Sima Guang smashing the vat". Fang Zhongyong, described by Wang Anshi, is self-taught and can recite poetry at the age of 4, and is known as a "poetry prodigy". Painter Wang Mian was called a "painting prodigy" when he was a child. He had an extraordinary talent for painting. He could often doodle at will, which impressed adults.
It can be seen from the above four prodigies that each prodigy is one of a million talents. If they are given correct teaching and strict restraint, they will most likely become pillars of talent. If taught improperly, it is likely to become another "injury Zhongyong".
There is a contemporary "calligraphy prodigy" who was born in Macau after 2000, named Guan Xinglu. He started practicing calligraphy at the age of 5. He is very talented in calligraphy. He mastered it after only two or three years of practice. Learned the writing skills of regular script, running script and cursive script.
Especially his regular script is well-written and decent. He has won many awards in domestic calligraphy competitions. He is currently the youngest member of the Macau Calligraphers Association and the youngest director of the Macau Hard Pen Calligraphy Association.
It is not easy for a child to achieve these achievements, and the applause he has won cannot be quantified in specific numbers.
Many people thought from the bottom of their hearts: This child will definitely have a bright future.
However, when we calm down and carefully examine Guan Xinglu's calligraphy, we will find many problems. The biggest problem with his calligraphy is that it is almost exactly the same as Tian Yingzhang's regular script, which is completely "printed" "Replica of ".
Tian Yingzhang's regular script is ridiculed as "Tian Kai" by insiders. It is characterized by smoothness, rigid and dull strokes, and the overall style is stylized and mechanized. He only knows how to make a fuss about the arrangement of the frame structure of the fonts. He knows nothing about the changes in brushwork. Many strokes are completely repeated, as stiff and cold as those printed by a printing press, without any emotion at all.
If this kind of regular script is regarded as a standard, it will definitely be a tragedy for the calligraphy world.
The reason why calligraphy has been passed down in China for thousands of years and endures for a long time is that changes and innovations in the use of pens are the foundation. They are the basic guarantee for carrying the emotion and temperament of calligraphers. Later generations stand on the shoulders of their predecessors, integrate the brushwork, inkwork, and composition of their predecessors, as well as figure out the psychological state of their predecessors in the writing process, and then seek a certain degree of change based on it, integrate self-awareness, and enrich the writing. Only the expressive language of calligraphy can promote the continuous development of calligraphy art.
Just like a river, if you don’t want it to dry up, you must inject fresh tributaries into it all the time to keep it fresh and full of vitality.
On the other hand, Tian Yingzhang’s calligraphy, except for its certain merits in structure, can be said to be useless in terms of changes in brushwork, aesthetic connotation, and emotional changes. Anyone who learns this kind of calligraphy will fall into the wrong trap. Misguided.
However, having said that, Tian Yingzhang’s regular script is still helpful to calligraphy beginners. At the very least, it allows beginners to master the most basic structural arrangement skills of calligraphy and shape the basic shape of Chinese characters.
However, beginners should only learn his calligraphy in moderation. If they worship it blindly, the beginner's understanding of calligraphy will be stuck in a thinking mode, and they only know how to deal with the level of writing skills. It can be said that it is useless to understand the artistic rules and aesthetic norms of regular script.
If Guan Xinglu decides to be a calligrapher in the future, I would still suggest that he copy and study more ancient works, so that he can avoid many detours, like the running script of "Er Wang", " The regular script of "Ouyan, Liu, Zhao", the running script of the "Four Masters of the Song Dynasty", Wei stele, etc. are all the essence of Chinese calligraphy and are good candidates for copying.
In the long run, insisting on copying the classic calligraphy of ancient famous writers is much better than learning "Tian Kai", and you can enter the door of calligraphy faster and better.
After Guan Xinglu’s calligraphy debuted, it quickly aroused heated discussions among different appreciators.
The general public almost unanimously praises his calligraphy, and there are endless praises.
Some people say: He is the most handsome boy in the country. His calligraphy skills are as good as those of calligraphers, and he can even write better than calligraphers.
Someone said: Guan Xinglu has such extraordinary understanding and comprehension of calligraphy at a young age. It is amazing. He is truly a calligraphy prodigy.
Different from the overwhelming praise from the general public, professionals from the calligraphy industry are not optimistic about Guan Xinglu's calligraphy.
A director of the Chinese Calligraphy Association said: Guan Xinglu's calligraphy is standard "printed" and has no artistic quality at all. He still has a long way to go if he wants to make a difference in calligraphy.
After the expert’s words came out, they immediately aroused controversy. Many people found it difficult to accept it emotionally and believed that the expert only used adult standards to measure a child, which was unfair to the child.
In my opinion, although the words of the experts may sound harsh, they point out the essence of the problem. Just like the principle of "loyal advice is unpleasant to the ear, it is beneficial to action, and good medicine is bitter to the mouth, it is beneficial to the disease." Good words may not be pleasing to the ear. , but absolutely useful. Kind words are a good way to promote people's growth. Everyone should accept and adopt them with an open mind and a broad mind.
Compared with ordinary children, Guan Xinglu’s calligraphy still has many things to note. This is his advantage. While affirming his advantages, we should make the best use of the situation to guide him to learn more comprehensively and profoundly. Understand the advantages of traditional calligraphy. Only in this way will his calligraphy path become wider and wider.