Zhang SuoFormerly known as Chunfan, a stone reporter, alias Spider Yan Zhai, Qin and Han Ten Seal Pavilion, Hundred Fan Building, etc. Born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province in 1962, he is currently the director, professor and master's tutor of the Calligraphy Department of the Academy of Fine Arts of East China Normal University, the director of the China Calligraphy Association, the vice chairman of the Shanghai Calligraphy Association, the member of the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the director of the Xiling Seal Society, the researcher of the China Seal Carving Art Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts, the part-time professor of Wenzhou University, and the librarian of the Wenzhou Research Museum of Culture and History. His works have participated in various professional exhibitions across the country for more than 100 times and won many awards, including "Zhang Suo Yin Anthology", "Holding Jingji", "The Beauty Calendar of Chinese Characters", "Shanghai School Representative Seal Carvers Series Collection: Ma Gongyu", "Boshui Zhai Shuhan Selection", "Chinese Seal Carving Treasures: Fang Jiekan" and so on. He has won the title of "Virtue and Art Shuangxin" calligrapher of the China Calligraphy Association and the "Calligraphy Education Award" of the Shanghai Calligraphy Association.
Looking forward to the upgrading of the discipline of calligraphy
Zhang SuoSome time ago, the Office of the Academic Degree Committee issued the "Letter on Soliciting Opinions on the Catalogue of Disciplines and Majors for the Conferment of Doctoral and Master's Degrees and Personnel Training and Their Management Measures", which listed calligraphy and art as a first-level discipline, which caused strong repercussions in the society, and the teachers engaged in calligraphy teaching were encouraged and highly valued.
The upgrade of calligraphy to a first-level discipline has brought a lot of thinking to the current calligraphy education.
In the process of historical development, calligraphy itself embodies the comprehensive quality of the writer. For a good calligrapher, it is not only necessary to have a solid pen foundation, but also to involve a series of issues, such as the content of writing, the object of receiving, the function of writing, etc., all related to calligraphy. The core of calligraphy is to create with the help of Chinese characters, so it must be expressed in Chinese characters, which can be poems or literary fu. Today, when we observe and analyze Chinese calligraphy, we can see that it contains a very rich content and has formed a complete system. The traditional Chinese "six arts" are classified as ritual, music, archery, royalty, calligraphy, and mathematics, among which "calligraphy" is the predecessor of calligraphy, and it can also be said to be a very important basic discipline, with a clear research object, and has long formed a relatively independent and self-contained theory.
Calligraphy takes words as the carrier, the text is literary, the literature is historical, and the history is developmental, so in addition to the brush, structure, and chapter, calligraphy itself also contains a deeper cultural connotation, attaches importance to cultural inheritance, and the literary value of the written content, which cannot be covered by the field of fine arts. Fine arts emphasizes more on art, at the visual level, focusing on techniques and creativity. There is a big difference between the two. If calligraphy is regarded as a second-level major in fine arts, I think that calligraphy may become a superficial technique and lose its unique cultural identity.
If calligraphy is classified into the discipline of literature, although calligraphy itself has literary components, it also has visual aesthetic needs and unique artistic expressions, so calligraphy can only be independent from the discipline classification to highlight its particularity. Nowadays, the development of calligraphy in the context of fine arts has caused many embarrassments, and the failure to become a first-class discipline is the fundamental reason.
The author believes that this will be of great benefit to the development of calligraphy, and the understanding of calligraphy creators in the text, history, and calligraphy "technology" and "Tao" will be comprehensively improved, which will better promote the self-confidence of national culture, the spread of aesthetic education, and the effective implementation of traditional culture.
Calligraphy and fine arts are placed side by side as a first-level discipline, which can solve several problems:
First, the relationship between calligraphy and ancient Chinese characters. The object of calligraphy is Chinese characters, and the study of the origin and development of Chinese characters is an indispensable link. The creation and development of Chinese characters has always followed the theory of "six books", that is, pictograms, signifiers, huiyi, shapes, sounds, pretenses, and transfers, which is an ideographic system. In the process of creation, Chinese characters fully express the most simple aesthetic ideas of our ancestors, such as balance, symmetry, stability, etc. in the use of glyphs, which have been common in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Shang period in China. Therefore, the Chinese method of making characters has its own independent system and is irreplaceable, and such beautiful characters have also brought aesthetic inspiration to people. From this point of view, the artistry and visual aesthetics of Chinese characters are their main characteristics, so there is a saying that "calligraphy and painting have the same origin", which is also the uniqueness of calligraphy art.
Secondly, calligraphy expresses its cultural and artistic connotations through calligraphy, such as seal, li, zhen, xing, and cursive. There is a close relationship between the various types of calligraphy, which involves the development and evolution of Chinese character writing. At present, from the perspective of book classification, various book styles have different social functions and different recipients. Therefore, in addition to the specific concepts of orthodox and vulgar style and "seal, affiliation, truth, line, and grass", the author uses the Confucian idea of "respect" to analyze the relationship between "Tao" and "technique" in Chinese calligraphy, puts forward the writing classification theory of "respectful book" and "convenient body book", interprets the various handwritings preserved in Chinese dynasties, and reveals that oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, epitaphs, temple plaques, scripture transcriptions, and calligraphy and painting introductions are all used in such factors as writing content, recipients, ancient etiquette, customs and Xi, and writing psychology"Respecting the book" embodies the idea of "respecting the book to carry the Tao";On the other hand, private notes or correspondence are written in "handy style", and cursive writing is mostly used. The classification system of "Jingtishu" and "Bentishu" is of certain guiding significance for understanding the cultural and artistic nature of ancient "calligraphy" and calligraphy, as well as the creation of contemporary calligraphy.
Thirdly, the written content in the creation of calligraphy is literary, and the written content makes the creator's state of mind completely different. For example, when copying Buddhist scriptures, the writer will have "respect" in his heart, and when he writes letters to friends, he will have a certain degree of randomness. Recently, East China Normal University and Shanghai Calligraphy Association jointly organized the "Yuanlei Cup" Shanghai University Teachers and Students Couplet Calligraphy Exhibition, the cultural significance of this exhibition is to advocate the originality of the current calligraphy texts, which is also rare in the current group exhibition. Taking the couplet's self-writing as the starting point, it provides a useful reference for the future creative direction of calligraphy art, and makes an effective attempt for various calligraphy exhibitions and creators to continuously strengthen the importance of original texts and create a good atmosphere of self-writing.
After calligraphy becomes a first-level discipline, the academic community should reflect on the understanding and knowledge reserve of the special cultural nature of calligraphy. Calligraphy was a necessary skill for ancient literati, especially in the imperial examination era, and scholars and scholars nourished this skill through learning, and "good clerical skills" was the norm for the ancients. The "text" here contains the embodiment of the cultivation of "scriptures, history, children, and collections", which is the embodiment of "Tao".
At present, calligraphy, as a discipline, has its rationality in the new context. We are also actively practicing the construction and exploration of the discipline of calligraphy. Since its establishment in 2014, the calligraphy and seal carving major of East China Normal University has always adhered to the effective implementation of traditional Chinese culture in calligraphy education. Bold exploration attempts have been made in curriculum setting, training methods, training objectives, etc., and certain results have been obtained. Although our calligraphy and seal carving major is a second-level discipline under the fine arts, we have always explored and tried in accordance with the standards of the first-level discipline, made use of the professional advantages of the comprehensive colleges and universities of East China Normal University, opened up the school, invited famous teachers, implemented the intersection of disciplines, and opened unique professional courses of East China Normal University. In addition to the basic calligraphy and seal carving techniques and calligraphy seal carving history courses, there are also courses such as "Guide to Classic Inscriptions", "Poetry Inscriptions", "The Source of Radicals", "Guide to Shang and Zhou Jinwen", "Guide to Classic Calligraphy", "Diary and Book Instrument", "Literature Collation" and other courses. The course "Introduction to Classical Inscriptions" mainly solves two problems in students' calligraphy Xi: one is ancient Chinese and the other is the knowledge of classical inscriptions. The courses "Introduction to the Jin Wen of Shang and Zhou" and "The Source of Shuo Wen Radicals" solve the problem of the origin of Chinese characters. These courses have little to do with fine arts, but they are closely related to calligraphy, and are more inclined to literature and history. The author believes that it is not important that the calligraphy major is set in the Academy of Fine Arts, the Faculty of Letters, the Faculty of History, etc., but the important thing is the setting of Chinese and history courses in the calligraphy discipline, just as the Faculty of Physics has mathematics courses.
In addition, the artistry and culture of calligraphy need to go further, with the revival of Chinese culture and cultural self-confidence, in calligraphy, we need to regain the traditional classics, establish a set of discipline standards suitable for their own development, and establish their own unique evaluation system. In this way, calligraphy as a first-level discipline is more meaningful and promising.
Zhang SuoThe book "Dong Qichang Linhuai Su True Works".
Zhang SuoThe seal book self-wrote "Song Yan Chulan" seven words to choose one.
Zhang SuoPro "Qin Zhao Edition" banner.
Zhang SuoKang Lok Yongjia.
Specification 25cm×2.5cm
Zhang SuoStone Journalists.
Specification 27cm×2.7cm