Luoyang, a famous historical and cultural city, has a profound historical accumulation of calligraphy, and the Wei tablet boutique "Longmen Twenty Products" comes from Luoyang Longmen Grottoes.
In the golden autumn of 2023, the "Inheritance and Development - The First International Calligraphy Carnival" activity week was held at the Yanshi Zhanghai Calligraphy Art Museum in Luoyang. Mr. Zhang Hai is a famous Chinese calligrapher and the honorary chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association. At the age of eighty, he describes himself as "a young higher calligraphy educator, a senior calligraphy organizer, and a calligraphy practitioner who follows him like a shadow". He planned and held the "International Calligraphy Carnival Week", which built a platform for Chinese and foreign calligraphers to exchange and display, and also allowed more young people to get close to calligraphy, understand calligraphy and fall in love with calligraphy.
The first International Calligraphy Carnival opened in the drizzle. In the crowd, the white hair of Zhang Hai, the initiator of the event and calligrapher, was particularly eye-catching. After the opening ceremony, 216 Chinese and foreign calligraphers jointly wrote the Weibei classic "Twenty Products of Longmen". The calligraphers wore raincoats and wrote in the rain, like colorful flowers on the field of calligraphy.
During the calligraphy carnival, 9 Chinese and foreign calligraphy masters held solo exhibitions of their works, and 4 special exhibitions were launched at the same time. At the same time, 13 calligraphy activities at different levels and in various forms brought together many professional calligraphers, theorists and calligraphy enthusiasts, not only building a platform for in-depth communication and exchange between Chinese and foreign calligraphers, but also providing a wonderful calligraphy feast for the majority of calligraphy lovers.
Sun Xiaoyun, Chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association: Mr. Zhang Hai is a calligrapher who we respect and admire very much, and came out of Yanshi. During his ten-year tenure as the chairman of the Chinese Calligraphy Association, he has done a lot of work in promoting traditional Chinese calligraphy, popularizing calligraphy and educating calligraphy. Holding this very meaningful event is also a new starting point, which is the pride of Yanshi, the pride of Henan, and the pride of Chinese calligraphy.
Zhang Hai, calligrapher and honorary chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association: Why do you combine ancient calligraphy with carnivals?The development of an art must be both inherited and developed. How to develop it?It is up to young people to make new ideas about things that were limited to exhibitions in the past.
ZHANG Hai: This is an epitaph rubbing from the Song Dynasty. If primary school students are taught to come into contact with this rubbing, it will be difficult for them to accept it from both calligraphy and the content of the text.
ZHANG Hai: These words are the three words "backgammon" I wrote, which are engraved on the stone tablet, and then the parents take the children to learn to expand. From the new rubbing, teach the little ones to know the old rubbing. When the old rubbings told him, they said that when people learn calligraphy nowadays, they all start from the old rubbings. In this way, the child will be interested.
Interest is the best teacher, and Zhang Hai has a deep understanding of this. Zhang Hai was born in Luoyang Yanshi. Luoyang is the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties and is known as "the earliest China". There is the world-famous Longmen Grottoes, which is the birthplace of the Wei tablet classic "Longmen Twenty Products". There are countless tombs of princes and nobles in the mountains here, and ancient stone epitaphs can be seen everywhere. Zhang Hai has been immersed in the strong atmosphere of calligraphy art since he was a child.
ZHANG Hai: When I was a child, I liked calligraphy, and my homeroom teacher wrote better. I thought to myself, can I also write like this as a homeroom teacher?So when the head teacher writes, he compares the drawings at the bottom.
When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, there was a young intellectuals who had to give a presentation at school. The teacher asked Zhang Hai to write a welcome slogan, so for the first time, his writing was hung in the most conspicuous place in and out of school.
ZHANG Hai: There happens to be a well at the school gate, and when the people around you want water, they have to go to the well in front of the school to fetch water. When I got there, there were so many slogans, saying who wrote this?At that time, he was famous in school. Later, when I came to junior high school and high school, I never stopped. That's why I said that interest is an inexhaustible motivation, and I stuck with it.
The new Zhang Hai Calligraphy Art Museum, adjacent to his high school alma mater, Yanshi High School, is also the venue for the International Calligraphy Carnival. Zhang Hai hopes that the young students will be inspired by the art of calligraphy from an early age. During the carnival, Zhang Hai wanted to interact with the students whenever he had time.
ZHANG Hai: It was a speech contest for elementary and junior high school students, "My Calligraphy Story", and when I wanted to listen to their speeches, a group of students came out. During the break, the students said tell us your calligraphy story. I told them the story of calligraphy between me and Mr. Fei.
Fei Xinme is a famous painter in my country. When he was in his fifties, his right hand was disabled due to illness, so he changed to his left hand to practice calligraphy, and eventually became a master of calligraphy. In 1976, Zhang Hai prepared a collection of works by national calligraphers, and wanted to ask Fei Xinme, who he had never met, to inscribe the title of the book. He tried to send a letter, and soon received a reply from Fei Lao and two bookmarks inscribed by him, which was also the first of nearly 300 letters written by Fei Lao to Zhang Hai in the following ten years.
ZHANG Hai: The old gentleman who has never met him quickly sent you letters, one in traditional Chinese and the other in simplified Chinese. It also says in the letter, if you don't think it's appropriate, I'll write it to you again. I think this old gentleman can be accompanied.
In 1978, Zhang Hai, who was working at the Anyang Mass Art Museum, invited Fei Xinme to give a lecture in Anyang. This was his first meeting with Fei Lao. During more than 20 days of getting along, Zhang Hai and Fei Xinme established a deep friendship of being both teachers and friends.
ZHANG HaiHe was 76 and I was 38. Watching him write, I said I'll stamp you, and he said okay, you can stamp me. When he was stamped, he stood up and said, no, Zhang Hai can't do it, no. When he demonstrates, he lays the ink and then stamps it very hard. He is to thoroughly eat the ink and eat it into the paper. There are many details that should be learned from the old scholars.
In 1986, Zhang Hai participated in the "Mohai Tide Exhibition" held by 15 young and middle-aged calligraphers in Henan Province at the National Art Museum of China, and the exhibition received a great response. Knowing that someone commented on Zhang Hai's work "Doing a Living Show", Fei Lao specially wrote a sincere letter to Zhang Hai.
ZHANG Hai: In fact, my calligraphy is more than chic, but not simple. In the letter he wrote to me, he said that he might have been influenced by it.
ZHANG Hai: Later, I wrote a "two-character teacher". Although he has never bowed to his teacher, he has been treated as his teacher in his heart and throughout his life.
The word comes from the book. The first International Calligraphy Carnival specially arranged a speech contest "My Calligraphy Story" for primary and secondary school students, and Zhang Hai hoped that young people could gain more insights into their lives in the process of learning calligraphy.
Zhang Hai saw a **, a group of kindergarten children lined up to visit the Zhang Hai Calligraphy Art Museum. He was relieved that the aftermath of the Calligraphy Carnival was being felt.
ZHANG Hai: How to make the calligraphy business more prosperous and developed, (I) am aware of my own responsibilities and the responsibilities of calligraphers. How to climb from the plateau to the peak is a historical mission and responsibility.
Climbing the peak of calligraphy art, inheriting and developing the art of calligraphy is Mr. Zhang Hai's life mission. Recently, he has put in a new creative process and plans to launch an exhibition of his new works after the age of 80 next year. We look forward to seeing Mr. Zhang Hai's new works to the audience as soon as possible