In the winter of the Chinese New Year, the sky in Beijing was clear and blue, and I was fortunate to participate in the "China Calligraphy Association 2023 News and Propaganda Work Seminar" with dozens of calligraphy news and propaganda workers from all over the country for a four-day systematic study. The organizers carefully arrange experts and professors to teach, and every day the course is full, like a sumptuous meal presented in front of us, sitting in the classroom, the sun shines through the glass window, and it feels extraordinarily warm.
The courses taught in the seminar include political theory, commentary closely related to practice, as well as analysis of calligraphy creation, literature, history and philosophy, etc., which have increased the students' knowledge, broadened their horizons, and benefited a lot. The four-day training was a cultural immersion and a spiritual baptism, which made me further clarify my work responsibilities and creative direction as a literary and artistic worker in the new era, and I felt a great responsibility and a glorious mission.
There is a cloud in Wen Tianxiang's "Song of Righteousness": "It is majestic and majestic, and it is fierce and eternal." "I think the most important thing is righteousness. "The lower ones are the river mountains, and the upper ones are the sun stars. Yu people say Haoran, Peihu is full of darkness", poetry and books have righteousness, and they are full of paper and bones. In "Appreciation of Modern Poetry", Wen Tianxiang only used eight words - there are not many words, and the style is awe-inspiring. The style and backbone of the Duke of Wen stand up to the sky, "not bending down, with a proud bone around the waist" is a precious discipline of Chinese literati, and it is also the real charm of scholars. The more depressed and heavy the world, the more unwilling to bow down, and keeping righteousness is the first thing contemporary calligraphers must abide by.
Righteousness is the foundation of the national spirit, the soul of a country and a nation, and the essence of a nation's culture.
The Yellow Emperor's Neijing said: "Righteousness is stored in the body, and evil cannot be done." "When the overall calligraphy skills are roughly the same, the charm of calligraphy is determined by the temperament, temperament, self-cultivation, wisdom, experience, etc. of the calligrapher, but what must always be adhered to is to keep the heart and single-mindedness, as the so-called: the righteousness is insufficient, and the evil spirit invades. Liu Gongquan said that "with the pen in the heart, the heart is upright", the life is the same as writing, to be upright, upright, upright, upright, can be understood as the modern "positive energy". Calligraphy embodies not only the writing skills, but also the bearing of culture and history, and the breath presented is the unity of the character and the person, the word is like the person, the person is like the word, and the consistency of the person and the calligraphy can reflect the author's spiritual outlook and value orientation.
The qi that overflows calligraphy is inseparable from the aura. Reiki is the spirit of ease, and it is to create an unprecedented world with a poetic pen. I often wonder, how many thousand years has been brewing in this world, and how much effort has the sun and moon poured into it to give birth to characters like Zhong Yuanchang, Wang Yishao, Li Qinglian, Yan Lugong, Su Zizhan, and Huang Gu in the world? What is genius? "The sky is high, green and endless, Kun touches the huge sea, and the waves are furious", they are like a hurricane, a burst of thunder, bringing earth-shattering divine power, conquering history with a deterrent force, passing through the past and the present, so that the people of later generations hold their breath and are obsessed.
Dong Shi Xiaofeng, Handan toddler, conservative and rigid copying is the imprisonment of art. Calligraphy is alive, good calligraphy will chant itself, fly into people's hearts with ups and downs, share joys and sorrows with the author, and echo what is desired. Writing calligraphy without aura is a great sorrow for the calligrapher.
Of course, there should also be a strong spirit, which is more like a stormy attack, a kind of heroic spirit. I don't want to see the anguish of the late Tang Dynasty, nor do I want to see the sorrow of Song Ci locked in the deep courtyard of the small building, and I don't want to see the miserable picture of the death of the Northern Song Dynasty, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty. What is Qi? It is the realm, the temperament, the passion and impulse of writing, and the deep still water that flows straight down.
I often think that the study of books does not have to focus on form, but more important is a spirit that permeates it, a force that makes people have to be convinced. Qi is the muscles and bones, is the magnificence of swallowing the world, in the technique is rising, I think, the book I think, the heart is to be done, when to hold the simple and humble for the true, at that time, there are eternal, even if there are eight wilderness, indulge in the universe, is for the "calligraphy vertical and horizontal".
Calligraphy also needs to be tacky. The basis of calligraphy is the writing technique, and the "technique of calligraphy" requires that calligraphy should reach the level of being able to express cultural concepts and artistic realms. Mr. Dongpo said: "The method of writing words, shallow knowledge, narrow vision, and insufficient learning, the three can not be perfect, and I have the heart, eyes, and hands." It is not difficult to see that calligraphy is first and foremost a presentation of "shape", and even if you don't know a word, you will be attracted by the beauty of calligraphy and bring people pleasant enjoyment. However, there are many kinds of beauty, such as immaturity and beauty, elegance and exaggeration, rigidity and rigour, relaxation and casualness, simplicity and turbidity, dense and stacking, rushing and sparseness, etc., the forms are different and similar, one beautiful and one ugly are different, and it is difficult to distinguish the difference between the works without a certain aesthetic ability.
With the rapid development of social economy, people's demand for culture is becoming more and more vigorous, on the one hand, the national aesthetics need to be further improved, on the other hand, "all kinds of immortals" have appeared, among which there are many professional calligraphers who act perfunctorily for entertainment. Under this premise, the de-vulgarity of the work and the aesthetic enhancement of calligraphy become particularly important. Mr. Zhang Xuguang once emphasized that the customs of calligraphy are divided into vulgar, vulgar, vulgar and vulgar. "If you don't understand the ancient law, don't learn the ancient law, vainly take a small favor, and make it up as a book, the result will inevitably be a violent, evil spirit. Summarizing it, it can be concluded that the post is not deep, or in a hurry, losing the ancient law, there is no chapter, penmanship, and naturally there is no aesthetic at all. It is the responsibility of calligraphers to oppose vulgar calligraphy, and it is also a matter of urgency. Calligraphy
Only by deeply cultivating the book field and constantly improving the level of creation and knowledge can the calligraphers truly inherit the classics and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture. This requires the extensive participation of calligraphers in the whole society, and the need for calligraphy organizations and education departments to strengthen the correct guidance of calligraphy art and the popularization of calligraphy art, so as to improve the aesthetic awareness and appreciation ability of the whole people.
Learning is more expensive than ever. "The new era has arrived, as an ordinary literary and art worker and calligraphy lover, I have been on the front line of literary and artistic propaganda work, with a unique learning advantage, I know that the value of learning lies in the continuous pursuit of progress and innovation. The improvement of personal cultivation cannot rely on "talking about one's heart" to seek comfort, but more importantly, in addition to words, daily deeds. Whether in the work or in the study and creation of calligraphy, only by combining theory and practice, constantly updating and self-improvement, can we achieve the expected goals, and only in this way can we have the energy to influence others and make progress together with the people around us. (The picture is written by Quan Zhaohui).