Fifteen Lectures on Chinese Calligraphy, by Fang Jianxun, Peking University Press.
Chinese calligraphy has always been an elite art, which is based on the daily writing of ancient literati and carries the rich spiritual life and emotional experience of traditional scholars. Chinese calligraphy is an important part of traditional culture and art, and it is also an important resource for building cultural self-confidence in the new era. So, how to connect the elegant art of calligraphy with the "local atmosphere", so that ordinary people can correctly enter the door of calligraphy, and draw the nutrients of cultural self-confidence from it? Recently, Fang Jianxun, a researcher at the Calligraphy Education and Research Center of Peking University, published a new book "Fifteen Lectures on Chinese Calligraphy", which is an excellent introduction to calligraphy.
The book is compiled from a lecture on a calligraphy course given to undergraduates by Fang Jianxun at Peking University. This general education course is open to students of all majors in the school, which determines that it must be easy to understand. It is extremely difficult to explain the obscure aesthetic theories and esoteric brushwork skills in a straightforward and easy way, which not only tests the author's theoretical and practical skills, but also tests the author's language expression ability. A good calligrapher is not necessarily a good teacher. Fang Jianxun has both a theoretical background in aesthetics and a practical background in calligraphy, and is also the general teaching director of the Peking University Alumni Calligraphy and Painting Association. Zhu Liangzhi commented: "He can explain the personal experience and skills that ordinary theoretical research scholars cannot clearly explain, and he can also explain the aesthetic concepts and theories that ordinary scholars cannot clarify. "After reading through, the most important feature of the book is that it is simple to understand, clear and transparent, and the complex theoretical problems are made simple through metonymy or visualization. The following is a review from three aspects.
Form and God. The relationship between form and God is a classic theoretical issue in traditional art. "Shape" refers to the shape and quality of the structure, and "Shen" refers to the spirit and charm. The so-called "wonderful way of the book, the spirit is the first, the form and quality are secondary" (the king of the Southern Dynasty). The Tang people also have a similar saying: "Those who know books well only see the brilliance, but do not see the glyphs." There is also a view of "writing gods in form" (Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty) in his paintings. The so-called "easy to wave the five strings, and the eyes to return to the difficulty", the specific form and structure are easy to present, but the expression and charm often make it difficult for people to write. Fang Jianxun strives to tell these invisible and unspeakable "secrets" as much as possible. The book devotes a section to "God and Qi" to answer the question of how to see the spirit. First of all, he implemented the spirit to the three specific shape and quality levels of "pen power", "structure" and "ink", and pointed out that the use of the pen should have rhythm and force point; The structure should be coordinated, following the principle of "eight-sided arch"; The use of ink should be black and moist, and "light ink" is easy to hurt the spirit. If you can do all three, it will "be of great help to your spirits." He pointed out that the brilliance of calligraphy has two meanings, "one is the universal brilliance, and the other is the individualized brilliance". Commonality belongs to the characteristics of the object of the work, while individuality refers to the author's subject. "The value of calligraphy lies not only in the common charm, but also in the unique spiritual temperament of the calligrapher. The so-called "spiritual temperament" includes the author's personality, emotion, realm, style, etc. Personality and emotion are generally only differences, regardless of high and low, but the realm and style are not only differences, but also high and low. This not only opens a differentiated path for calligraphy, but also points out a path of continuous exploration and improvement for the advancement of calligraphy.
Pro & Create. The relationship between prominence and creation is a common problem in the process of learning calligraphy. Copying is the only way for us to learn calligraphy. Anyone who has ever studied calligraphy may be able to understand that after studying calligraphy for a period of time, there is still some appearance in front of the template, but once you break away from the template and try to create, you will write a "free body" without rules. For this phenomenon, it is usually said that it is not like it, just more than it, and when the time comes, you will naturally be able to write your own style. People often understand copying and creation as the relationship between quantitative change and qualitative change, and there is no self at the beginning, as if only one day when the time comes, there will suddenly be a self. In the face of the template, we put aside our own personality and try our best to simulate and reproduce the shape of the template, and we can't miss every turn and corner of the details. Fang Jianxun pointed out that these are actually a misunderstanding of the temporary post.
The first thing to think about is how and what to copy? The author believes that the core of calligraphy techniques is brushwork, which is not only a ready-made form, but also includes the movement of the brush. "Pro post, is to try to restore the penmanship and pen movement process of the template, rather than taking the shape as the core." He quoted a metaphor from the great calligrapher Xu Wei: "The hand has the shape of a bird flying out of the forest, and the book has the shadow of a bird flying out of the forest." "First there is the "shape" of the pen movement, and then there is a "shadow" of handwriting. If you are limited to the "shadow" of handwriting, you will know it but not know why it is. Regarding the role of the Fati, in order to make it easier to understand, he gave an example of guqin notation, the guqin notation is called "minus character notation", which is actually a fingering notation, unlike the Western stave, which is a phonetic notation. The "minus notation" has no rhythm or pitch, and only provides fingering, which leaves a lot of room for the player to play freely. The same is true for calligraphy posts, which are like a "spectrum", but only provide information that can be used to figure out the "movement of the pen", through which we can "think about the time of wielding". In this process, there are certain differences in understanding and individual differences in writing habits, but this difference is not to be eliminated, but it is precisely the most valuable point, which is based on our unique life experience.
The so-called creation and innovation is to take care of such individual differences, cultivate them into a conscious sense of writing, and then form their own unique aesthetics and writing style in practice. Xu Wei said that "copying and sending direct rejoicing" means that the "self" between the presence and creation is always consistent and unbroken. The difference is only that the "self" is in a different state of subtlety and manifestation.
People & Books. The relationship between people and books can be said to be the ultimate proposition in Chinese calligraphy. Sun Guoting's "Book Pedigree" said that "when the meeting is held, everyone is old". Liu Xizai said in "Book Overview": "Books, such as." Such as its learning, such as its talent, such as its ambition, in short, just like its person. This is the most famous expression of "books are like people". What is the relationship between people and books, and how does it come about? This is a very difficult theoretical question, and it is very difficult to explain it in simple and straightforward terms.
Fang Jianxun used "brilliance" to tie the relationship between cave people and books. As we mentioned earlier, the brilliance of calligraphy consists of two parts, one is the formal object and the other is the writing subject. Appreciating calligraphy is based on form, but the final point is the spirit – "rooted in the personality of the person who writes it". The establishment of a calligraphy style, the stronger the style, the more it needs a lonely spirit - its unique life experience and feeling, such as Xu Wei, Jin Nong, Zheng Banqiao, etc. In turn, it is these strong styles of writing that make these authors with distinct personalities. The relationship between people and books is not a one-way personality that determines the style of the book, or the style of the book determines the personality, but a relationship that is open to each other, activates each other, and generates together.
The personality of the subject cannot be missing in calligraphy. Fang Jianxun pointed out that individuality is not the ultimate goal of calligraphy, and calligraphy should also be committed to the pursuit of realm. Calligraphy is influenced by the subject's emotions or emotions, but there are also some calligraphy that seems to be outside of "human feelings" and takes the type of "taking the sky from the people". For example, the calligraphy of Bada Shanren and Master Hongyi seems to have cleansed the power of emotion and entered the realm of heaven and man in the unity of man and calligraphy. "Scholar, scattered. If you want to write a book, you must first scatter your arms" (Cai Yong), which is a kind of life cultivation kung fu, which is to remove the "barrier", "dust" or "habit" that covers one's own mind, so as to restore the original authenticity of people. It is in this sense that we say that calligraphy can be used as a way of practice, through the study of calligraphy, to improve our state of life.
Author: Zhou Min, associate professor at the School of Fine Arts, Jiangxi Normal University