There are roughly four forms of rhythm in calligraphy:
1. In a dotted line. The so-called "between a painting, change the ups and downs in the peaks; Within a point, it is very frustrating to be heroic". For example, Wong Ting-kin's cursive lines are undulating and undulating, like a rowing oar.
Second, in the combination of one-word lines. The dots and lines in the dense places are short and strong, like a rock blocking the way; The sparse dotted line stretches long and stretched, like clouds and smoke. Zhang Huaijun said: "The text is a few words to become its meaning, and the book is a word that has seen its heart", and "seeing its heart" is to see the rhythm of the writer's heart.
3. In the combination of numbers. A group of several words, made in one stroke, turns the space of the number into a line with extremely rich rhythm and rhyme.
Fourth, in the midst of the ink. Through the change of ink color, the number and interval of dipping ink make the ink color change in shade, dryness, and wetness, so as to strengthen the visual sense of rhythm and rhythm.
Huang Tingjian's treatise emphasizes "rhyme", and there is a sense of rhythm in his brushwork.
The appreciation and creation of calligraphy is originally visual, but it can arouse people's auditory enjoyment, and this phenomenon belongs to "synaesthesia" in the eyes of literary psychology, that is, the touch and likeness of various experiences. Because the objective things that are interconnected are reflected in the brain, the psychological feelings formed are also interconnected. He said: "In daily experience, sight, hearing, touch, smell, etc. can often communicate with each other, and the fields of various faculties such as eyes, ears, nose, and body can be separated without boundaries. Colors seem to have temperature, sounds seem to have images, and warmth and coldness seem to have weight. ”
The Northern Song Dynasty calligrapher Lei Jianfu has a passage that makes a true record of the experience of the sound and visual faculties on the calligrapher, he said: "Near the Yazhou, lying in the county pavilion during the day, because of the sound of the Pingqiang River waterfall, I want its waves to rush high and rush away, there is nothing to send his feelings, and when he starts to write a book, he wants to do his best to write." "The tide of the river rises, the waves roll, the rise and fall, hear its sound and think about its shape, think about its shape and move its feelings, emotion and pen fall, pen fall and sound up, at this time, the sound of the waves, water potential, pen and ink, people's hearts, become one, with the pen and ink of the dripping play of the river chapter. Jiang Kui also said: "After tasting the famous books of the ancients, all of them vibrate with dots, such as when they are lucky." "You can see the rhythm of vibration in the static dot paintings, turn static into movement, feel the rhythm, imagine the mood of writing at that time, and the rhythm of the still dot paintings is in tune with the psychological rhythm of the viewer, so that the rhythm of writing is evoked in the hearts of the viewers.
However, the rhythm of the stippling vibration is not a real sound heard by the ear, but just like the sound of the human chest, it is a kind of "sound of internal feeling". Wang Yuanqi of the Qing Dynasty said: "The sound is not incomprehensible to the painting." The sound is clear, and the rhyme of the painting is also. The quality of the music is also a frame between the paintings. The sound of the sound is like the brush and ink of the painting. He uses the harmony of various parts of the picture in the painting to explain the rhyme of the painting.
At this time, the beauty of the sound and the beauty of the spirit are not opposites, but are one. Xu Fuguan said, "Rhyme can be said to be the god of sound." Rhyme is a kind of inner spiritual beauty of people contained in the beauty of sound. In this way, the question of the English translation of the word "qiyun" is involved. If we admit that the qi in a work of art reflects the strength of the comprehensive vitality of human beings; If you admit that the rhyme in the work of art is the spiritual beauty of human nature, then, in the English translation of the word "qiyun", it should contain the words "vitality" and "rhythm", which is a kind of beauty based on rhythmic vitality, physical and spiritual life to achieve ** artistic conception, and the whole life of human beings is one with nature.
Chinese calligraphy, composed of dots, lines, and ink rhymes, is very different from Western art, which is composed of masses and colors. The Chinese calligraphy intertwined with dots and lines is vivid, its spirit is simple and profound, showing a wonderful charm and interest, and conveying the cosmic spirit, life consciousness and aesthetic ideals of the Chinese nation. The essence of this cosmic spirit, life consciousness and aesthetic ideal is the "unity of heaven and man", that is, the harmony between man and nature, and its foundation is the philosophy of life.
In fact, Chinese calligraphy is an intuitive perception of this kind of life consciousness, through the flying lines, the charm of dance, and the artistic conception of virtual and real, it constitutes a realm of spirituality, expressing the blending and interpenetration of subjective mood and objective natural scenery.