Mr. Lu Xun said that chinese characters "have three beauty: meaning beauty with the heart, one also; sound beauty with the sense of the ear, two also; shape and beauty with the sense of the eye, three also." Mr. Lu Xun pointed out that meaning, sound and shape are respectively influenced by the art of calligraphy, and the readability and structure of the text illustrate the beauty of calligraphy. As a calligraphic work, structure is its life. How to plan the layout of the article to pursue an artistic beauty has become the direction of the calligraphers' efforts. The Orchid Pavilion Preface, which has a supreme position in the history of Chinese calligraphy, has been poured into countless calligraphy enthusiasts for thousands of years. Ming Dong Qichang once said that the Jin people take rhymes. There are also some critics, who have roughly the same views as Dong Qichang, all focus on rhyme, interpreting Wang Xizhi's calligraphy from the perspective of Shen Yunmei, especially the Orchid Pavilion Preface. Shen Yunmei is only one aspect of the art of calligraphy, and it does not explain the whole of the art of calligraphy. This article attempts to use another way to interpret Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Preface within a structuralist theoretical framework.
It is necessary to understand structuralism. Structuralism arose in France in the 1960s and was influenced by Saussure's theory of linguistics, Russian formalism, and the Prague School. The main point is that, in the structuralist view, the world is made up of relationships rather than things. The relationships between things are structures. According to structuralist elaboration, a calligraphic work is like a world, which is composed of each Chinese character that makes up the work. The writing of each Chinese character is important, but as a valuable calligraphy work, it requires a harmony of the entire structure of the work. This article mainly analyzes the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" from the following aspects, including the unity of the writing of characters and the structure of the whole text, the embodiment of the charm of the work, and the unity of the form god and the calligrapher's own cultivation. In order to better grasp the art of calligraphy embodied in the Orchid Pavilion Preface.
First, the writing of words and the unity of the entire structure
Calligraphy is a unique art that is closely integrated with writing. The art of calligraphy was born at the beginning of the creation of writing. Therefore, writing is an indispensable component of calligraphy, so the writing of characters has been the top priority of calligraphers in the study of calligraphy throughout the ages. When we stand outside of calligraphy, it is not difficult to find that many people write well, but they can't write good works. This involves the problem of the unity of the writing of one word and the structure of the entire work.
Savoring the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", I had to be amazed at its brilliance. The Preface to Lanting is a manuscript written in March of the ninth year of Jin Yonghe (353 AD) when Wang Xizhi and his friends had sex and waved a letter at a meeting of literature and wine in Lanting, Shanyin (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang). Writing and situation are born together, and talents are combined with calligraphy. The twenty "zhi" characters in the chapter have their own postures, and there is no similarity in the writing style, and the structure of the chapter, which is loose before and tight after, is everywhere revealing the Jin people's charm of "not agitated and not strong, but the wind rules are far away". The exquisite brushwork of each character and the kitsch of the layout of the entire work, although the text has left many ink marks between the lines, but it does not diminish its subtlety in the slightest. This is the advantage of the unity of the writing of the word and the structure of the whole text. It is the word that has no adjudicated word, and the emphasis is on the harmony of the overall structure. Wang Xizhi also mentioned in his treatise that it is a word, and the number is embodied. If you make a book of paper, you must have different meanings, and do not make them the same. This is Mr. Wang Lao's incisive insight into words. As for the structural aspect, Mr. Wang Lao said that it is particularly difficult to divide the white space, go up and down, and its system, and the size is particularly difficult. Large characters promote the precious and small, small characters are wide and expensive, and the natural width and narrowness are appropriate. Horizontal is straight, such as the horizontal river of the lonely boat, vertical is straight, if the spring shoots of the cold valley.
Mr. Wang Lao, who was far away in the Jin Dynasty, had a similar view of calligraphy to French structuralism. Structuralism says that the relationship between things is structure. As early as the Jin Dynasty, Mr. Wang Lao put forward the structural view of "equalizing the upper and lower levels and equalizing the qi system". When writing calligraphy, we must pay attention to the layout of the chapter and handle the relationship between the words in the article. It was also under this guiding ideology that Mr. Wang Lao wrote the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", which has a supreme position in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
Second, the embodiment of the charm of the work
Shen Yun is the soul of the art of calligraphy. The ancients called it "God", "Radiance", "Divine Qi", "Spirit", and so on. The Southern Dynasty calligrapher Wang Shengqian said: "The wonderful way of books, the spirit is the supreme." It is about the value of Shen Yun in the embodiment of the work. As we discussed earlier, as a successful calligraphy work, the unity of the writing of the characters and the structure of the whole piece is indispensable, but this alone is not enough. Standing outside the work, we can see that if a calligraphy work only achieves the unity of a word writing and the entire structure, but on the whole there is less of a charm running through it, then this work can only be regarded as a study work, far from being called calligraphy art.
The creation of shen yun in the works is determined by the calligrapher's thoughts and feelings, aesthetic tastes, aesthetic thoughts and his feelings about beauty in real life. It is said that the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is a masterpiece of Mr. Wang Lao's drunkenness. After he woke up drunk, when he wrote according to the Orchid Pavilion Preface, he could not reach the state of that time. This cannot but be said to be the embodiment of a kind of charm. Mr. Wang Lao is undoubtedly a calligrapher with rich feelings and soft temperament. From the Orchid Pavilion Preface, we see a peaceful and natural beauty. The softness and smoothness of the pen makes the viewer feel as if he is in the field of spring when the wind and the sun are warm, which is an indescribable comfort. How does this beauty come about in the work?
The knowledge of aesthetics tells us that what is harmonious is beauty. The unity of the writing of the characters and the structure of the whole passage is the structural harmony of the Orchid Pavilion Preface. This diverse and unified harmony directly brings the viewer the enjoyment of visual beauty. In the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", the twenty "zigzags" have their own postures, and none of them are written in the same way, but they always have the same tone, that is, soft and gentle. Mr. Wang uses a pen, there are many changes, but there is no slightest performance of thinness and stiffness. The structure of the work is slow and tight, and the viewer is presented with a sense of rhythm and rhythm. Structuralism tells us that the relationships between things are structures. As a kind of charm, it runs through the entire calligraphy work, and it is also a relationship in the relationship, just like the blood vessels are all over every place in the work. The beauty of shen yun in the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is manifested through the diversification of the writing of the characters in the work and the harmony of the entire layout.
Third, the unity of the form god and the calligrapher's own cultivation
Shape refers to the overall impression given by a calligraphic work; god refers to the charm contained in the work. As we discussed earlier, these two are indispensable components of a calligraphic work. But the root cause is inseparable from the calligrapher's own cultivation. In the big structure of calligraphy works, they are not two things that can be separated, they are the key to the calligraphy work that can become the art of calligraphy, and the relationship that can best reflect the value of a calligraphy work in the work is irreplaceable. Only when this relationship is harmonious can the structure of a calligraphic work be considered complete.
The Yuan Dynasty calligrapher Zhao Mengfu made this comment on the relationship between character style and personality in "Knowing Wang Xizhi": "Books, heart paintings, under the hundred worlds, look at his brushwork is the peak, and his wrist strength is strong, that is, with his character" (qi, referring to Wang Xizhi). What is expounded is that Wang Xi's character is extremely high, his handling of affairs is upright, and his style of writing is naturally beyond the reach of ordinary people. It is difficult to imagine a person who behaves obscenely, but can write a masterpiece. Even if the words are well written, they are only words. Although the calligraphy of Qin Juniper and Cai Jing is really not bad, what is left for posterity is only the face of a traitor and a thief.
The calligrapher's own cultivation includes knowledge cultivation and personality cultivation. Only those who have cultivated knowledge and lack personality cultivation will never be able to write masterpieces passed down from generation to generation. If there is only personality cultivation and insufficient knowledge cultivation, at most it can only be a writing instrument, which lacks a kind of foundation. Art is a social ideology that reflects life by shaping images and expressing the author's thoughts and feelings. It is not conceivable that an author who does not have a certain level of knowledge or a low sentiment can create a work of art. Since calligraphy belongs to a kind of art, it is certainly no exception. Many famous calligraphers in ancient times generally used other disciplines of Literature and Art, or used other disciplines to drive calligraphy, and their personalities were also praised by posterity, such as Wang Xizhi, Su Shi and so on.
When we use the theory of structuralism to explain the ancient masterpiece "Orchid Pavilion Preface", what is presented is not only the artistic value of the work, but also an improvement of people's aesthetic sentiments. From the above discussion, we know that calligraphy is not only to write a good word, but also to the harmony of the structural relationship of the whole text, to need a foundation to support, and to have noble sentiments of the writer himself.