Splash ink to reward ambitions, and strive to climb the peak
- Calligrapher Cao Junping and his library of calligraphy
Text/Ding Wen
At the beginning of Gengchun, the new crown was raging, the city was closed, and the whole people fought against the epidemic.
The writing library became a refuge for Cao Junping to dispatch his worries during the epidemic period.
In the dead of night, the lamp nan case stood silently,
Holding your breath, the calligraphy is exquisitely interpreted.
Pen, ink and paper, travel through time and space between horizontal and vertical strokes, sing harmony with the ancients, and dialogue with the teacher;
The heart, with its ripples, gains strength from watching and caring for its ancestors and becomes full of contentment.
On the 43rd day after the lockdown in Wuhan, the "Cao Junping Calligraphy Library" reached the end.
16 months, 50,000 words, four drafts, with their own strength to express their adherence to traditional culture, through the writing library to spread the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, to complete the unfulfilled long-cherished wish of the mentor Wu Tiyu.
March 5, 2020, a milestone day for Cao Junping.
01 Sign the contract and take over the baton in the dark
The Xiang calligraphy master Wu Ti gave it a strict and dangerous, beautiful and dignified, simple and elegant calligraphy achievement is called by the world: "Wu Ti". Mr. Wu Tiyu embraced Pu Shouzheng, and his popular personality charm made Cao Junping sincerely admired when he was young, and he became a disciple of Wu in the winter of 1992.
In 2006, Wu Tiyu signed a font library agreement with Peking University Founder, and then due to physical reasons, he was unable to complete the writing task, which became a regret that haunted Cao Junping's heart for a long time, and a seed sprouted in his heart for the dream of realizing his dream.
From colleges and universities to cultural centers, from Chenzhou to Changsha, teaching and educating people, holding magazines and exhibitions. From university teachers to magazine editors-in-chief, to deputy directors of the Hunan Provincial Cultural Center, to being elected as the 2019 Moving Hunan Figures. Occupation, identity, honor, and aura have changed and surged in the long river of time, but Cao Junping's refinement and exploration on the road of calligraphy have never stopped.
Lin ou kai, it is very easy to fall into the regular, restrained, stereotyped TaiGe body. The European atmosphere of the knot, the dignified and steady brushwork, and the strict but elegant beauty of the law opened the door to the aesthetics of calligraphy for Cao Junping. After Shi Chengwu Tiyu, Cao Junping stored the structure of the European body and the beauty and elegance of the Wu body, and integrated the cognition, exploration and innovation of the italic body accumulated in years of teaching, journaling and exhibition into his own creation, forming a heroic, elegant and mellow, soft and rigid temperament, and becoming more and more timeless.
The long volume of "Travels in the Forbidden City" is 4 meters long, and it is a study work by Cao Junping at the request of he Huiyu, a college classmate. In October 2018, when Cao Junping went to Beijing to meet with friends, when he was presented during the banquet, the calligrapher Teng Zhanmin was greatly amazed, specially took videos and photos for the long scroll, and recommended it to the Peking University Founder Font Library team. Just 2 days later, Cao Junping received a call from Founder asking him to provide a 50-character calligraphy sample, and the other party will judge whether it can be matched into a font library according to the sample.
According to Qiu Yin, design director of Founder Font Library, the criteria for selecting words by the font library team are extremely strict, and the calligraphers selected by thousands of people must not only have high calligraphy attainments, but their personality cannot be too strong, but their recognition must be high. Cao Junping's understanding of the aesthetics of the calligraphy is both thick and round, rigid but not abrupt, not dry, and there is a kind of peaceful and inclusive beauty, which is by no means arrogant and lofty, but can be accepted by the general public, which coincides with Qiu Yin's aesthetic view.
In more than 20 years of calligraphy teaching, Cao Junping has taught 15,000 disciples, hosted the theme exhibition of calligraphy, and written a number of monographs on calligraphy, and in the feedback and interaction of students, audiences and readers, cao Junping has great confidence in the concept of keeping the right calligraphy, and Qiu Yin's recognition has strengthened his confidence in the future market of calligraphy.
On November 7, 2018, the "Cao Junping Calligraphy Library" was selected into the Peking University Founder Character Library. Upon hearing this news, Cao Junping was collecting wind at a scenic spot in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, and when he looked up, it was the inscription of Shu Tong, the calligrapher of China's earliest character library, and he couldn't help but sigh: "Master's unfinished business, which I took over the baton to complete, is really a predestined thing in the darkness!" ”
02 The Long March, a tug-of-war of physical and mental exhaustion
There is no turning back from the bow, and the ordinary life is repaired to paper.
Writing a small italics library began at the end of November 2018. Around the Spring Festival in 2019, Cao Junping consciously began to write in large letters in dense small letter writing, first, it was to change hands to play a regulatory role, and second, to warm up for the next big letter library, practice pen, and find a feel.
The first draft of the Xiaokai font library was completed in early March 2019, in addition to the more than 9,000 small letters completed, the big letter also wrote more than 2,000 words at that time. However, the large letters have never been able to achieve the ideal writing state and visual impact in Cao Junping's mind, in order to highlight the majesty and fortitude of the big letters, he resolutely overturned the previous 2,000 large letters, and from the end of March, expanded the rewriting on the basis of the original character size.
Fingers, long-term grip of the pen, capacity, the ring finger of the right hand is pressed against the deep indentation of the pen shaft, redness, inflammation, ulceration, ink seeping into the skin, emitting a crazy black, knuckles bent, deformed, resulting in permanent bone joint damage.
Knees, ten hours a day standing, all parts of the body from top to bottom, every nerve is in a high tension, muscles are sore, limbs are particularly stiff, standing for a long time the pain of the foot plate drill heart. One day in June 2019, Cao Junping wrote an all-nighter, and Fang came home from the studio near the early morning, because he was too tired, his legs were weak on the bicycle, and he fell heavily to the ground with the car, and his knees were broken and bleeding, which was very miserable.
Second draft
In order to deliver the manuscript as soon as possible, Cao Junping completely ignored the pain, gritted his teeth and insisted, and after four months of continuous combat, the second draft of the Dakai Font Library was finally completed on July 15. That day, Cao Junping put this photo in the circle of friends: Cao Junping father and son carried one shoulder and one hand, with a bright smile on their faces, striding meteors at the high-speed rail station to Beijing.
Third draft
When arriving at Founder Headquarters to deliver the manuscript, the editor-in-charge proposed to remove the large letters and re-paste them on the A4 paper one by one before scanning.
After returning to Changsha from Beijing, student Wang Meilan and her sisters undertook the post-collation of the Dakai manuscript, and Cao Junping wrote nearly 2,000 words of the flawed Dakai character library. When the finishing was completed and sent to Founder's headquarters in Beijing, it was the late autumn of 2009, a full year after the signing of the contract.
Fourth draft
As the long run of the font library came to an end, Cao Junping had higher requirements for the effect after the draft, and originally planned to rewrite a part of the small character library before the Spring Festival holiday, but Cao Junping repeatedly thought that only a small part could not achieve the effect of consistency and unification. The sudden outbreak of the epidemic made Cao Junping make up his mind to rewrite the small character library. After a month and a half of closed doors, the small italics library was finally completed on March 5, 2021.
Speaking of the four drafts, Cao Junping said: "The character library is a high degree of condensation of calligraphy art and the artistic cultivation of the writer, which must highlight the characteristics of the times and convey aesthetic concepts. After the advent of the font library, where there are Chinese, it is possible to see my words, the use experience is very important, must not be sloppy, sloppy. Many times to change the draft, the physical and mental pressure is indeed not small, but those who wear protective clothing all day long to save lives and fight in the front line of the medical staff, my little bit of skin and flesh injury is really nothing! ”
03 Finale, work together to make the dream come true
Wanzhang tall buildings rose flat on the ground, beating gongs and drums to make Jin Ming, and the hearts of their friends were touched by Cao Junping's font library. The circle of friends has become an important release window for everyone's word library process, the bittersweet and bittersweet experienced in the creation, the torment and twists and turns, the completion progress is recorded, it is concerned, and people are moved by those unforgettable moving moments:
In the face of a huge font library that is far more difficult than imagined, emotional fluctuations and inner entanglements;
Overcoming gritted teeth persistence when the workload is heavy, the body is tired, and the state is not good;
Because of the cold climate, even the ink is not obedient, resulting in poor writing and a sense of powerlessness;
Lonely long night, dry leaning on the book case, struggling to write a book, a cute cat is silently staying together, harmonious and warm;
The attentive look of the students who leaned over the pile of manuscripts to do post-finishing;
Wang Meilan, sitting in front of the bundled stack of manuscripts, the sense of accomplishment in her smile;
Sad, helpless, wandering, struggling, the screen is palpable.
......
Difficulty, overcome in ridicule, self-deprecation, and self-talk;
Tired, resolved by friends' concerned messages and greetings;
Suffering, forgotten in the sincere encouragement and support of peers;
Pain, soothed by the dawn that is close to the end, healed.
Teng Zhanmin, the recommender of the Thank You Character Library, spared no effort to run forward and backward;
The appreciation of Mr. Qiu Yin, the design director of the Founder Font Library team, and the full cooperation of the font library colleagues;
The concern and selfless assistance of micro friends and students;
Thank you to the mockers who spare no effort to "write schoolchildren's words";
Tribute to Fangzheng Ziku Shi Qigong, Shu Tong, Ren Zheng, Liu Bingsen, Wang Xiangzhi and other calligraphers.
Cao Junping always remembered what Mr. Qi Gong said: "To write a letter, it is necessary to be practiced, and its dot painting is not rigid." He rubbed his life experience, life perception, and inheritance of his ancestors into his heart, put it into writing, conveyed his feelings, and moistened people's hearts.
"Sharpen into Junyan, fruitful out of the usual" is Wu Tiyu's embedded name for Cao Junping, which expresses the high standards and strict requirements for disciples in order to express the words of expectation, implicitly and gently, with a long artistic conception. Every time he thinks about it, it will cause Cao Junping to think endlessly of his mentor, carve it into his heart, and remind himself at any time not to be arrogant in the face of honor and temptation, and not to give up in the face of setbacks and failures.
Mr. Jiang Ping, a doctor of calligraphy, said: "At a time when some strange and ugly or false character libraries have already disturbed the aesthetics of the Chinese people, the 'Cao Junping Calligraphy Library' is of special positive significance. ”
Cao Junping once read this sentence in Xu Shen's "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts and Narratives" of the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Those who cover the characters, the basis of the scriptures, the beginning of the royal government, the predecessors are therefore behind, and the posterity is therefore aware of the ancients." "Deeply remembered, and deeply believed, words not only have the merit of inheriting culture, but also have the role of crossing time and space.
When it comes to a grand event, there is no end to the wish.
Strive for the same way, and share the morning sun.
"Cao Junping Calligraphy Library", see you on the clouds!
Ding Wen is a writer, screenwriter, music critic and member of the China Literary and Art Critics Association.