Friends who have studied calligraphy must all know the word "force through the back of the paper", which means that calligraphy is strong and powerful, and it is also regarded by many people as one of the criteria for judging the quality of calligraphy, so what is this force?
This force is different from the force in our daily life, nor is it something we understand in a rough way, and in calligraphy, this force is called pen force.
What is pen power? It is the power we use with the pen to make the words show. Of course, this kind of pen power is not a pure superficial meaning, not that the greater the power I use, the better the pen power, about the pen power, there are different realms.
Mi Fu "Jin Paper Sticker"
Use the force of the pen
The force on the first realm has two meanings, one is the force that makes the brush write on the paper, which can also be understood as the force on the physical level, which is the most basic force, and the other is the inner force, but this force is neither brute force nor rigid force, but the power that we write down our emotions and beliefs through the brush.
Different people naturally have different pen strength, like Wang Xizhi's pen power is fickle, and Yan Zhenqing's pen power is thick and thick, Zhao Mengfu's words are flowing with clouds, and Huai Su's pen power is silky, which is related to a person's character, so we can't blindly connect when we pursue pen power, but to find the true self.
Wang Xizhi's "Random Funeral Stickers"
The power of the penmanship
Just as we learn calligraphy to start from the brushwork is the same, mastering the penmanship on the penmanship is advanced, but also the foundation, which not only includes the writing of simple strokes, but also the pen power of the pen movement techniques such as starting and turning, lifting and pressing the sudden setback, different brushwork uses different pen strength, the force used in the starting and closing pen is naturally different, so this is a very ingenious force, and there is a certain regularity in it, what we have to do is to continuously study the classic ink of the ancients, explore the rules therein, Thus applying it to its own pen power.
Huaisu cursive
The pen power of the knot
Calligraphy is an art in a state of motion, even if it is a relatively static calligraphy, it is also written by a dynamic pen, so the pen force is a dynamic process, then in a word, the pen force used by different strokes is naturally different, so that the written word is layered, that is, the ancients often said that the qi rhyme, if a word is written with a force, then there is no difference with the printing body, it is not called calligraphy, it can only be said to be graffiti.
Zhao Mengfu's Heart Sutra
The power of the pen
The so-called chapter method is in a pair of works, the connection between words and words, then the use of pen power in the chapter, is the direct echo of the pen power displayed by each word in the whole work, although this echo relationship is different from the penmanship and the pen power of the knot, but it requires the perfect integration of the penmanship and the pen power on the knot, each stroke, each word is rich in layers, then the chapter of the whole work is also hierarchical, which is the performance of the pen force on the whole.
Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript"
Although the pen power is a relatively ambiguous thing, but it does exist in the art of calligraphy, although it is a very difficult process to show the pen power to the fullest, but the study of calligraphy is the process of constantly climbing the peak, as long as we continue to study, to the post, we will eventually find our own pen power.