【Big City Trivia】A lake pen, full of light

The softness and toughness of the lake pen have made countless possibilities for Chinese painting, however, it is not something that can be mastered by a casual person with a wave of the hand, and it requires precipitation and asceticism.

In the first month of The Lake City, everywhere reveals a relaxed and lazy atmosphere, go to the south shore of Taihu Lake to take a stroll, during the day to bask in the warm sun in winter, watch the brilliant flower lantern show at night, you are wandering, just in the Huzhou people at will, "Baitan (Huzhou dialect: the meaning of slow coming)" nature.

Since 2016, Moon Square on the south bank of Taihu Lake has held a lantern festival around the Spring Festival until the Lantern Festival.

The flower viewing lantern is probably one of the most beautiful New Year symbols in the hearts of Huzhou people. For as long as I can remember, the most colorful memory is to see the lanterns.

▲Infographic. Photo: Ning Ying

Flower lanterns are displayed on both sides of the main road in the city center, and the wide and flat road leads to the department store and Huzhou Building, and the sidewalks on both sides are lined with all kinds of huge flower lanterns. At night, in front of each flower lamp, there was a crowd of spectators, almost building a human wall, young me could not even catch a glimpse of the shadow of the flower lamp, pouting in disappointment, my father and mother picked me up, held me high together, and asked loudly: "See?" I muttered intently, "That doll is singing!" "These flower lanterns, which can move and sing, are magical in the eyes of young children. At some point in time, there will be a tall convoy of flower lanterns, cruising from afar, attracting naughty boys to cheer and follow. On the way home, I cried tired, so I held my father in my left hand and my mother in my right hand, and they said, "Fly!" I shrunk my feet off the ground and let them carry me around, giggling.

Looking at the flower lanterns today, it is naturally not like the crowds and shoulders at that time. The flower lanterns are not lined up next to each other, and the exhibition is full of openness and convenience. The most eye-catching thing is the lake pen shape flower lantern that will inevitably appear every year. A history of calligraphy and painting, half in Huzhou. As the first of the four treasures of the study room, Hu pen has always been the pride of Huzhou. The huge lake pen flower lantern is like Sun Wukong's golden hoop stick, which integrates the history of the lake pen since the Yuan Dynasty.

Lake pen is also known as "Lake Ying", "Ying" refers to a neat, transparent tip of the pen tip, this piece of sharp edge in penmanship terminology called "sunspot". A goat has about 200 grams of hair to use as pen material, and the maximum number of hairs with "sunspots" in these 200 grams is 80 grams. In Shanlian Town, 45 kilometers away from the city, every family has a penman, and every household has a pen in the lake. From raw materials to finished products, a lake pen requires 12 large processes, from which 128 small processes are subdivided. Therefore, Hu Ying's skill is in the world, and this is true!

When I was in elementary school, every school in Lake City offered calligraphy classes. I can't control the softness of the brush tip, the feeling of fullness after sucking in ink, every time the pen drops is an ink point, willfully spreading, enlarging, and infiltrating on the brush practice book... If you accidentally reach out, it is an ink mark, which is mercilessly painted on the clothes, or on the hands, on the face, on the table... Finally, after the class, everyone flocked to wash the pen, and after the hasty washing, they habitually threw their hands, and flew desperately to a group of innocent people with light ink droplets... Therefore, when it comes to calligraphy lessons, my mood is always powerless.

My adolescence, the idea is a bit overwhelming. My father took me to visit the president of the Huzhou Academy of Calligraphy and Painting, a calligrapher and painter of the father's generation, I watched him paint and write like a fish, the lake pen in his hand was tantamount to a ballpoint pen, and his heart suddenly itched, and he felt that there was no difficulty at all.

The dean saw that I was eager to try and handed me a pen. I took out a posture of splashing ink, dipped the ink with great pride, and with a wave of my hand, I actually dropped many black dots on the snow-white rice paper, and I was dumbfounded. The dean laughed, took the pen, fell together, changed an ink dot to a bird, and then a few strokes, that is, willow branches, and finally painted a landscape flying bird map, the ink dot below also became a few free swimming fish.

My admiration was born. The softness and toughness of the lake pen have made countless possibilities for Chinese painting, however, it is not something that can be mastered by a random person with a wave of the hand, and it requires precipitation and asceticism. This is probably the wonderful fun of lake pen!

Source: Xiaokang magazine in early February 2022

Author: Huang Muqiu

Editor-in-charge: Dina Zhao

WeChat editor-in-charge: Tian Yuan Weiying

(This article is the original article of Xiaokang magazine.) If you need to reprint, please leave a message at the end of the article to apply and get authorization. Please indicate the source and author of the reprint, thank you! ）