Long knowledge 丨 Ancient learning books, not exhaustive copying

There is a story recorded in the Zhuangzi that Confucius had not yet attained enlightenment when he was fifty-one years old, so he went to ask Lao Tzu, who had come to ask Confucius, who had come to ask, such a passage: "The Six Classics of The Husband, the Traces of the First King, are they traced?" What Imako said, so did the traces. Traces, where the traces are, and the traces are gone! "That is, if you learn to walk according to shoe prints, isn't that a joke?" This is easy to understand, but isn't it the same as learning calligraphy based on copying posters?

Therefore, if you think that calligraphy has no secret tradition, as long as you practice it very hard and diligently, you can learn it well, which is like learning to walk according to the footprints, and in the end it can only be fruitless. So how to learn calligraphy? The key is to find that lost penmanship. So what does this brushwork look like?

Yan Zhenqing said in his speech to the Biography of Monk Huaisu: "Fu's draft works began in the Han Dynasty, Du Du and Cui Yan, and began with wonderful news. Bo Ying is especially good at its beauty. Xi Xianzi descended, Yu Lu xiangcheng, oral tips were given. There are four words in it, called "oral instruction." In fact, there are two words, one is oral technique, and the other is hand-taught. What does the mantra mean? It is to pass on the recipe according to the mouth, that is, according to the way of language and writing. What about hand-taught? It is possible to have someone to explain to you and write it directly to you by hand.

Through this record, we can see that there are two most important aspects of learning calligraphy: First, there must be a stroke technique. Second, there must be a teacher who can teach by hand.

Yan Zhenqing also proposed in his "Twelve Meanings of Zhang Changshi's Brushwork": "Secondly, knowing the Fa is the skill of oral transmission and hand teaching, do not make it excessive, the so-called penmanship is also." ”

Chen Si of the Song Dynasty recorded a passage by Chu Suiliang in his compilation of the "Shuyuan Jinghua": "A good teacher does not meet, the years are in vain, the present is capable, the time sees - spot, the unenlightened, the lifelong blind, the gaishu is not orally taught and can know, the unseen also." Therefore, it can be seen that oral techniques are an important way of passing on ancient brushwork.

Xie Jin of the Ming Dynasty also recorded in the "Miscellaneous Tales of Spring Rain": "The method of learning books is not taught by the heart orally, and it is not allowed to be written."

It can be seen that by the time of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, it had begun from the end of the Tang Dynasty, and there were no teachers who could teach by hand. It can only become a heart teaching, can the heart teach? I think this is simply impossible for this technique.

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