The four systems of calligraphy are taken by contemporary learners, and the level is uneven due to the different qualities of people, and there are good ones, but most of them are not high, and the reason is that the level of calligraphy is insufficient. In my humble opinion, there are four realms in the script.
01/
Finder
Utensils, for utensils, refer to tangible material images. For calligraphy, it is the pursuit of shape on paper. "Shape" refers to the flat image on the paper created by the ancients, with the goal of writing portraits and writing accurately. The problems to be solved in this context are penmanship, knotting, and chapterwork. In these three aspects, it can find the characteristics of the ancients and reproduce them more skillfully.
The brushwork is correct, the strokes have a certain texture, and the performance is better than the ability to control pointillist painting. Its skilled, the pen is formed, the pen is intentional, the strokes are coordinated properly; the center of gravity of the maintenance is stable, the cloth and white are symmetrical, and the performance is a high visual space cloth white ability, sensitive to the size, oblique and square cloth space. In terms of chapters, the combination of two words and multiple words.
It can achieve coordination and unity in contradictions, connect the upper and lower characters and pulses, and control its disconnection relationship, and be sensitive to the width and narrowness between lines and the oblique relationship. Horizontally, there is no parallel disease, there is a big picture of the present, the field of vision is broad, can well control the opening and closing relationship of the overall situation, so that the whole article from small to large, from the part to the whole piece, can be coordinated and unified.
02/
Get the law
When the first realm is skilled, it is inevitable to enter the second realm and attain the Fa. Illegal, inaccurate, not written, or tasted incorrect. Therefore, the method is gradually obtained through analysis, comparison, and thinking in the process of finding the instrument.
The focus of the Fa is to know what it is and understand what kind of writing process it is, such as the "Eight Laws of Yongzi" and "Thirty-six Laws of Knotted Characters", that is, the question of how to write. When the italics are complete and practiced, there is capital for accurate writing, writing images, and writing well. Such as Wang Xizhiyun: "For one word, the number is all in." Books on paper must have different meanings and not the same. "The dharma is also the word."
03/
Sensible
This situation focuses on the thoughts outside the book, the mind of the writer, that is, why it is written in this way, which is the reason for it, the heart of the teacher and the ancients. This process must be due to the stroke of its brushwork, the thinking of knotted words, and the reason for the change of rules. As Ming Fengban said: "The Jin people are born according to the law, the Tang people use the law and mean it, and the Song people use the intention and the ancient law."
It is necessary to be able to follow the law, and the user must know its reason, and the meaning can be derived. With clarity, the Fa can not show traces of contrivance, and does not show the spirit of craftsmanship. Although the Fa is not there, but the meaning is sufficient, the reason why the book is well understood. And from the seeker, to obtain the law, to the clear reason, is also the process of learning the book, if you can not understand the reason, then the law is not known, the shape is not accurate. The former is the foundation of the latter, and the latter in turn promotes the former's profound understanding, and the cycle will continue to improve the understanding and writing level of the script.
04/
There is a way
Entering this situation, first of all, the author is required to have a good academic quality and character cultivation, and have a very high cultivation in other aspects, which is manifested as the integrity and nobility of the personality. Know the truth of heaven and earth, and understand the heart of the universe. People-oriented, all things are cherished. This means that man "has the way", "there is a way" is the passage of the book, and the passage of the book has God.
Tang Taizong said, "It is wonderful to be in a state of divine energy." If a word has no god, it has no form, so it is also said: "The word takes God as the essence, and if God is not harmonious, then the word has no attitude." Therefore, in order to "unite the heart with the qi, the qi and the heart", god has already possessed, then the "law and reason" are present, and at this time," the heart will forget the pen, the hand will forget the book, the heart will reach the feelings, and the book will not forget to think", focusing on "God", and "reason and law" are in the second place.
Therefore, in this context, the initial view is special, there is no sect, that is, there is no other person's phase, there is no era phase; the detailed view is vivid and interesting, and it is also the new face of the calligraphy. For example, the book of Master Hongyi's later years, quiet and pleasant, the first look of the different, but it is served by its tranquility, there is no dust and tacky atmosphere, it is the book of the Tao.
There is a state of the path, not to ask for it, but to get it naturally, to cultivate and get it. Drums seek it, revealing the breath of the city servants. Those who deliberately seek the state of "willfulness and inaction" all have a plan, so they wait for it, and it is not enough.
The beauty of the calligraphy lies in the image of elegance and grandeur, and in the tranquility of nature, just as Liu Gongquan said: "The heart is correct and the pen is right." However, "zheng" is by no means like the Song characters of typesetting and printing, with equal heads and tails, equal size, but full of cold and warm acquaintances and humanistic care in the world, and it is "positive" in the book. With Wenhan, the situation is moving.
In summary, the difference between writing and the art of calligraphy and the understanding of the four systems of calligraphy are the prerequisites for us to clarify the four realms of calligraphy. Only by clearly defining the direction and goal of taking the Fa can we not take the wrong path. The direction is clear, and only by following the progression and cultivation of the four realms of the book can we advance step by step and reach the ideal state. And if the direction is not clear, it will never see the day, how bitter?