Brushwork is the core content of calligraphy, and the brushwork of the Wei and Jin dynasties is the most advanced among them. Through the self-practice of successive generations of writers, many derivations of penmanship have occurred on the basis of inheritance.
The brushwork of the Wei and Jin dynasties gradually declined after experiencing the changes of the Tang and Song dynasties. By the rise of epigraphy in the Qing Dynasty, the brushwork was greatly broadened, and modern calligraphers also made new explorations of the penmanship.
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was a period of high tide of large-scale exploration of brushwork in the history of calligraphy. There were a large number of treatises in the Tang Dynasty, among which there were many expositions on penmanship, such as Ouyang Qian's "Theory of Using the Pen", Yu Shinan's "Theory of the Pen Essence", Li Shimin's "Pen Technique", Zhang Huaihuan's "On the Ten Methods of Using the Pen", Yan Zhenqing's "Twelve Meanings of Zhang Changshi's Brushwork", Han Fangming's "Instruction of Writing to Say", Lin Yun's "Stirrup Sequence" and so on.
Most of the Tang Dynasty calligraphy involves the concept of "law", which reflects the "Shangfa" tendency of Tang Dynasty calligraphy, which is different from the Wei and Jin dynasties advocating "natural".
The Tang Dynasty's writing is mainly based on the writing of zheng. The concept of "wrist vertical pen integrity" first appeared in Li Shimin's "Brushwork Tips". Due to the change in sitting tools and writing habits, the Tang Dynasty's pen changed from the oblique pen of Wei and Jin to the positive pen. The impact of the change in the way of writing is that the Wei and Jin penmanship has reduced the lateral forward and twisting components, and more attention is paid to the center, the sudden setback of the starting and closing pen and the stroke of the pen.
Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface"
Lu Zhizhi's "Literary Endowment"
In the use of pens, the study of the Tang Dynasty also moved towards subtlety and stereotyping. Compared with the Wei and Jin penmanship, the penmanship of the Tang Dynasty tended to be simplified and straight, and the starting and closing pens were strengthened and fixed.
For example, the strokes of the word "yes" in the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" are mostly "S" shaped changes, and the coherent gestures between the front and back strokes are prominent;
The word "yes" in "WenFu" has a standardized formula, and the strokes tend to be straight.
The long horizontal turn in the middle of the word "belt" in the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" extends down a short distance before the front is adjusted out of the hook, while the word "belt" in Ouyang Inquiry's "Xingshu GanziWen" is in the same position to strengthen the action of Dun, and directly lifts the pen out of the front.
It can be seen that the brushwork of the Wei and Jin dynasties became standardized in the Tang Dynasty, and was visually summarized and simplified.
Ouyang Inquiry "Thousand Character Text"
With the strengthening of the independence of dot painting in the Tang Dynasty brushwork, the blocky sense of wang Xizhi's brushwork gradually disappeared. Because the Tang Dynasty brushwork pays attention to the independence and integrity of individual dot paintings, the tendency of collusion between dot paintings is weakened, and the sense of block surface is reduced.
Wang Xizhi's "XingYong Ti"
Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy"
For example, the "Dang" character in the "Xing Yong Ti" has a strong sense of face, while the "Dang" character in the "Book Spectrum" pays attention to the shape of a single stroke, and the space is relatively sparse;
The strokes between the strokes of the "mountain" character in the "First Moon Post" are compact, the central flank is used at the same time, and the pen is spread out to form a sense of block surface, while the "mountain" character in the "Book Score" is affected by the stereotype, which strengthens the decoration of the "three folds" brushwork, and the awareness of the block surface is weak.
Wang Xizhi's "First Moon Sticker"
The main feature of Tang Kai's brushwork is to emphasize the ups and downs of the beginning and end of the dot painting and the vertices, as well as the changes in the use of the pen. In the Middle and Tang Dynasties, the brushwork represented by Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy became the mainstream of subsequent brushwork. The Tang Dynasty Xingshu was influenced by the Calligraphy, and formed a penmanship based on the retention of the pen by pressing and strengthening the closing pen.
Mr. Qiu Zhenzhong pointed out: "The Tang Dynasty calligraphy is the history of the development of calligraphy, and it is also an important link in the entire history of calligraphy. It is like a watershed, before it, the penmanship was dominated by twisting, and after it, the penmanship was dominated by the lifting press. ”
Yan Zhenqing was a key figure in this watershed. Su Shi once said: "Yan Lu Gongshu Xiongxiu is unique, changing ancient laws, such as Du Zimei's poems, Gree Tianzhong, han, Wei, Jin, and Song dynasties, and the authors of the later generations are difficult to regain their catch." ”
Yan Zhenqing's "change of law" is aimed at the problem of pen legalization formed by Ou, Yu, Chu and others in the early Tang Dynasty.
The Yan Body Xing calligraphy used the "seal qi" to restore the "writing" in the Wei and Jin dynasties, weakening the standardized side of the early Tang dynasty.
As Dong Qichang said: "Although the Tang Shi'ou, Yu, Chu, and Xue families portrayed the two kings, they were not bound to the law, but Lu Gong was naïve and innocent, his posture was horizontal, and he was deeply rooted in the spiritual harmony of the right army, so he was the source of the Song generation of scholars." ”
Zhang Xu, Huai Su and Yan Zhenqing all belong to a penmanship teaching system and are all innovators of classical brushwork. Compared with the Wei Jin brushwork in the Wei Jin Xiaocao, the boundary between Zhang Xu and Huai Su cursive in dot painting has disappeared, and the twisting brushwork has been replaced by a lift.
The pointillist painting with the center as the main one breaks the boundary between the strokes, simplifying the rich changing action in Wei Jin's brushwork into a simple line of continuous.
Huang Tingjian youyun: "The only ones who can perfect calligraphy since the second queen are Zhang Changshi and Lu Gong." ”
The classical Wei and Jin brushwork disintegrated, and subsequent writers arbitrarily changed their lines according to their own wishes, forming a trend of "personalization" and "stylization".
The brushwork of the Wei and Jin dynasties showed a trend of standardization in the Tang Dynasty, and there were also a lot of expositions on "law" in the Tang Dynasty's calligraphy. The "natural" and "true fun" of the Wei and Jin dynasties were transformed into rigor and formality in the Tang Dynasty, and the penmanship changed accordingly.
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The "variations" of Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Xu and others made the content of the "Erwang" penmanship more subtle, and the tang dynasty's standardized and rigorous brushwork was also "liberalized" and "personalized" in the Song Dynasty. Since then, most of the writers of the Song Dynasty have not known the specific content and expression of the ancient methods of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Su Shi once said: "Zi Yan and Liu Shi are not, and the penmanship is declining." Coupled with the mourning at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the characters withered and worn out, and the five generations of literary style were swept away. If the Tang people inherited the "law" side of the Xizhi pen method, then the Song people inherited the "intention" side.
Su Shi's brushwork does not escape the trend of pointillism to be straight, while Huang Tingjian expresses the ancient people's pen as the action of the war, which is a personalized understanding.
It can be said that the brushwork of Su and Huang is the alienation of Wang Xizhi's brushwork. Su and Huang emphasized "intention" in the way of learning the ancients, and Mi Fu's pursuit of the "Erwang" brushwork attached the most importance to the "reason" of traditional techniques.
Advocating "natural" and "true fun", Mi Fu attaches importance to "eight sides of the front" in his brushwork, calls himself "brushing words", pursues the turning and setback of the pen edge, and strives to restore the rich change of edges such as twisting and frustration in the Brushwork of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Mi Fu "Township Stone Thesis"
The turning point and the last point in the lower left corner of the "purple" part of the book have a twisting edge;
Mi Fu "箧中帖》
The first point of the word "gong" has a very obvious sideways gesture, which is mixed with twisting and twisting and frustrated movements in the process of writing;
Mi Fu "Zhang Du Ren Ti"
The horizontal drawing of "Xiang" has a strong "S" shape curve and exaggerates the gesture of "brush".
Although Mi Fu gained the momentum of Wei and Jin's brushwork, after all, he lost the timeless atmosphere of "wind rules and regulations from afar", and there was also a suspicion of deliberateness, which could not avoid the influence of the stylization and personalization of the times on him.
The Song people reflected more liberalization and stylization in accepting Wang Xizhi's brushwork, the "penmanship unit" with a fixed method was dissolved, the personalized pen broke through the shackles of the "law", and the brushwork of the Wei and Jin dynasties became more and more weak.
Yuan
Led by Zhao Mengfu, the Yuan people raised a retro trend and tried to restore the "two kings" brushwork. However, most of the Yuan Dynasty scholars, including Zhao Mengfu, did not really learn the full core of the "Erwang" penmanship.
In the Yuan Dynasty, most of the "Two Kings" calligraphy that can be seen is mainly inscribed, and most of the folk circulation is still some bad engravings or even forgeries. Zhao Mengfu's status was very high, and he could only see the Chunhua Pavilion and the Dingwu Lanting Ben, etc., rather than the real copy of the Lanting Preface.
Zhao Mengfu highly praised the "Dingwu Lanting Ben": "The Lanting ink book is the most, but the Dingwu carving is the only right army penmanship." However, from the perspective of Tuoben, the Dingwu Lanting Ben has a lot of damage, and it is difficult to see the details and subtleties of Wang Xizhi's brushwork.
According to Zhao Mengfu's description of the Dingwu Lanting Ben, it is not difficult to see that the true essence of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is actually very vague for Zhao Mengfu. For Zhao Mengfu, who had such a high status in the political and calligraphy circles of the Yuan Dynasty, his understanding of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy was still so vague, not to mention other calligraphers or folk calligraphers.
Due to the limitations of the times, Zhao Mengfu could not see the "Erwang" inkblot or the Tang facsimile, which was reflected in his calligraphy and also showed certain limitations.
His brushwork is mostly centered and tiled, and the movement inside the line is relatively single, lacking complex forms of stroke movement such as lifting and twisting.
Although Zhao Mengfu's kung fu is profound, his brushwork lacks an unexpected aesthetic feeling outside of the law.
Therefore, Dong Qichang has a saying: "When the ancients wrote books, they will not make the right situation." Cover is positive for qi. This Zhao Wuxing therefore does not enter the Jin Tang Men Room also. Lan Ting is not improper, and its vertical use of the pen is no trace. ”
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After the Song and Yuan dynasties, the book cases and stools were generally higher, and the brushes were mostly sheep, and the five-finger pen method became the main writing method.
Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty did not innovate too much in the use of pens, and once put forward the views that "writing a book must be able to lift the pen, not a credible pen" and "no hanging, no shrinking, no going, no collection", which has great inspiration for the world to understand the penmanship.
Dong Qichang's use of pen is undoubtedly a simplification from the perspective of the inheritance of Wei and Jin penmanship.
However, from his own point of view, his pen has been endowed with personal "xuan" aesthetic ideals and pursuits, creating a natural and elegant state, so Dong Qichang's brushwork can also be regarded as a success.
Other Ming dynasty scholars such as Song Ke, Wen Zhengming, Zhu Yunming and others did not have major breakthroughs in their writing style.
However, Zhang Ruitu, Fu Shan, Wang Duo, Xu Wei and others who appeared at the end of the Ming Dynasty have undergone tremendous changes in the understanding of penmanship, and the pen methods such as scattering and breaking the pen that the ancients often regard as failures have been actively applied in their own practice, and the method of using the pen was broadened at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhao Mengfu's saying that "it is not easy to use the pen for eternity" is no longer regarded as the golden needle of the world.