Editor's Note -
This article is the preface to Mr. Shen Peng's "Theory of Calligraphy Integration", selected by China Culture Newspaper on April 10, 2022. ）
The development of calligraphy requires such controversy
□ Shen Peng
With years of practice and exploration, Mr. Zhang Gongzhe put forward the concept of "calligraphy integration", and many participants participated in the discussion. Because the problem involves the historical development and practical trend of the essence of calligraphy, it has rich academic connotation and practical significance. "Body" is an important category of Chinese calligraphy theory. There are many places in ancient books that talk about "body". The body is the form of the existence and movement of living matter. In classical Chinese philosophy, it also refers to "ontology", and as opposed to "use", it is generally believed that "body" is the most fundamental and internal; "use" is the external expression of "body". Mr. Xiong Shili, a master of modern and contemporary philosophy, wrote "The Theory of Body Use", that is, from the two aspects of "body" and "use", he discussed the life of the universe, and at the same time, his academic height of aiding Buddhism and Confucianism, crossing the ancient and modern times, and his humanistic care of "re-establishing the big book and reopening the great use" have left an important page in the history of modern and modern culture. From the perspective of calligraphy theory, the re-examination of the category of "body" also helps us to have a deeper understanding and understanding of the laws of calligraphy art.
In ancient writing, regarding "body", on the whole, it has the following connotations: a font of the body. Xu Shen of the Han Dynasty, "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Characters and Prefaces", Yun: "The Book of Qin has eight bodies." Another example is the Jinren Wei Heng's "Four-Body Calligraphy" divided into four types of writing, namely ancient chinese, seal writing, lishu, and cursive, discussing their origin and development. The body of the second knot body refers to the stroke structure of Chinese character writing, which has entered the category of calligraphy art, such as: "Yan Liu knot body is different from the ancients" (Song Jiang Kui's "Continuation Book Spectrum"), "This cursive book is passed down from generation to generation, but the knot body is not of the same kind" (Song Huang Bosi," "Dongguan Yu Theory of Theory of Pa Cursive Luoshen Endowment"). The body is static and formed in motion, so there is a "potential", such as "the posture of the word, a stroke" (Tang Zhang Huaihuan's "Book Break"), "the soldier is impermanent, the word is impermanent; It is said to be like water and fire, and the situation is uncertain" (Tang Yu Shinan's "Theory of the Pen Pulp"). The discussion of the category of "body" by the ancients in several dimensions such as font, knot body, and body posture also reflects the deep cultural meaning of Chinese calligraphy to a large extent. Body and qi, bone, tendons, flesh, blood, pulse and other terms, has a "view of life", from the body to the body to the font, posture, in the minds of Chinese calligraphers, calligraphy and the human body, is a life form, while reflecting the Chinese culture of the cosmology of the flow of the world, endless life. "Yin and yang are moving and static, and all things are formed" (Yu Shinan's "Theory of Pen Pulp"), and the aesthetic world of Chinese calligraphy has thus become profound and rich. At the same time, the ancients also said that "books cause nature", and the creation of art follows the laws of natural generation, change and operation. The ontological value of calligraphy is actually the manifestation of the materialization of life forms in natural forms, and when the calligrapher is creating, he shows the fusion of "subject" and "object", the unity of emotion and form, which is what Sun Guoting said: "Emotions and shapes, taking the meaning of the wind and turmoil; Yang Shu Yin and Yin miserable, the heart of heaven and earth.".
The development of calligraphy and the change of fonts are parallel and intersecting. From the history of calligraphy, first-class calligraphers or calligraphy classics often emerge in the historical trend of font transformation. From the big seal to the small seal, there is the Li Si Qin seal; from the li to the many classics of the Han Dynasty lishu, from the grass of the lishu to the imperial elephant and Suojing. Wang Xizhi's status as a "book saint" in the history of calligraphy also depends on his "new body", namely xing, present grass, and main book. In addition, in terms of the formation and development of cursive writing, the techniques of merging and concatenation can already be seen in the bamboo Jian (Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian) excavated from the Yunmeng Qin Tomb in Hubei Province, which can be seen as the prototype of the creation methods of cursive in later generations. The ripening of the chapter grass also precedes the script and the writing. The so-called big grass in the present grass and the later generations evolved from the chapter grass.
However, Chinese calligraphy fonts, seal, li, xing, kai, and cao, have penetrated into each other in their development. In the historical trend of changing the text font, some writers have bravely created new styles and achieved great achievements. At the same time, there are more calligraphers, in a relatively stable font form, take the fagu, carry forward their own personality, play a creative role, but also greatly enrich the diversity of Chinese calligraphy aesthetics. If Yan Zhenqing writes a letter of letters, the calligraphy and meaning, each taken from the seal, deep and broad, in the Tang people like a peak protruding, his line of writing, is even more the house leak seal calligraphy. Zhang Xu and Huai Su's cursive writing, their penmanship is also familiar with seal writing. The families of the Song Dynasty, such as Su Dongpo and Mi Fu Xingcao, all had a sense of affiliation in terms of physical posture. In terms of aesthetics, borrowing from the past to the present is interesting and is also a general law. For example, Fu Shan, writing calligraphy and walking grass, often mixed with the shape of seal books, and after the movement of epigraphy in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the aesthetics of calligraphy showed the phenomenon of the pursuit of the above three generations of gold and stone interests, which greatly changed the trend of Chinese calligraphy history. For a time, epigraphy became the mainstream of calligraphy history. In the author's view, the phenomenon of taking the meaning of the Golden Stone and even taking the ancient characters for "integration" is a kind of "togu reform", and the most important of which is the original spirit of the artist. The personality of the artist, various artistic elements of "new theory and heterogeneity", are displayed in the form of teachers and scholars. Like the Western Renaissance, it opposed the theological shackles and went up to ancient Rome. In modern times, Huang Binhong's discussion of steleology since the Qing Dynasty and the Xian Dynasty is often compared to the Western Renaissance. In fact, its inner thinking of pursuing individual liberation has a certain degree of consistency at home and abroad.
In general, the development of calligraphy art and the creation of calligraphers need to find a fit and balance between the three contexts of tradition, era and self. He Shaoji, a Qing dynasty, had a cloud: "The scribe must set up his own portal, and its purpose is to cast the ancients and become a family of its own." Casting the ancients, casting different fonts, different inscriptions, naturally produces the form of "integration", and "self-contained", breaking the barriers of predecessors, is to create. In the history of calligraphy, Wang Xianzhi used the "broken body book" as his ability to create a coherent and endless "one stroke book", so the narrow sense of "broken body book" often refers to this kind of cursive, that is, the so-called big grass of later generations, and also such as the Tang Dynasty Dai Shulun's "HuaiSu Shangren Cursive Song" Cloud "began to change from broken body to style". In the author's view, the significance of "breaking the body" lies in the innovative spirit of not sticking to the rules and not sticking to the form. Originality and individuality are the core essences of the "broken body book" in a broad sense.
In the current literary and artistic atmosphere, Mr. Zhang Gongzhe initiated a discussion on "integration" and "breaking the body" in the calligraphy circle, which can be described as to a large extent to the point. The development of calligraphy requires such a high and deep contention activity. This kind of discussion will help everyone to have a deeper understanding of some topics in traditional calligraphy, and can promote the expansion and deepening of the study of calligraphy theory. The sparks generated in these theoretical discussions are naturally of great benefit to the development of contemporary calligraphy creation. (Correspondent: Hu Liang)