First, its
2. Virtue
"De" is a morphophonemic character composed of two parts: the righteous character "彳" and the sound symbol "彳".
In the existing Han Li inscriptions and jian mu books, there are two common glyphs of the "de" character. One of them, like the "Xiyue Huashan Temple Stele":
Another glyph, in the Zhang Qianbei, has:
Regardless of which of these two glyphs you do, the top of the "" must have a stroke on top of it, either a vertical head, or a point.
Like the "De" character we are writing today, there is only a bare horizontal writing at the top, which is very rare in Han tablets.
This particular glyph does not seem to conform to either the libi and the writing habits of the Han li.
If it were not for the fact that the top point was carved too inconspicuously when the stone was carved, or because the stele surface was weathered so long that the point of rubbing was not clear, then this word would probably have to be a typo. If we were to move such glyphs into our own works, I think we needed to think carefully.
In addition to glyphs, the structure of this word also has a more difficult place to deal with. The top of the sound symbol "" is too thick, and the wave at the bottom of the word "heart" is too thin, and if you don't pay attention, the word will be written as big and small, top-heavy.
My personal opinion on the handling of this issue is as follows:
Top-heavy, it is not good for any book body, any glyph, but the accentuation of the bottom of the "heart" does not necessarily have to rely on bold waves to achieve.
In the case of thinner waves, we pull away the horizontal distance of the three points and write the dot painting a little thicker, which can also play a role in aggravating the white space, and can also effectively restore the structure of the word to balance.
Third, yew
"爰" is a synaesthetic word. At the beginning of the creation of the word, it was as follows:
It was obvious that it was a man with a stick in his hand and wanted to hand it to another person and let him grab it with his hand. Therefore, "爰" is actually the original word for climbing and aiding. The word "aid" that we are accustomed to writing today is a late glyph formed by transposing.
Comparing the seal shape of the "爰" character, it is not difficult to find that the lishu "爰" character we are writing is actually a variation on the basis of the seal shape. Specifically, the strokes in the shape of the seal are obtained by combining the strokes in the seal shape into one stroke.
Fourth, both
Generally speaking, if there are two strokes in a calligraphy glyph that are waving to the left and to the right at the same time, such as the strokes and strokes in the figure above, they will often be the main stroke. Because it's always smoother to write to the right than to write to the left.
However, this writing habit is not obvious in the "Zhang Qianbei". More often, "Zhang Qianbei" will distribute the two strokes evenly, and it is not easy to see which is lighter and heavier.
This is true of the word "both", and the same is true of the word "爰" above. However, when it comes to this "both" word, after the stroke is accentuated, it will bring about the problem that it will encroach on more space to the left, thus clashing with the stroke.
How can such conflicts be mediated?
The choice of "Zhang Qianbei" is a very bold plan. It deflects the meaning of the "皀" as a whole slightly counterclockwise, lifting the stroke up so that the stroke is wedged underneath the stroke, thus resolving this conflict.
— THE END —
The text | Prince of Jin
Typography | cream belly
The picture | Zhang Qianbei & Jin Gongzi original