In 644, Shi Wei Li Shimin Yu Yu Zai. Under the rule of Emperor Taizong, politics was prosperous, the people's livelihood was rich, the culture was prosperous, the situation was stable, and history called the rule of Zhenguan. Tang Taizong Li Shimin was quite good at poetry. In calligraphy, he admired Wang Xizhi and personally wrote the article "Wang Xizhi's Praise", establishing his calligraphy style as the supreme aesthetic model. Since then, the Tang people have been working upward and downward, and the style of learning from the right army has been indiscriminately coveted during the Zhenguan years.
In the same year, Sun Guoting (646-690) was born, named Qianli, who was born in Chen Liu (present-day Kaifeng, Henan) and Wangfuyang (present-day southwest of Hangzhou, Zhejiang). At that time, the four masters of the early Tang Dynasty were already in important positions and famous, while Ouyang Qian, Chu Suiliang, Yu Shinan, and Xue Ji were almost all famous for their true books, and very few people were famous for the Right Army's grass law, and it seemed that the heavens deliberately wanted to leave a place for Sun Guoting in the inheritance of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy.
Unlike Ouyang Zhenqing, Yan Zhenqing and other dignitaries, Sun Guoting's life was bumpy, and there were many opinions about his life, and his stories were scattered among the few documents and epitaphs written for him by his friend Chen Ziang. Under the examination of the famous masters of the past, what can be confirmed is that Sun Guoting was nearly forty years old before he was born, and the official did not lead the government to record the army. Not long after his career, although he had the opportunity to face the saint as an old minister of the crown prince, he was reduced to the old party of the abolition of the emperor due to changes in the current situation, and he was helplessly dismissed from his post and deposed and lived in Luoyang.
After going to the official, Sun Guoting's material life became more and more difficult, but he became more and more diligent and active, not disturbed by the world, immersed in the art of calligraphy, he also practiced truth, practice, grass, especially good cursive, once described himself: "In the year of Yu Zhixue, pay attention to Han Mo", "Extremely careful and specialized, more than the second century". As his friend Chen Ziang said, he "cultivates a calm heart and does not get tired." The sole examination of the principle of life, the occasion of a few days of people. The period will be old, dead and immortal. Therefore, after his leisure, Sun Guoting began to create the "Book Spectrum", and judging from his self-description, the "Book Score" began to be written around the time he was more than confused. This work pins on the meaning of the rest of Sun Guoting's life. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and the creation did not prolong the life of Sun Guoting, and in 690 AD, that is, about three years after the creation began, Sun Guoting died of a sudden evil disease in the Luoyang Zhiye Guest House, and his "Book Genealogy" was not completed in time, and he died at the age of 44.
I. The artistic characteristics of the "Book Score"
As the "Book Score" that Sun Guoting sang in his lifetime, it was first composed in the third year of the Vertical Arch, that is, in 687 AD. Cursive, on paper, the full text of a total of more than 3700 words, a total of 351 lines, the original manuscript is framed in a long scroll, spread out a total length of about nine meters, since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the bibliography is orderly, once collected by the Song NeiFu, qingnei fu, included in the "Xuanhe Book Genealogy", "Shiqu Baoji", the beginning of the volume has the Song Huizong inscription, and there are Huizong, Qianlong and other successive tibetan seals, once the old collection of the National Palace Museum, now hidden in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The "Book Notation" is a rare work in the history of calligraphy with rich writing and words, and it shows a strong and resolute atmosphere both in creation and in theory. Because of its unbridled and magnificent writing, the reasoning whip penetrated into it, and it was copied by the current dynasty and even later generations, and it had the effect of setting an example.
First of all, from the perspective of the calligraphy art characteristics of Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy". Because cursive writing is derived from the quick writing of lishu or the flow of the provincial pen, it has a strong practicality at the beginning of its birth. In the development process of cursive writing, the practicality slowly faded, the artistry gradually rose, after fading the daily practical and non-utilitarian values, as an artistic discipline, the consciousness of its creation finally appeared. As for the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi made the present grass tend to be fixed and mature, and by the middle of the Tang Dynasty, under the prosperous era, the romantic wild grass prevailed, casting the peak of cursive, which was the peak of the art book body.
Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy" is considered to be the best model in this grass. From a technical point of view, the "Book Genealogy" draws on the essence of Wang's cursive writing, which can be called the inheritance of the "Two Kings" cursive. As Zhang Huaihuan commented: "Boya has articles, cursive charters are the second king, and the work is just broken with a pen." Another example is what is said in the Xuanhe Book Genealogy, "Emperor Wen has tasted the second king of the court small character book chaos." Another example is the comment in Mi Yuanzhang's "History of Books", "Sun Guoting's cursive "Book Genealogy" has a very right military law. Fan TangCao has obtained the Law of the Two Kings, which is unparalleled. In modern times, Sha Menghai, Qi Gong and other book masters have also commented on the "Book Spectrum". From the perspective of the grand historical view, Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy" inherits the current cursive style of the second king and one vein, which is strict and resolute, and the crazy grass period of the lower Qisheng Tang Dynasty, which is romantically flying and crisscrossing, and its style has influenced the inheritance of the Qi Dynasty for thousands of years, and it is still imitated today.
In terms of pen, Sun Guoting used the pen characteristics of the Erwang to deeply copy the pen techniques of Xizhi and Xianzhi cursive, adhering to the attitude of speaking but not doing, and did not deviate or create more, and some of the strokes and glyphs of the characters can be found on the seventeen posters, which is enough to see its purity. The Xuanhe Book Genealogy describes it as follows: "Make cursive and aggressive offerings." Especially good at using the pen, just breaking, out of genius, non-functional accumulation of habits. Sun Guoting also summed up the brushwork he admired in the text, and put forward the views of "the grass is expensive and smooth, and the chapter is inspected and convenient", "the grass takes the dot painting as the temperament, so that it turns into a shape" and so on. It is intended to point out that the cursive pen should be smooth and flexible, tactful and skilled, and emphasize the emotions expressed by the strokes and the changes they highlight.
Looking at the details of the brushes used in this volume, it can be seen that Sun Guoting controls the ups and downs between strokes in a meticulous manner. Although Sun Guoting likes to write quickly, often showing the front, and then quickly laying out, it seems easy, the practice is very difficult, and if you are not careful, it seems frivolous. To pave the way, always be able to ensure the feeling of writing "faces", slender dot paintings should also reflect the strength of the pen, in the single word can also see the use of the pen to jump and coherent trend, in the line of the pen pay special attention to the suppression of the ups and downs, there are diseases and xu, in the law to do the utmost possible. Sun Guoting's pen control ability is extremely strong, in the strokes often pressed in the mention, the circle in the square, especially in the round, with the pen sharp sharp clever, when the sharp is thousands of stones, moist place on the mountain flowing water, just healthy and graceful. There is also the connection between the upper and lower pens, and the subtle changes at the end of the pen are wonderful. The strokes between the characters are exquisitely arranged, like mountain stone pines, each of which is a school, and it is integrated, which adds a bit of artistic interest to some of the broken edges in the writing.
As far as the knot is concerned, Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy" looks flat and stable as a whole, carefully observes the strange and flexible movements, and creates a charm of endless and accompanying each other through the staggered structural arrangement, the adjustment of the opening and closing of the upper and lower left and right, and the redistribution of the font center of gravity. Although the forms between the words are different, the qi veins are connected, full of tension and movement, reflecting Sun's perfect knot in the whole process. Jiang Kui said in the "Genealogy of Continuations", "The body of cursive writing, such as a person sitting and lying down, fighting with the sun, riding a boat and a prancing horse, singing and dancing, all perverts, not the unscrupulous." This phrase is an apt description of the Book Notation.
In addition, it is praised that Sun Guoting pays attention to the connection between calligraphy and natural imagery, and the useful words "hanging needle", "hanging dew", "running thunder", "falling stone", "Hongfei", "beast horror" and other analogies in the book spectrum transform the phenomenon of pen and knotting into vivid and concrete objects, so that these plane dotted strokes are full of vitality. Sun Guoting himself also recognized and practiced his theory of calligraphy, writing in the law of nature, drawing nourishment from daily observation and life experience, pouring pen and ink on paper silk, so that it condensed and retained, so as to obtain a vivid and flexible art. He put this spiritually liberating writing theory into practice in the artistic creation of the Book Spectrum, as he himself proposed, "When the meeting is held, everyone is old." "It is a state of unity between heaven and man and the state of Daofa nature, which we can see in the Book Genealogy.
Second, the theoretical value of the "Book Genealogy"
Judging from the theory of calligraphy creation proposed in the "Book Genealogy", Sun Guoting fully elaborated on the ontology of calligraphy, the development concept of calligraphy, the theory of calligraphy creation, and the style theory of calligraphy.
As far as the ontology of calligraphy is concerned, Sun Guoting clearly pointed out that calligraphy is not only a tool for recording language and clarifying words, but also an artistic carrier with the effects of expression and liturgical enlightenment, distinguishing the functions of two kinds of calligraphy that have been confused in the past. Sun Guoting believes that one of the important conditions necessary for calligraphy to reach the realm of expressive temperament is that the creator's mentality has reached a very high aesthetic level, and the most straightforward way to achieve this is to "zongshi", that is, to emulate Wang Xizhi. In sun Guoting's eyes, although the style of Xizhi's writing is one, in different works, in order to cater to the interests, the style presentation is varied and magnificent. Under the pen of later generations of scholars of Wang Xizhi, Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style can be used for it, driven by different color temperaments, transforming into a thousand forms and achieving his own style. The mountain rises, the scenery stops, and Sun Guoting believes that Wang Xizhi, as a peak in the history of books, can only achieve something by standing on the shoulders of this giant.
On this basis, Sun Guoting linked the expressive nature of calligraphy with classical Chinese poetry and philosophy, borrowed the theories of the sages and philosophers, exposed the consciousness of calligraphy art creation from chaos, and emphasized the freehand and philosophical nature of calligraphy art, which is a landmark judgment. In addition, Sun Guoting also explained the relationship between fonts and the art of calligraphy, and the significance of calligraphers to the art of calligraphy, and other previously blank areas. In terms of the overall view of calligraphy learning, he believes that the study of calligraphy should be "both good". It is the so-called "melting and casting insect seals, Pottery and grass", in order to achieve touch bypass, integration and penetration, and understand the meaning of writing and all things. In terms of the methodology of calligraphy judgment, he gave an example analysis of Zhong Xuan, Zhang Zhi, Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi and other highly representative calligraphers in the history of books, studied their different works in depth, brilliantly summarized a set of systematic evaluation criteria, and historically introduced the consideration of relevant factors such as the personality of the calligrapher, the age of study, the attitude of learning, and the quality cultivation.
As far as the development concept of calligraphy is concerned, Sun Guoting advocates the use of development to look at the changes in "quality" and "Yan". Southern Dynasty scholars prevailed in the remarks that "today is not to catch the ancient, but the ancient is now Yan", believing that "Yan does not catch the quality" - the simple, ancient and majestic style of Zhong Xuan, Zhang Zhi in the "Four Sages" is better than the style of Xizhi, Xianzhi Yanli, beautiful and elegant. For this view, Sun Guoting opened the book "Book Genealogy", looking at the development law of calligraphy art for thousands of years, sweeping away the absurdity of the previous dynasty. He believes that with the passage of time, different historical environments can give birth to different art forms, calligraphy art as a reflection of the times, the relationship between "quality" and "Yan" with the trend of historical development and constantly changing, there is no distinction between the two advantages and disadvantages, but the two different results under the transformation of the aesthetic style of the development of the times, the so-called "quality is easy, physics is always the same". He believes that everything is developing upwards, and scholars must avoid eating the ancient and not becoming complacent, but should correspond to the actual conditions, and on the basis of emulating the laws of their predecessors, they should not draw the ground as a prison and bind themselves as a cocoon, but should actively innovate and expand and forge ahead, so as to seek the realm of "violating without committing, harmony without difference" and the method of "not being obedient in the past, and different in the present", so as to guide the progressive creative practice.
As far as the creation theory of calligraphy is concerned, Sun Guoting believes that the creative conception should realize the integration of matter and self, and in terms of the learning process and creative conditions of calligraphy, he put forward the famous "three-time theory" and "five-in-five theory" respectively. From Sun Guoting's point of view, the study and accumulation of calligraphy requires almost a lifetime of energy to achieve the state of integration, in order to achieve this purpose, it is necessary to carry out a thousand hammers and tempering of the rules and regulations, only by curing the fa in the chest, can we achieve "proficiency" in the hand, the heart is unbroken, the ease of playing, from the heart, in order to seek the realm of "people are old". The "Five-In-Five Theory" provides a specific reference for the creation of accidental development. In the understanding of the three aspects of "time", "instrument" and "zhi", Sun Guoting attaches great importance to the "zhi" of the subjective factor, believing that it needs to occupy the first place in the three, which stems from the fact that the artistry of calligraphy depends greatly on the creator's expression of personal feelings, and the writer's full and energetic mental state plays a decisive role in the creation of a successful calligraphy work. The so-called "instrument" is "paper and ink, four-in-one". "Dezhi" refers to the experience of enjoying oneself in the process of creative activities, and the sense of achievement at the psychological level after the creation, as well as the effect of the work reaching or even exceeding expectations, bringing spiritual feelings. Among them, the view of calligraphy is full of Sun Guoting's aesthetic ideals and life values, and the rules are in the square circle, internalizing emotions and the unity of knowledge and action. In general, "Attaining Zhi" is also the highest realm of art, the realm of freedom of "the Tao often does nothing and does nothing". It is not an unbridled wantonness, but it is precisely after mastering the profound laws that you are handy, the pen is turned at will, the mind is magical, and the Tao fa is natural.
As mentioned above, Sun Guoting's cursive writing technique embodies the characteristics of the rapid speed of the next pen, the speed of the pen in the transport of the pen, the degree of tension and relaxation, and the use of ink thick and dry and rich in changes, which is accurately in line with the theoretical views he advocates, that is, "staying is not often late, and the disease is not permanent." With dry square moist, will be thick withered. In the eyes of Sun Guoting, in addition to dealing with the external representations of brushwork and chapters, the ideal work effect and outstanding work style are more important to highlight the inner "quality", and the creation of a full calligraphy work should "keep the bone", "bone qi" is the core value that should be adhered to and pursued in the creative process, which is consistent with the universal artistic values formed under the prosperity, and also reflects the consensus of the Chinese nation on the art work that runs through thousands of years.
epilogue
As an important work that can stand in the history of calligraphy, the "Book Genealogy" has set an example for future generations and is still regarded as a guideline by many writers and scholars today. This founding work of Chinese calligraphy theory has gained an irreplaceable position in ancient and modern China and abroad with its subtle theories that are far more subtle than those of the same family at the same time, and with the vast brushwork of the relics of the Erwang. The ink on paper of the "Book Genealogy" has been passed down to this day, and it is a rare treasure in the treasure house of mainland calligraphy art, emitting a dazzling sparkle. The calligraphy theory of the "Book Genealogy" carries forward the upper and lower levels, and takes it as the hub, opening another era of calligraphy creation, from which countless scholars have absorbed the nourishment of theory and the influence of the French style since the Tang Dynasty, providing support for the practice of calligraphy creation. Whether it was Zhang Huaihuan in the same period, Jiang Kui of the Southern Song Dynasty, Xiang Mu of the Ming Dynasty, Feng Wu of the Qing Dynasty, Bao Shichen and others, they all extracted a lot from the "Book Genealogy" and made positive contributions to the deepening and elaboration of the theoretical insights in the "Book Genealogy". In the continuous development of the calligraphy art of the Chinese nation, in modern times, Shen Yimo, Zhu Jianxin, Ma Guoquan, Sha Menghai, Qi Gong, Tan Xuenian and other scholars and masters have conducted research on the "Book Spectrum" or specialized or comprehensive research, and there have been continuous works or articles of great academic value, which has continued the vitality of the "Book Spectrum". In recent years, with the development and construction of the mainland into a new era, the people's requirements for culture and art are higher, the demand is more, the research and development of the "Book Spectrum" has also shown a diversified trend, in the continuous in-depth and detailed research, the value of the "Book Spectrum" has been fully excavated, in the calligraphy creation, calligraphy theory, linguistics, philology, literature, philosophy and many other fields of more dazzling brilliance.
Culture must be both tangible and qualitative, on the basis of the predecessors to raise the shape of calligraphy to a certain height, the "Book Genealogy" timing appropriately puts out the theory and discussion of calligraphy, sublimating the status of Chinese calligraphy art. In the following thousands of years, successive generations of scholars and scholars have inherited and developed a richer practical and theoretical system around the "Book Genealogy". Although more than 1,300 years have passed since the creation of the "Book Spectrum", the "backbone" of the "Book Spectrum" still stands tall on the nine-meter-long scroll, admired and observed by the world, its form is immortal, all are brilliant in the world, and Sun Guoting's long-cherished wish of "old and immortal" has been fully realized. (Zhao Jiaqi, Meng Yunfei / Reprinted from China National Expo, January 2022)