Author: Fu Liming
I love Mr. Zeng Xiang
From my childhood to the current age of Huajia, along the way, I have met many teachers, such as cultural teachers, art teachers, teachers at work, etc., but the teacher who helped me the most was the calligrapher Zeng Xiang.
Calligraphy newspapers
I have loved writing and painting since I was a child, and it can be said that writing and painting accompanied me to the cultural station, and then entered a 20-year military career, until I became a journalist after changing careers, and I did not forget to write and draw. At the beginning, because I couldn't learn calligraphy, and I didn't have the opportunity to enter a professional college, calligraphy was a state of "achieving nothing".
Two years earlier, Zeng Xiang, a calligrapher from Suizhou, Hubei Province, held a calligraphy training course in Zeng Xiang's hometown in Suizhou. At first, I went to shoot news as a journalist, but I didn't think that at the event I felt that his lectures had a magic power, and I was even deeply fascinated, and I actually understood the calligraphy he described as "cone painting sand", "house leak marks", "young woman scraping fish scales", "leaving words", etc., I actually understood very easily. Teacher Zeng Xiang compared writing calligraphy to drinking water, saying that it is necessary to choose the most upstream water that has not been polluted, and to write calligraphy, it is necessary to write the oldest inscription... I was fascinated by all this.
Once, Teacher Zeng Xiang saw me coming and said with a smile: "The sweeping monk is here again." He also explained: "We are engaged in calligraphy like chanting, we are chanting, Xiaofu thinks chanting is interesting, and we also miss the sutra." The audience laughed. In my opinion, listening to Mr. Zeng Xiang's lecture is like a spring breeze. Teacher Zeng Xiang held 6 calligraphy advanced seminars before and after Suizhou, and I actively participated in each time. Under his leadership, the overall level of calligraphy in Suizhou has been greatly improved, and many people have exhibited in the National Exhibition and Hubei Provincial Exhibition. In class, Mr. Zeng Xiang specially formulated a study plan for my situation, requiring me to copy Yan Zhenqing's "Fight for Seats" 100 times, and I should have learning experience every time I practice. He also suggested that I study Yan Zhenqing's "Twelve Meanings of Shu Zhang Changshi Pen Method", and through systematic learning of the basics of calligraphy, I gradually know how to appreciate calligraphy. He often used flat dan and wooden rod to represent the pen of the seal, the flat dan is like a book, the wooden stick is like a seal book, and the pen should stand round. How vivid! I asked, "In the creation of calligraphy, what should I do when I can't write?" He said, "Then copy the ancient post for inspiration." "Usually when I have questions in writing, I send him WeChat, although he does not reply immediately, but he will also take time to explain to me, find problems and point them out in time, which has benefited me a lot.
Author calligraphy
The author's calligraphy competes
The year before last, I had the honor to attend the calligraphy advanced seminar held by Mr. Zeng Xiang at Fuyan Temple in Hengshan, Hunan Province, and met many of his calligraphy students, who came from all over the country, and my eyes were opened by communicating with them. Teacher Zeng Xiang does not have a little shelf, giving an amiable feeling. Once I asked him, "Do you think you're an artist?" "I'm not an artist, I'm an art dreamer," he says. He answered naturally, without the slightest pretentiousness. On the question of the beauty and ugliness of calligraphy, he said: "The conclusion of beauty and ugliness should be determined by professionals, and the society believes that flatness is beauty and ethereal is beauty, but that is only one kind of artistic beauty." So you say, is clumsy ugly? Clumsy is not ugly. It is also an element of beauty, a part of artistic aesthetics.
Ask Teacher Zeng Xiang for advice
The author paints the old man
Chinese painting: plum blossoms
A small number of people inside and outside the book world criticized Zeng Xiang, saying that his "roaring book" was an "ugly book" and attracted people's attention, and some people said that he did not understand calligraphy and did not inherit traditions. And Mr. Zeng Xiang always laughed and shot back with "Long live happy", which deeply infected me. Looking at Zeng Xiang's calligraphy, some people say that children are also better at writing than him. I smiled, Zeng Xiang's calligraphy tradition is profound, this is an indisputable fact. It can be concluded from his many participation in national exhibitions in his early years. It is my luck to meet Mr. Zeng Xiang, and I believe that under his guidance, my calligraphy level will definitely make great progress.