The standard and approach of the calligrapher
——Watching Liu Hongzhen's Wu Huiping calligraphy exhibition
Ni Kuan
The exhibition of Liu Hongzhen and Wu Huiping's calligraphy undoubtedly provides us with a text on the topic of the "standard" of calligraphers and the "way" of becoming a calligrapher.
The so-called "uniqueness" refers to the intersection of the calligrapher's style placed in the vertical timeline of the history of calligraphy and the calligraphers of the horizontal spatial axis of the same era. The second is the humanistic quality of personality cultivation. Combining the two into one is what the ancients said: "Books are like people". Liu Xizai of the Qing Dynasty "Book Overview": "Books, such as also, such as their learning, such as their talents, such as their aspirations." In short, just like the people. Later, he continued, "The book of sages and sages is gentle, the book of Junxiong is Shen Yi, the book of freaks is history, and the book of talents is Xiuying." This is only a brief enumeration, and the discussion is not very comprehensive, but it does not prevent the statement that "the book is like the person".
In the calligraphy of Mr. Wu Huiping and Liu Hongzhen, you can read the feeling of "books are like people".
Wu Shu is generous and elegant, and even has the rhyme of "Warm and Mellow" and "Xiuying" in "Book Overview". The style of calligraphy is consistent with the impression left by us who have spent many years with him, and even those who are quite familiar with him will appreciate the consistency of Mr. Wu's attitude and style in all aspects of dealing with people and things with his calligraphy style. I can't list them all here. Calligraphy may not necessarily occupy the most important position in his life, for him, it is not too limited to the level of writing skills, but more about the education of calligraphy. He did not fully position himself as a scholar of calligraphy, so he was in awe of the Fa. Secondly, calligraphy must have a physical and spiritual spirit, and the same is true for scholars' calligraphy. It's just that Wu's pursuit is not in love with excessive copying and relying on the technique, but first relaxes the meaning in the chest, and then supplements it with the technique of writing to achieve the meaning. It can also be said that Wu Shu is straight into the Tao and does not forget the Fa.
Liu Shuxiong's strong, spicy, and grand imagery also corresponds to "Shen Yi" and "Liluo". Mr. Liu Hongzhen has a sense of justice and loyalty to art in the impression of his friends. In his domineering and extraordinary style of writing, it seems to come from the calligrapher's consciousness of individual life and rebellion against the world. From Liu Shu, we can also get a glimpse of a professional calligrapher's literacy of technique and style, and tend to the artistic conception of Taoism.
Wu Huiping and Liu Hongzhen are two types of calligraphers, one is a scholar of calligraphy, and the other is a professional calligrapher. At the same time, in terms of the way to start a family, Wu is directly entering the Tao, assisting from the inside to the outside, while Liu is from the technique to the Tao, and from the outside to the inside. If we talk about the four aspects of talent, courage, knowledge, and strength, Wu is the first to know, and Liu is the first to be talented, courageous, and strong.
"For learning day by day, for the Tao day by day", there is no order of high and low, although there are different paths, but the same end. In the final analysis, it is to write about the heart, to write about oneself, and to write books like others.
Editor-in-charge|Wang Qitong