Liu Jiuzhou/Wen
In the final analysis, calligraphy is still "books like people", if you give up the personal cultivation behind calligraphy, then calligraphy has no core.
On April 8, 2020, one year after its opening, The Biyun Art Museum in Jinqiao, Shanghai, held an exhibition entitled "Casual Calligraphy - Calligraphy Exhibition of Famous Artists Since the Late Qing Dynasty". Each exhibition has its own soul, and the artworks that never came together, brought together today, will surely bring us a new landscape. So, what can we see in this exhibition?
Since the late Qing Dynasty, calligraphy has faced two significant changes, one is the gradual withdrawal of calligraphy from the practical field, and the other is the development of photography and printing, so that the world's famous products can be incarnated into tens of millions, these two changes, one in and one retreat, have transformed the calligraphy environment, and also prompted calligraphy to embark on a path that is a little different from Wang Xizhi.
Today, with the help of this exhibition, we have the opportunity to occupy an observation point that has been postponed for more than 150 years, and we can see some situations that have not been seen before, so that we can discover the true flow of calligraphy since the late Qing Dynasty.
The biggest change comes from the loss of usefulness.
Practicality on calligraphy at least two constraints, first, is that daily people write small characters, which makes the ancient penmanship is naturally preserved, the secrets of the penmanship are in the natural changes of small characters, small brushes, no one can show the classical brushwork in the big characters, the turn of the big characters has exceeded the scope of the natural elasticity of the brush, it is impossible to do it naturally, it can only be strong, which is completely different from the changes caused by nature.
Second, it must be recognizable. In the past, the words you wrote were not easy to read, so you wrote in vain. This leads to the fact that people's general style is mainly flat, and it is not easy to write extreme fonts. This kind of atmosphere goes to the extreme is the pavilion body, but there are also some courageous people in the pavilion body who have gone out of the new road, such as Weng Tonggong.
After the loss of practicality, the above two constraints are invalidated, and the direct effect is to start writing large characters at the beginning of learning calligraphy. People familiar with calligraphy know that ancient calligraphers generally did not write large characters, because the difficulty of large characters is far greater than that of small characters, and people who were particularly able to write large characters in ancient times were particularly praised, such as Mi Fu. Some big calligraphers have a very low technical content of large characters, and the level is much lower than that of his own small characters, such as Zhao Ziang. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, most calligraphers had the ability to write medium vertical axes, and in the late Ming Dynasty, a large number of calligraphers knew how to write large-character vertical axis calligraphy, and they had to completely change their brushwork. In the field of calligraphy now, newcomers to learn calligraphy write large characters with large brushes as soon as they get started, and only very skilled people write small characters, which is completely contrary to the daily situation in ancient times.
At the same time, everyone's writing style, losing the requirements of normality, began to focus on the pursuit of style. This is due to the influence of art criticism, it seems that style and personality are the key to becoming famous in calligraphy, in fact, commonality is the key to ensuring that you are in the first echelon. In the "Casual Calligraphy" exhibition, many calligraphers were familiar with each other before they were born, for example, He Shaoji and Weng Tonggong knew each other, Shen Zengzhi and Kang Youwei were familiar, Lin Sanzhi and Gao Ershi were friends, but their style with each other was not the element of them becoming great calligraphers, at that time they had many common friends, and they also had calligraphy styles, but none of them were famous in calligraphy. The key to making them great calligraphers is the commonality between their calligraphy and the ancient authentic dharma books, rather than their own style and personality.
Calligraphy that loses practical constraints, similar to athletes who have lost their tracks, is less likely to carry out the sport.
The development of photography and picture printing is another major background. This situation, on the one hand, is a good thing, so that everyone's eyes are wide open, any literati can see the names of the fa books of the dynasties, which is something that cannot be dreamed of in ancient times, which must have greatly improved everyone's vision, and the aesthetic has risen a lot at once. But it also brings a very obvious problem, the ancient handwriting that is printed, because of the printing, makes it look darker than the real handwriting, and the pen is more solid. This makes people's eyes and minds, in fact, familiar with the "movements" of an ancient calligrapher himself, which cannot be done. The printed calligraphy tends to look better than the original, which is a catastrophic event, which is equivalent to leaving the fairy movements to the gymnasts to complete.
At the same time, there are two factors that increase the extent of this catastrophic event.
One is that Wu Changshuo wrote the stone drum couplet in the early 20th century, which had a great influence, making his disciples unconsciously use the pen to seek more depth, from the painter Qi Baishi to the calligrapher Sha Menghai. This heavy pen and ink echo with the print, making people's impression of standard calligraphy more and more "black".
Another factor is the influence of the pavilion body, the calligraphy community has always looked down on the pavilion body, but what is the harm of the pavilion body, no one has been clear. In fact, the distribution is flat and there is no ups and downs with the pen. The outstanding calligrapher in this regard is actually Qian Yong, whose small style is very high, but the problem is that there is no ups and downs. From a technical point of view, it is the pen and brush realistic, this is still possible from a visual point of view, the emperor looks comfortable, but from an artistic point of view, that is, there is no reality, such a brushwork is not right, but this thinking has a great impact, resulting in many people who can not write now, will also be critical of the works of the great calligraphers, the vocabulary is basically "this pen is not real", in fact, most of the ancient and modern law books have the characteristics of "unreal", only the pavilion body, each stroke is very real.
These two trends of thought and judgment methods, and the above-mentioned bias of photography and printing, have led to the misleading calligraphy in the key link of evaluating the pen, and the standard has been wrong.
Using a pen was originally a very lively thing, but under the influence of the above factors, it led to the two major evils we see today. First, I can see it every day in the calligraphy circle, commenting on calligraphy, often saying that this pen is not good, that stroke is not good, when asking others, also ask people: Please help see, where is not good? But calligraphy is a thing that if it is not good, the whole calligraphy is not good, and it will not be a bad stroke. Calligraphy is the result of an aesthetic plus skill, not a gymnast's technical movements that can correct a certain stroke.
The second is to have an impact on the teaching of calligraphy for primary and secondary school students. There is no scientific method in teaching, so that when every primary and secondary school student learns calligraphy, too much emphasis is placed on the post and too much emphasis on large characters, resulting in most primary and secondary school students being too nervous and using pens too stiff, resulting in their calligraphy, the entry is more difficult, and a lot of social resources are wasted.
The above situation, coupled with the current real display of calligraphy, is mainly a major calligraphy exhibition, rather than a daily display of each other, resulting in the writer on the one hand may be commented as any "not solid" and lead to a weak selection. On the other hand, in order to stand out in the competition, the writing style is no longer based on personal aesthetics, but on the imaginary enemy as the goal, competing with each other, so the style is becoming more and more intense, even if it is the winner, can not continue to adhere to the style of the award-winning work, let alone the loser. The calligraphy concept of the award-winning school has formed a direct rupture with the calligraphy of the ancients, and the situation that is closer to the competition of vibrato is that if it is not fierce, it will not be discovered.
The works of the 19 great calligraphers since the late Qing Dynasty displayed in "Casual Calligraphy" are intended to intercept the works of this period of time and form a general picture, so that the audience can see how the accomplished calligraphers have faced the above two main problems, one is the problem of using the pen, and the other is the problem of style. In the exhibition hall, you can clearly see that the calligraphy masters of the four time periods contained in the exhibition are related to the Stele School, but they have not been completely captured by the Stele School. The first stage is He Shaoji of the late Qing Dynasty, whose calligraphy can be closely related to the calligraphy of the Thesis school since the Tang and Song dynasties, and the six screens of "Valley and East Slope Erzha" and "Water Sutra Notes" in the exhibition hall are outstanding representatives of this direction. People used to think that He Shaoji was a master of the Stele School, but in fact, it was an attempt made by He Shaoji in his later years, which was obviously not as successful as early calligraphy.
The second stage is shen zengzhi, Kang Youwei, Wu Changshuo, these masters, their attempts have been defined as the main generals of the Stele Sect. However, a closer look at the works participating in the "Casual Calligraphy" exhibition, Kang Youwei's "Tongbi Xinzha with Kang Tongwei Kang" shows Kang Youwei's calligraphy in 1900, which is simply a continuation of Dong Qichang's calligraphy style, which is completely different from his calligraphy in his later years. Shen Zengzhi's "Dancing Crane Fu" is not to give up the epigraphy in a gentle and elegant state, cleverly combined with the "Baozi", epigraphy is the appearance, the essence or the literary and polite calligraphy. Wu Changshuo's "Couplet of Gifts to Xiao Junshi Drum Texts" is his work around the age of 60, which does not have the deep ink of Wu Changshuo's calligraphy in his later years, but is a school of neutral peace. These three works are of great benefit to our understanding of the early experiments of the Stele School.
The third stage is the efforts of Hu Xiaoshi, Lin Sanzhi, Gao Ershi, Wang Yuchang, and Bai Shao. In the middle of the 20th century, a group of calligraphers saw the efforts of Wu Changshuo and Shen Zengzhi, and these achievements also gave them new choices, and from the indications, they began to gradually return to theology, thus forming a new trend. Looking at their works from the exhibition hall, the direct influence of epigraphy is decreasing, but due to the baptism of epigraphy, the robust elements in their works are very obvious, but not rough. These calligraphy, which seem to be slightly far removed from epigraphy, are in fact the most successful works combined with epigraphs and posters, and are mature.
In the fourth stage of the "Casual Calligraphy" exhibition, the works of three contemporary calligraphers Pan Liangzhen, Cui Hanbai and Li Yuelin were also selected. The three of them are actually not "professional calligraphers", but each has its own profession, but they are all from the calligraphy of the famous people, long-term love of calligraphy, but they are not the same as contemporary exhibition body calligraphy, they have been exploring for decades, constantly changing, unconsciously taking the authentic path of traditional calligraphy, calligraphy is the natural expression of their inner aesthetics. Of course, I value their "other profession" status... In the final analysis, calligraphy is still "books like people", if you give up the personal cultivation behind calligraphy, then calligraphy has no core.
Therefore, to write well, it is not the problem of this pen and that stroke, but that you as a person must continue to improve, the aesthetic must be continuously improved, the level of appreciation must be continuously improved, and the calligraphy will be improved. "Casual calligraphy" shows such a long-forgotten kernel.
(Originally published in Shanghai Art Review, No. 4, 2020)