In the eyes of many people, when writing, it is necessary to dip the ink, and after dipping the ink, you have to write, so repeatedly, which is a very normal action to be done in the copying stage. However, we also often see some calligraphy masters who do not have such movements when writing. They often have to write a lot of words after dipping a pen of ink, and the ink color changes from thick, from wet to light, to dry, and finally produces a wonderful calligraphy work. So, how exactly does calligraphy use ink? Although this is a clichéd problem, it is a problem that calligraphy lovers have to know and have to learn.
Why should calligraphy pay attention to the problem of using ink? This is because calligraphy itself is a single-line plastic art, and each Chinese character is reflected on the rice paper by ink color, and eventually becomes a work. Each of the four treasures of the study room is very exquisite. The ancients have a lot of discussions on the problem of using ink, and Shen Zongqian of the Qing Dynasty pointed out in the "Compilation of Mustard Boat Paintings": "The master of the ink of the writer is also the master of the ink, and the ink is also the charge of the pen; and the pen is not ink and there is no harmony, and the ink is not pen. Sun Guoting said in the "Book Spectrum", "with dry fangrun, will be thick and dry", are to emphasize the importance of ink, calligraphy in the pen, into ink, it can be seen that ink color is the life characteristics of calligraphy.
In general calligraphy copying, people often dip a stroke of ink when writing, to write a stroke or at most a word, however, this is only a rudimentary learning method. Nowadays, many people will combine the problem of using ink with copying when learning calligraphy, that is to say, they will not specifically put forward the use of ink to learn alone, but combine it with the process of copying and daily calligraphy creation, so that the use of pen, ink, etc. is carried out at the same time, which has the advantage of achieving the effect of doubling the results with half the effort.
Some teachers even say this, to see how a person's calligraphy level is, it depends on how he uses ink, specific to the details, it depends on whether he writes a word or writes a stroke, is not to dip the ink many times, if so, it means that his level must be very general, but if the teacher pays attention to the use of ink when writing, such as dipping ink once and writing a few or more words, it shows that the teacher's calligraphy level is very high, because he is conceiving a work of art, so that the ink color plays the best role in the work.
In Ouyang's "Eight Laws", "Ink is light and hurtful, absolutely thick will stagnate, fat is blunt, thin is exposed." In order to make the pen free, Wang Xizhi "used the pen to ink, and after three points, he could not immerse himself deeply." The Jin people use the pen to make the turn the main, "put the pen against the front, the nature of the nature, the force is round and moist, the momentum is astringent; tight is strong, the danger is steep; the inside is expensive, the outside is expensive, and the beginning is not alone..." In fact, these statements are all artistic effects produced by the use of ink in addition to the use of pen. The above teacher's approach is not intentional, on the contrary, he did so after he had a deep understanding of the ink problem of the ancients, which shows that his ink use and even calligraphy level is very high.
Why is it said that the calligraphy level of people who dip a stroke of ink and write a stroke is not high? This is mainly due to two aspects: one is that when he writes, he always feels that the ink is not enough, afraid of which stroke will appear boring, so he dips it and writes it, and the other reason is that he is not confident when learning calligraphy or creating calligraphy works, and he has not even specially trained in ink, and his pen is not skilled. According to the requirements of some people with high level of calligraphy, in the early stage of learning calligraphy, it is necessary to carry out ink training, if anyone has not been trained in this area, then in the future study, make up for this lesson.
What are the techniques or methods for using ink? The ancients divided the ink method into nine kinds, namely: thick ink, light ink, dry ink, burnt ink, wet ink, ink, dry ink, su ink, etc., reasonable use of these ink colors, will create an excellent calligraphy work, Zhang shows the artistic value of calligraphy. In this regard, some calligraphy masters, whether in ancient times or in modern times, have excellent and large numbers of classic works and expositions to refer to. For example, Wang Xizhi's works have a thick and light dry ink expression method, Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" can clearly show the change of ink color, the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty calligrapher Wang Duo is a master of the ink increase method, many of his works have such characteristics, the ancient method is worth learning.
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