Text | A fool Infatuation Calligraphy Network Editor-in-Chief
The importance of calligraphy, in modern and contemporary times, is nothing more than a sentence by Mr. Xiong Bingming:
Calligraphy is at the heart of Chinese culture.
In ancient times, it was thought that calligraphy was a visible personality and character, a distinguishable gentleman and a villain, a layman and a gentleman!
● The Han Chinese Yang Xiong said: 'Words, the voice of the heart also; books, heart paintings also.' Sound and picture shape, gentleman and villain see.
● Qing Liu Xizai's "Outline of Books": "The bookkeeper, such as also, such as his learning, such as his talent, such as his zhi, in short, like his person."
● Chen Duxiu commented on Shen Yinmo's calligraphy: "Yesterday I saw a poem you wrote, the poem is very good, and the words are vulgar in the bones. ”
"Book" is listed in the six arts since ancient times, the six arts for the Zhou Dynasty aristocratic education must master the skills, "through the five classics through the six arts" "four books five classics six arts" has always been as a traditional Chinese literati doctor self-cultivation, Qi family, governance, peace in the world is necessary! The weight of calligraphy is self-evident.
Of course, all things have positive and negative sides, and those who are up to it must be depressed. There have been statements throughout the ages that calligraphy should not be taken too seriously, and that calligraphy should not be put too much effort into it.
Confucius first said: "Aim at the Tao, according to the gain, according to the benevolence, swim in the art." A "you" character determines the position and role of "calligraphy" in the hearts of people in the whole traditional Chinese culture and culture. The ancients also said that "virtue is up, art is up" is also the meaning.
Mr. Yu Youren of the Republic of China is more straightforward: "Those who have lofty ideals should take the benefit of mankind as their duty, poetry and calligraphy, all things are leftover, but the rest of the things must also be outstanding and self-reliant." Although the last sentence is looking for a supplement, the central idea is still one sentence: calligraphy, the rest of the matter!
Yu Ren calligraphy couplet
The most ruthless theory of the uselessness of calligraphy should be the "Non-Cursive Writing" written by Zhao Yi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, although the article refers specifically to cursive writing, it can also be said to be calligraphy. The text denounces the cursive writer as "the one who covers the fine skills", and it is useless to "be more capable", "to talk about testing", "to seek preparation", "to recruit", "to evaluate performance", etc. In the text, the image of the cursive writer is also defiled: "In the future generations, mu yan, dedicated to the work; drilling strong and looking up high, forgetting its fatigue; the sunset is endless, and the servants do not have time to eat." Ten days a stroke, a month of pill ink. Leaders are like soap, and their lips and teeth are often black. The reason why Zhao Yi hates cursive and cursive writers is actually because of one such cause: "Yu Junshi has Liang Kongda and Jiang Mengying, all of whom are yan Zheye of the world, but Mu Zhangsheng's cursive writing is too Xikong and Yan Yan." Kong Da wrote books to show Meng Ying, all of them recited their texts orally, and their texts were written in their hands, without slacking off. Therefore, the disciples of the later scholars competed with the second sage, kept the order to write a chapter, and wrote a volume, thinking that it was a secret play. This means that two readers, named Liang Kongda and Jiang Mengying, as sages today, both learnEd Zhang Zhi's cursive writing without taking Confucius in their eyes, and even Taishou called on young people not to learn Confucianism. This is of course unacceptable to a Confucian scholar Zhao Yi who lived in the context of the Eastern Han Dynasty's "deposing hundreds of families and respecting Confucianism alone".
There are speeches, there are articles, there are stories and cases.
The "New Language of the World" contains a story by the Wei and Jin dynasty scholar Wei Shi: "Ling Yuntai was just formed, and the list of birth questions was given up, and the list was mistakenly nailed first and not the title." With the birth of the cage, make the list of books. Twenty-five feet to the ground, because of the danger, the beard is white. He threw his pen and burned it, and abstained from this method of abstinence from his descendants, and wrote the decree of the house. ”
The gist of the story is: Ling Yuntai has just been built, the imperial court let Wei Shi to write the list name (it should be "Ling Yuntai" these three big characters), but the construction of the person made a mistake, first of all, the inscription of the plaque was first ordered and hung up, so only Wei Shi climbed to the height of twenty-five inches above the ground to directly inscription, Wei Shi was afraid of height, but the holy order could not be disobeyed, and as a result, the title was finished, and the hair and beard were frightened white! When he got home, he threw the pen on the ground and burned it with fire, and then called his children and grandchildren to the front and said: No one should learn calligraphy again! And write this into the family order.
Wei Shi was an important scholar of the Cao Wei period, and there is a very brief introduction in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms:
He was born as the son of a servant. Literary talent, good words. Jian'an Zhong, as a county planner, Tebai Langzhong, slightly moved to zhongshu supervisor, abdicated as Guanglu Dafu, and died at home at the age of seventy-five.
Wei Shi lived to be seventy-five years old, which was a high life expectancy in the Wei and Jin dynasties, which meant that Wei Shi was not scared to death by the inscription. At best, it's scary and half-dead. According to Mr. Liu Tao's research, Wei Tian's inscription list was done at the age of 58, and it is true that as a weak scholar, an old man of nearly sixty, hanging in mid-air, of course, is to be frightened and frightened. Therefore, after coming down, Wei Shi wanted to come and go, and this matter could not be blamed on the imperial court, but he could only regret that he had caused such a hardship because of his good calligraphy, so he left family rules and family training, and warned his descendants to "never do this."
However, no matter how strict the family rules and family discipline are, they cannot control the real life of the family descendants!
Part of Wei's calligraphy "TheSis of the Whole Year"
The Taiping Imperial Records record that In the Taiyuan (376-396) Emperor Xiaowu of the Jin Dynasty (376-396), emperor Xiaowu changed the rule of the palace and the temple doors, and wanted to make Wang Xian's lishu inscription list, and the solid words of the offering were made for Liu Ou to write in eight parts. Later, he made Wen Xiu (Wei Chang) change the eight points with the Great Seal. At the same time, it is recorded that Wei Chang was not ashamed of violating the family rules and family training, but was proud of being able to write the list, and even more denounceed it to the "Book of the Second King's Lack of Knowledge".
Wei Chang was the grandson of Wei Kang, Wei Kang's brother, and there is a comment in the "Book" that he is good at the list of questions. And the more interesting record also mentions the matter of the solid words of the offering, which is recorded in the "Book Break": Taiyuan Zhong's new Taiji Hall, An wanted to make the son pay homage to the title list, thinking that it was a treasure of all generations, and it was difficult to say. It was said that Wei Zhong would ask about Ling Yuntai. Zi Jing knew his purpose, but he said, "The chancellor of Zhong, Wei, would rather have this matter; if he does this, he will know that Wei De will not last long." Ann was not forced. This passage is to say that Wang Xianzhi did not want to ask the list, so he rejected Xie An, and had to find Wei Chang to ask the question, or perhaps Wei Chang had to say such angry words as "The Second King did not know enough about the book" because he knew this process!
Coincidentally, after Wei's birthday, Yan Zhitui of The Liang Dynasty in Shandong Langyue, he was the fifth ancestor of the later famous scholar Yan Zhenqing, from a Confucian family, proficient in writing, good at calligraphy, and he had two paragraphs in the Yan Family Training to warn future generations not to work too calligraphy!
The first is the first clause in the "Miscellaneous Arts" in the book: "True cursive handwriting, you must pay attention to it." ...... However, this art does not need to be refined. The wise are worried, often served by men, and feel even more tired. Wei Zhong will leave the ring, deep and deep.
In this passage, there is a hidden sentence: "I inherited the door business at a young age, added sex and love, and saw many Dharma books, and played kung fu quite well, so I could not be good, and there was no reason for the good." "The gist is: I have also liked calligraphy since I was a child, and I have seen many Fa Ti, but I did not make effort to write, and the result was that I did not write well. If you don't take it out of context, then in fact, the original meaning of Yan Zhitui's words above has the meaning of "do not do to others what you do not want", and if you cannot write calligraphy yourself, you will not have high requirements for future generations in calligraphy; the two also find an excuse for themselves to write calligraphy well. "This means that after the calligraphy is written, others will always come to you to write, and it will be very tired to be enslaved by others." And for good reason!
Second: "Wang Yi is a young man of good characters, a celebrity, and the whole world knows only his books, and he can cover himself up." ...... Wang Baodi was brilliant and knowledgeable, and although he entered the customs, he was also treated with courtesy. Like a book worker, between the rugged monuments, the hard work of writing, tasting regret: 'If I don't know the book, will I not be evil to this day?' From this point of view, be careful not to pretentiously refer to yourself as a book. ”
From this point of view, Yan Zhitui is a repeated precept to teach future generations not to work calligraphy, but it backfires, Yan Zhenqing as his descendant is respected as a kaisheng by later generations, Yan Zhenqing's great-grandfather, grandfather, etc. are also good at calligraphy, so it seems that it is not feasible to restrain future generations to learn calligraphy with family rules and family orders!
"Yan Family Training" book shadow
In the first chapter of Mr. Huang Renyu's famous book "Fifteen Years of Wanli Revised Edition", there is a detailed record of the Wanli Emperor learning calligraphy when he was a child: the Wanli Emperor was very intelligent since childhood, and when he was less than ten years old, he could write large characters above the diameter of a foot. Once, he asked Zhang Juzheng and other university scholars to watch him write a pen, and after writing it, he rewarded these ministers. Zhang Juzheng received it, but the next day he initiated the emperor:
His Majesty's calligraphy has achieved a great deal, and it is now not appropriate to expend too much energy on it, for calligraphy is always a minor skill. Since ancient times, the holy lords and lords have ruled the world with virtue, and their art is exquisite, which is not beneficial to the living beings. Like Emperor Cheng of Han, Emperor Yuan of Liang, Emperor Hou of Chen, Emperor Huizong of Sui, Emperor Huizong of Song, and Emperor Ningzong, they were all great musicians, painters, poets, and lyricists, only because they indulged in art, so that the government did not cultivate, and some suffered the tragedy of the fall of the country.
For this loyal advice, the little emperor naturally could only obey. After 1578, calligraphy was abolished in his daily classes and only the history of scripture was left.
Officials and scholars used family rules and family orders to warn future generations not to work too calligraphy, and the result was that they did not succeed! Instead, a courtier intimidated an emperor who was a nine-five-year-old emperor to finally give up not working on calligraphy. Or perhaps it is really because of the lack of energy on calligraphy, the Wanli Dynasty did not suffer the tragedy of the fall of the country in the end, and even experienced a beautiful stage of "Wanli Zhongxing", but Zhang Juzheng's own end was that after death, people died and the family was lost. The cause and effect of this is really a lament.
Calligraphy of the Wanli Emperor
It is true that in contemporary times, the practical function of calligraphy is gradually weakened compared with ancient times, but its cultural inheritance as a nation, the aesthetic cultivation of a nation, the self-cultivation of a person, and its status as an art are more prominent! To borrow the sentence form of cangyang Gyatso's noun to conclude:
calligraphy
Do you value it or not
He was all there
Neither birth nor death
No increase, no decrease
……