How do I write good brushstrokes (block letters)? Who can tell me ah!

The Use of Brush and Basic Strokes in Regular Script

The Regular Script was developed from the Seal Character and the Clerical Script, therefore, the use of brush and strokes are in principle the same as the Seal Character and the Clerical Script and there are a lot of **** similarities. For example, there is no direction not to close, there is no hanging not to shrink, and strive to contain the sinews, mainly in the center of the stroke, the press, the staccato pay attention to the wrist, and the stroke point potential try to close it. Mature Regular Script and Seal Script and Clerical Script are far away from each other, and the use of strokes is also complicated. Historically, the first book on the book is the "Yong Zi Ba Fa", that is, the eight strokes of the word "Yong" summarize the Regular Script's use of strokes, and it is a comprehensive and complete set of strokes. The ancients cited fewer strokes, more strokes of the Yong character is rare, but fine for the scrutiny of the Yong character eight law is only five.

The Regular Script strokes are point, horizontal, vertical, apostrophe, press, hook, folding, and picking, and these strokes have various variations, and the Regular Script has three kinds of brushes: square brush, round brush, and square and round brush. It is more difficult than the seal and official strokes.

We list the "Zhang Manglong" stele in the Wei monument, the "Qinli" and "Shenzhejun" stele in the Tang monument, and the "Taishan Diamond Sutra" in the Northern Qi Dynasty as examples. Zhang Manglong" is mainly square brush, "Qinli" and "Shenzhejun" are both square and round, and "Taishan Vajra Sutra" is mainly round brush, mixed with scribe and seal script, which is a representative work of scribe to regular script.

The writing style of dots can be divided into hidden-front and open-front, closed-front and open-front. In the Regular Script, the point has the most variations, and the writing is especially emphasized on the variations and echoes, such as the weight, size, phase to phase, phase back, square and round.

1. "Zhang Manglong" monument

Look at the six points of the word Liang, the left side of the three points of the water on the middle point of the open brush and down, the middle part of the force, the closing brush back to the front or not back to the front can also be. The next point of downward strokes downward pause after the folding of the right up to pick out, the front of the point with the Jing on the echo. The upper point of the Jing starts with a reverse stroke, has a right downward pause and then returns to the left downward stroke. The lower left point of the Jing can be used in the same way as the lower point of the dotted water, with a pause to the lower left and a return stroke to the upper right. The lower right point of the Jing reveals a downward right stroke and then returns to the front to close the brush. Gong, first, Zhi's point should pay attention to echo and square strength. The point of the upper point can be reversed can also be the first left down to show a stroke and then folded the lower right out of the front, write a triangular form.

2. "Qinli" Stele

Different from the points in "Zhang Manglong" Stele, Yan Zhenqing's "Qinli" Stele has large and rounded points, and the strokes are hidden and reversed, and the rounded points are heavy. The dots are in the opposite direction and the opposite direction are in the opposite direction, and the dots are in the opposite direction.

Liu Gongquan's "Divine Strategies" stele has the same point method as that of Yan Shu, but the point of Yan Shu is heavier than that of Yan Shu, with the addition of both long and round, square and round. In particular, the upper dot and the left vertical dot show the style of Liu's character that distinguishes it from Yan's character.

The dots of the Taishan Vajra Sutra are in between the clerical and regular scripts, thick and rounded, mostly containing the power of the hidden brush, and the strokes are heavy and steady, with the clerical method predominating.

The horizontal strokes are also divided into hidden and exposed strokes, but the strokes are all center-front, and the closing strokes are hidden-front recycling. There are also changes in the form of upper and lower arcs, thick and thin, long and short.

3. "Zhang Manglong" stele

First look at the "Zhang Manglong" stele in the four words, two words, a short and a long, a thick and a thin, on the upper arc of the upper arc of the pen to hide, the lower arc of the lower arc of the starting pen to reveal the front. The three crosses of the word "year" are the shortest on the longest, the upper cross reveals the upper arc, the middle cross conceals the lower arc and so on, the lower cross reveals the lower arc, and the three crosses are equal in weight. The character for "sky" is heavy on the upper arc, the lower cross is slightly lighter on the lower arc, and the upper right is slanted to take advantage of the situation. The word "Wan" is written with a long and thin waist.

4. "Qinli" Stele

Yan Shu horizontal strokes hide the front, reveal the front of the use of each other, there are endless variations, the character of the book can be representative. The focus of the horizontal strokes is to return to the front and to pause.

5. "Shenzejun" Stele

Liu character cross-hatching outside the same Yan method and absorbed the Weibi, generally the majority of square strokes above the cross-hatching take the momentum, the thickness of the change is obvious.

6. Taishan Vajra Sutra

The horizontal of Taishan Vajra Sutra is entirely in clerical script, without the horizontal of the goose's tail, the round start and end of the round are all hidden strokes, and with the horizontal of the goose's tail, the hidden strokes are started, and the strokes are closed with the release of the strokes, with reference to clerical script horizontal method.

The vertical strokes have the difference between hanging dew, hanging needle, and arc to the left and right. There is also a difference between exposed and hidden strokes, square and round strokes, long and short strokes, thick and thin strokes. There are also with the hook with the same, or separate and placed, through the horizontal and so on.

7. "Zhang Manglong" Stele

"Zhang Manglong" Stele in the vertical painting hanging needle for more, flat, in the vertical, in the vertical repair of the left vertical are hanging needle, writing to the end of the pen to gradually lift the pen, so that the paintings become sharp, the line of strokes should be gradually reduced, should not be sudden. The middle vertical is a pendant, the closing brush is hidden, and the brush is closed upwards after a pause. The state is a vertical with a hook, want to close the brush, after a pause to the left and upward folded to pick out.

8. "Qinli" Stele

"Qinli" Stele vertical painting, it is desirable to be full of rich tendons, round in the bone but not bloated. Or hanging needles or hanging dew, solitary to many changes.

9. "Divine Counselor's Army" Stele

The vertical of the Liu character is similar to that of Yan, and the starting stroke is heavier, and the vertical of the left and right side of the door frame arcs outward so that the character feels long, healthy and upright. The main vertical is longer, as the fulcrum of the character.

The vertical strokes of the Taishan Vajra Sutra start in regular script, and the line closes like a scribe's, and the strokes should be slow, and occasionally the strokes come out like a thousand characters.

The apostrophes in the regular script are straight, curved, long, short, light, heavy, flat and oblique. Generally speaking, the writing is heavier and the strokes are faster. The eight methods of Yongzhi call the long skimming sketches as plundering and the short skimming sketches as pecking, both of which have the meaning of quickness.

10. "Zhang Manglong" Stele

"Zhang Manglong" large character of the apostrophe on the straight, the middle section begins to bend, the lower part of the heavy strokes, out of the front. The character "人" has a slightly more oblique apostrophe than the character "大字". Drinking character owes the upper apostrophe is slightly straight, the lower apostrophe is light, after the middle part of the heavier, Ancestral Character, clothing side apostrophe is light and slightly longer. The character "thousand" has a flat and short apostrophe. Like the character more skimming does not repeat each gesture. Zhang Manglong" tablet skimming brush like a knife cut, to write a square corner. It is possible to enter the brush against the grain or at one stroke. There are also smooth into the brush, such as drink under the word owes under the apostrophe, like the word like the left three apostrophes.

11. "Qinli" Stele

Yan character "Qinli" in the apostrophe is generally lighter, the first stroke back to the front, the line of the brush is fast, the power is reduced.

12. "Shenzejun" Stele

Liu's apostrophe is the same as Yen's, with a heavy, slightly stronger starting stroke

13. "Taishan Vajra Sutra"

Taishan Vajra Sutra's apostrophe is in the middle of the Regular Scripture and the Clerical Scripture, and is more in favor of the Regular Scripture. The starting stroke is heavy, the turning stroke is slow, and the power is even.

The downward strokes are divided into oblique strokes, flat strokes, long strokes, short strokes, walking strokes, and reverse strokes. Press painting in the Regular Script in the slowest writing, to walk slowly, the ancients have called the press "a wave of three folds" of the momentum of the statement, that is, the starting pen back to the front, folding the front and line, the press in the pen squatting front, the closing pen before the squatting front, after the pen folding the front and the press foot. Also known as "a wave of three strokes". This method is the most obvious Yan character, Liu character.

The Zhang Manglong tablet's foot is triangular, and the corner is square and flat.

Yan characters, down at the corner should be an internal arc, like a crescent moon scar. The character of "Yan" has an inner arc at the corner, which looks like a crescent moon mark. It is made of a pause before the closing stroke, and a turn of the brush.

The Liu character and the Yen character are based on the same method, but the Liu character has a stronger bone strength and is more rigid and sturdy.

The down painting of Taishan Vajra Sutra, the corner of the down painting is not obvious, and there are a lot of clerical components, and the split character is directly written in clerical script.

The so-called counter-press, is when there is a repetition of press strokes in the character, the secondary strokes of the press are rewritten as dots, but completed in accordance with the writing style of the press, not out of the corner of the press, e.g.: pong, ya.

There are vertical hooks, horizontal hooks, go hooks, horizontal folding hooks, heart hooks, b hooks and so on. Hook to the left and right different, each body hook method is also different.

14. "Zhang Manglong" stele

"Zhang Manglong" stele phantom more triangular, angular, extraordinarily powerful.

Vertical hooks start as if writing vertical, to be hooked when a stroke, folding edge to the upper left to pick out, the line is fast and clean. Horizontal hook "" multi-purpose, horizontal drawing slightly thin writing, to be hooked downward force pause, and then quickly picked out to the lower left. Vertical with a curved hook such as floating words, sub under the hook, can show the front into the pen, and then to the left to do the arc, to be hook first pause and then pick out to the left. Go hooks should be long to write, into the pen against the front, turn the front to the right to do the arc, do not over-bend, bend big powerless, so that the strokes have elasticity, like a bow, to be hooked to the upper right after a pick. Horizontal folding hook, and that is connected to the horizontal and vertical, the end of the horizontal to do folding, pause after writing vertical and then pick the hook to the left. The heart of the hook into the brush, to the right down to do a lone, more Go hook potential flat, bend some, and then picked out upward. The shape is like a goose floating in the water. The character for wind is first written in the horizontal direction, with the stroke folded to the left to make an arc, relying on the wrist to bring the finger and then the stroke is picked out to the right. Light under the hook against the stroke, relying on the wrist with the finger, first downward and then turn to the right, after a pause to pick out the upward. The same method is used for the same character, except that the horizontal line is longer than the vertical line. The right vertical hook is similar to a pick, vertical finish lifting the vertical stroke in the vertical left after a pause to quickly pick upward. The right vertical hook is larger than the other hooks.

The difference between the Yan character hook and the Wei Bei hook is that each hook must have an internal arc, that is, as mentioned before, such as the corner of the press, there is a crescent moon scar. To be hooked before the pause after the arc to the pick.

Liu word hook than the Yan word hook is more abundant, the inner arc of the crescent moon scar is bigger, vertical hook heavy as vertical and Yan's different, right to the vertical hook of the Liu word is sometimes written to pick the painting instead of the hook. Willow character is sometimes written as a vertical hook of the left hand side of the word, see the wind, sense of the word.

"Taishan Diamond Sutra" hook painting is very little, most of the hook only do hook potential without hooking out, then the word is the most prominent representative of the word, no word hook as in clerical script, the heart of the word hook is only written as a press and no hook. In short, in the treatment of hooks, "Taishan Vajra Sutra" is a direct clerical brushwork, vertical hooks slightly regular script meaning.

Folding drawings have horizontal folding, vertical folding, skimming folding, the so-called folding is bending to change direction, the strokes change direction, with the same wire bending to change direction, can not be broken. Horizontal folding that is horizontal and vertical even, also known as horizontal folding vertical, vertical folding also known as vertical folding horizontal, because vertical and horizontal connected. Vertical folding is also called vertical folding horizontal, because vertical and horizontal are connected. Folding is a rule to follow, in general, every fold must pause. Before folding, a pause is made without breaking the strokes.

"Zhang Manglong" tablet folding angle is obvious, writing should pay attention to the outer corner as much as possible to seek the square, Wei Shu, such as the "Yang Daxue statue", "BeiPing Gong statue record", "Zhang YuanZu statue inscription" and Yuan's tombs of the folding of the paintings are square hard to see the corner. To write such angular folding strokes, you can turn to the side stroke or partial stroke after the pause to create a square corner and then turn to the center stroke.

15. "Qinli" Stele

Yan "Qinli" Stele folding paintings than the big difference between the Weibei Stele, Yan Zhenqing write folding sometimes a complete, sometimes divided into two strokes for it. The character "Gong" can be divided into two strokes to complete the fold, others such as horizontal fold, vertical fold also have two strokes to complete the fold. Yen character folding written round and strong, the next stroke should be heavy pause.

16. "Divine Counselor's Army" Stele

Liu Gongquan wrote the fold similar to the method of Yan Zhenqing. Horizontal folding horizontal square pen into the vertical folding can be completed in two strokes, the folding without mentioning, written as a horizontal trend.

17. Taishan Vajra Sutra

The Taishan Vajra Sutra is written with reference to the seal script and the official script, with the official script being the main method. It is rounded without a pause or light staccato strokes. The writing style can be referred to the official script.

The pick, known as ze in the eight methods of Yongzhi, can also be called ti. This pen is written quickly, with the momentum of the whip to spur the horse. After a pause, the brush is quickly picked out to the right, revealing the sharp edge of the spear.

18. "Zhang Manglong" Stele

"Zhang Manglong" Stele's pick, the starting stroke is as square as a knife cuts, and the blade is sharp, and there is the feeling of being quite healthy, as if the force is unstoppable.

19. "Qinli" Stele

Yan's "Qinli" Stele is less square than the "Zhang Manglong" Stele, but you should pay attention to the strength and speed of the writing.

The Liu character is also written in the same way as the Yan method, but it is thicker and more powerful than the Yan.

The picks in the Taishan Vajra Sutra are either written as horizontal or as lifts, both in seal script and in clerical script.

The strokes of the Regular Script are the key to writing good Regular Characters. Through practicing the regular script strokes, one can train the ability to move the brush. In turn, the level of the ability to move the brush directly affects the strokes and the entire character style, which in turn is complementary. The four styles of Regular Script listed above are representative of the three different styles of Regular Script, namely, square, round, and both square and round. The Taishan Vajra Sutra represents the Regular Script of the Clerical to Regular Era, with fewer squares and more rounds in its brushwork, integrating the Clerical, Seal, and Regular Scripts. The Zhang Manglong represents the style of square-brush regular script of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The "Qinli" and "Shenzejun" represent the style of Tang Regular Script, with a mixture of square and round. The relationship between inheritance and development can also be seen in Yan and Liu's books. Learners of calligraphy can be realized from the different strokes of the mystery, due to the different strokes caused by the different styles.

The movement of the brush is also called the use of the brush. Brush movement includes: drop brush, that is, the beginning of the brush, the first pen on the paper. Strokes, according to the pen on the paper, wrist force, finger force to the end of the pen, light and heavy should be moderate. Lift the pen, pause after the pen will be slightly raised, the tip of the pen does not leave the paper, the height of the mastery should also be appropriate. Over the pen, also known as traveling pen, crossing the pen, the pen with the hand straight road, not curved and not folded. Turning the brush, after the pen is turned, or left and right or right and left, write a point drawing or hide the front before using this method. Folding the brush is used when the stroke is at the end of the line, and when the stroke is to be hidden, the brush is slightly returned to a stop. Frustration: When there is a need to turn in the middle of a line, pause the brush slightly, then lift it slightly away from the original position and continue the line as a frustration. Vertical strokes, when the line is about to end, the strokes are not collected but exposed, and the strokes are lifted with the line, or lifted and picked on the left or right, or the strokes are exposed on the downward line, which is called vertical strokes. The pen does not leave the paper and does not travel, making short stops and not lifting the pen.

In the process of penmanship, due to the wrist, hand, pen in motion to form a different angle, and produce the pen with the front, offset, side of the front to complete the different effects of the dots, word type. Ancient people more than negate the bias, the side of the front, emphasize the center of the brush, and even the bias will be depreciated as "the heart is not right". In fact, this is too narrow-minded and radical. In the actual writing, bias, side front is indispensable, so the regular script, line, cursive use more. When you use the pen, the side of the brush, resulting in different effects of the shape of the brush strokes square, round, generally speaking, bias, the side of the pen should be written out of the square brush strokes, the center of the pen should be written out of the round paintings. If you write both square and round words, you must use the front, side and side strokes, and it is not easy to use only the center strokes. Calligraphy is wonderful, all in the use of the pen. And the use of the pen in the heart, the heart can turn the wrist, the hand can turn the pen. Ancient people do the book but Shang intention in the pen first, the pen has by, never false hair. Therefore, the key to the pen is to heart, hand, pen three in one.

The above brushwork is not dead, should be used flexibly, adaptable, to adapt to the changing point of painting. And a variety of action is not a single, subsection, to be completed continuously without interruption.