Why Chinese calligraphy is a unique traditional culture

Talking about the relationship between the art of Chinese calligraphy and traditional culture

The art of Chinese calligraphy is a native and authentic traditional national art. In its generation and development, it has an indissoluble relationship with the whole Chinese traditional culture. Therefore, those who learn Chinese calligraphy and then engage in the art of calligraphy creation, if they lack of traditional cultural cultivation, or lack of a deeper understanding of traditional culture, it is difficult to understand the essence of the art of Chinese calligraphy and the mystery.

To fully analyze the relationship between the art of Chinese calligraphy and traditional culture is obviously not an easy task. Here,

I only want to adopt a simplistic approach to talk about two issues: first, what traditional culture gives to the generation and development of the art of calligraphy; and then, in turn, what the art of calligraphy gives to traditional culture.

What traditional culture provides for the art of calligraphy can be divided into

"hardware" and "software":

"hardware" is the first item of Chinese characters. The first item is the Chinese character, which is too important for the art of calligraphy. Because the art of Chinese calligraphy is a plastic art that uses Chinese characters as its material, it is absolutely inseparable from Chinese characters. Chinese characters are basically not pictorial, but because of their special strokes and structures, they are more artistically malleable and figurative than other characters, and are favorable to be processed into artistic images. In the course of its historical development, the Chinese character has also had variations in seal script, official script, orthographic script and cursive script, which also determines the richness and colorfulness of the artistic image of calligraphy. The Chinese characters themselves are not only a major cultural creation of the Han people, but also used as an important carrier of traditional Chinese culture; in their images, rich historical and cultural information and the emotional colors and even mentality of the Chinese people have long been accumulated and condensed. Therefore, when Chinese people see Chinese characters, they can often trigger certain associations and subtle emotional activities. Therefore, it is important to write accurately and not to make mistakes or aliases. In short, Chinese characters are the most important "hardware" for the art of calligraphy. Calligraphers and writers should treasure Chinese characters and pay special attention to their accurate use.

The second item of "hardware" is traditional Chinese literature and art. Literary art not only gives calligraphers the nourishment of thought and art,

improving their aesthetic taste and ability; but also provides extremely colorful artistic images. So that calligraphers get inspiration, absorb the image, and skillfully integrated into the calligraphy creation. A large number of poetic works and aphorisms and aphorisms, but also often with the art of calligraphy as a carrier for each other, so that in the aesthetic infection of each other's birth, in the art of complementing each other.

"Hardware" of the third is a variety of traditional culture in the unique artifacts, such as oracle bones and bells and tripods, bamboo slips and silk books, tablets and inscriptions,

plaques and banners, and so on, are unique to the art of Chinese calligraphy performance space, in the development and transmission of calligraphy played a great role.

The fourth item of "hardware" is paper, ink, pen, inkstone "four treasures". This is a material creation unique to traditional Chinese culture. Chinese calligraphy art is with the help of these creations, to create a great artistic specificity of the calligraphy works

Said "hardware" and then say "software". This refers to the nourishment and influence of thought. Traditional culture on the art of calligraphy thought influence is too rich and complex, can only talk about the main. I always think that traditional Chinese culture has four main ideas, I call it "four pillars of thought": First, as the basic philosophy of "yin and yang, five elements" thought; second is about the relationship between man and nature "heaven and man corresponds to" thought; third is about the relationship between man and nature "thought"; third is about the nourishment and influence of thought. The first is the idea of "yin and yang and five elements" as the basic philosophy; the second is the idea of "correspondence between heaven and man" about the relationship between man and nature; the third is the idea of "mediocrity and neutrality" about the handling of social and human affairs; and the fourth is the idea of "self-restraint and self-cultivation" about how to treat oneself. These four ideas have played a profound penetration and guidance in the development of the art of calligraphy.

First, the idea of "yin and yang" and its exhibition of extremely vivid and rich simple dialectics; the deep penetration of this idea, derived from the dialectic of the art of calligraphy in various categories, such as black and white, reality, size, thickness, thickness, dullness, dryness and moistness, square and round, odd and positive, back and forth, echoing, smooth and reverse, rigid and soft, dense and sparse, clumsy and so on. and so on. It is through the dialectical relationship of these variations of the subtle processing, calligraphy creation only appeared in a thousand vivid and wonderful artistic image, so that the simple black letter on white paper has become a profound art.

Secondly, the penetration of the idea of "Heaven and Man" makes the art of calligraphy pursue "the interest of Heaven, through nature", and "the truth of Heaven is exposed", "no traces of axe and chisel" as the highest state. The pursuit of this realm is often a calligrapher in the aesthetic ideal and creative practice into the deep level of performance.

Thirdly, "the middle way" is never "half to take the middle", it is required to deal with anything to grasp the appropriate degree, so that the various factors to achieve a state of unity and harmony, that is, the so-called "neutral". "This idea has profoundly guided calligraphers. This idea profoundly guides calligraphers in their pursuit of artistic accuracy, not to be "insufficient" or "too much" in dealing with any kind of relationship in their creations, so as to achieve a concise and harmonious style that is neither juvenile nor "fiery". "The first is to create a new style of painting, which is not to be confused with a new style.

Fourth, "self-cultivation" of the guiding role to be divided into two aspects: First, through self-control to overcome distraction and restlessness, firm will and determination to learn and practice hard, and strive to practice real skill, in the creation of the abyss of Yuezhi, comfortable. Calligraphy creation and commentary has always emphasized the hard work and real work, which can not be done without the will of "self-cultivation". Secondly, calligraphy creation and commentary has always emphasized the "character of the book is character", which is a direct manifestation of the "self-cultivation" idea of penetration and guidance. Not "cultivate oneself" can not improve character, and some human qualities will indeed be shown in the calligraphy of the twists and turns. According to the "character and character", "style and personality" consistency, the calligrapher in order to achieve a lofty state of art, we must adhere to the "self-cultivation".

The following is the reverse of what the art of calligraphy provides for traditional culture. This can also be divided into "hardware" and "software" to see two aspects.

"Hardware" aspect of the situation is relatively simple, that is, from ancient times to the present excellent works of calligraphy has become the traditional culture of the total treasure trove of a very valuable art treasure. This is a great contribution of Chinese calligraphers to the national culture and even the world culture.

"Software" refers to the ideology and its theoretical summary in creative practice. There are three main points, namely the importance of creativity, emphasis on personalization, and the use of imagination. These three points are very positive in the development of traditional Chinese culture.

On the overall situation of Chinese traditional culture, it can be seen that the Chinese people have been creative and imaginative from ancient times to the present day, and their creativity and imagination are always inseparable from the author's individuality, showing a distinctive personal style and characteristics.

But from the perspective of cultural thought and theoretical overview, traditional culture (especially Confucianism, which has long held a dominant position), does not attach enough importance to creativity, individuality and imagination, and is quite conservative. For example, Confucius emphasized that "to narrate is not to write, to believe is good" ("Analects? Shu而"). This means that all that is needed is inheritance, not innovation. Xunzi's attitude is even more absolutist, saying: "Is learning evil in the beginning? What is the end of learning? said: its number is the beginning of the recitation of the scriptures, the end of the reading of the rites ...... the rites of respect for the text also, the music in the peace also, the poetry, the book of the bo also, the Spring and Autumn Annals of the micro also, in the heaven and earth between the Bi." (Xunzi? In his view, with the Confucian "Five Classics", everything in heaven and earth is complete; people only need to learn these books from the beginning to the end, and there is no need to provide new thinking experience and invention. This kind of thinking is very wrong, if the future generations act accordingly, not only will the Chinese people not have such a splendid culture, but also I am afraid that it will be difficult to stand in the forest of the world's peoples. Of course, this kind of Xunzi's thinking could not in fact completely restrain people's creative requirements and abilities; therefore, the Chinese people have had significant inventions and creations in various fields from generation to generation. Among them, the creative development of the art of calligraphy is especially prominent and lasting; its conscious pursuit of creativity, individuality, and imagination has indeed made a valuable contribution to traditional cultural thought.

The reason why the art of calligraphy has these characteristics is determined by some specific factors, and in fact carries an obvious inevitability: First, the art of calligraphy has been developed on the basis of practical calligraphy in all periods of history, and the practical calligraphy has repeatedly seen great stylistic changes (e.g., seal script, official script, orthography, and cursive script), which were driven by the development of social life, and collectively created by the masses, and therefore have a sense of inevitability. This change is driven by the development of social life and is created by the people collectively, so it is said to have inevitability; and with the change of practical calligraphy, the art of calligraphy is also bound to make new artistic creations, and new creative mainstreams appear again and again (e.g.

Qin Seal Script, Han Clerical Script, Jin Poster, Wei Stele, Tang Regular Script, etc.).

Secondly, people who write have their own personalities, temperaments, sentiments, tastes, qualities and intelligence, and they even differ in the physiological structure of their bodies. Therefore, people in the practical process of writing out of the word is bound to be a person of a kind, and on this basis due to the higher aesthetic pursuit of calligraphy art creation, is bound to be more conscious of the performance of artistic personality. The formation of artistic personality actually means that the individual has made a unique artistic creation.

Third, calligraphy is a simple means of creation, but it is writing black characters on white paper, and what is written must be recognized by the Chinese characters, so it is subject to great restrictions in the creation. Great limitations and to strive to become a colorful and sophisticated art, which has to rely on a solid basic work and active "creative imagination", in order to write freely with novelty and aesthetic value of the calligraphy image. Imagination in calligraphy creation is trained as early as in the learning stage, because one has to write many kinds of calligraphic books, and to break down and merge different artistic images in a skillful way, which is a kind of "creative imagination" in psychology. At a higher stage of creation, one has to be good at absorbing the beauty of the lines, structures and moods of everything, and integrating them into calligraphy without leaving traces of pastiche (e.g., Wang Xizhi was enlightened by calligraphy when he watched geese, Zhang Xu was enlightened by cursive when he saw princesses fighting with tambourines, and Gongsun Danniang was enlightened by cursive when he watched her dance with swords, etc.), which is an even more profound "creative imagination". In the history of Chinese calligraphy, the "Pavilion Calligraphy" has not been praised because of its lack of creativity, personalization and imagination. Calligraphers throughout the generations of creativity, personalization, imagination, the pursuit of the three and highly evaluated, has indeed constituted an important cultural thinking, for the Chinese traditional culture provides a vibrant spiritual factors.