"Ancient - Ethereal - Elegant" - A Brief Discussion on the Aesthetic Interests of Wang Favor's Calligraphy of Wu Men School of Calligraphy Wu Yunyou

(February 2, 2019)

Source Songjiang Newspaper, August 31, 2018, Calligraphy Special Edition

Wu Yunyou's Lowercase Calligraphy Album Page, Selected Ancient Writings (excerpts)

"Ancient Clumsy - Empty and Spiritual - Light and Elegant"

p> -- Talking about the aesthetic interest of Wang Pang's calligraphy of Wu Gate School

Wu Yunyou

When it comes to calligraphy of the Ming Dynasty, the Wu Gate School can not be bypassed. When it comes to the Wu Men School of Calligraphy, Wang Chong is a figure that cannot be ignored. The Wu Men School of Calligraphy is the largest school of literati calligraphy characterized by its region, and Wang Chao was a stalwart of the Wu Men School of Calligraphy when it developed to its heyday. In the Wumen School of Calligraphy, Wang was regarded as one of the "Three Masters of Wumen" together with Zhu Yunming and Wen Zhengming. He Liangjun's Siyou Shuzhai Congshu said, "After Hengshan, Wang Yayi should be the first". Wang Shizhen "Art Gobble" that: "the world of calligraphy to my Wu carry on, and Zhu Jingzhao for the most, the text to wait for Zhao Zhengming, Wang Gongshi favor of the second." Wang favor's calligraphy is the return and resurrection of the ancient method, is the spirit of the Jin and Tang Dynasty and the continuation of the Zhang Zhang, in the Ming Dynasty, left a wonderful calligraphy.

I. The Interest of Ancient Clumsy

Ancient clumsiness is impressive as one of the distinctive marks of Wang Favor's calligraphy. Wang Shizhen in the "Wuzhong past philosophical statue of praise" said Wang Favored "book began to copy Yongxing, the late years a little out of the idea, to take the trick of clumsiness, Wanli Thuji, for the time of the interest, a few of the price of the Beijing Zhaobao," and said "Wang Cui Ji Min Wen Fu," "into the learning of the solution" "Thousand Character Essay" are into the Yongxing samadhi, extremely the view of the writer is carried on, but I do not know that the "Humble Administrator's Garden" four poems "Zhang Qin Shi However, he did not know that "Four Poems from the Humble Administrator's Garden" and "Biography of Zhang Zhenshi" were full of the meaning of Zhong Taifu, which made people love and respect him again. However, it is not as good as the "Retreat of the piano drill", so that people respect and inconvenient to solve, roughly, to hide ancient clumsiness, in the eight law of uniqueness, and so on between the consciousness, and a few of the top of the will be up to the person also." The so-called "clumsiness" originates from the Laozi's "great skill is like clumsiness". The clumsiness of calligraphy is a kind of art style, which does not pursue external splendor to cater to the world's interests, but pursues the simple and inner beauty of art. The beauty of ancient clumsiness is to give people a sense of beauty in the form of ancient clumsiness, the form of its expression is clumsy, it is clumsy from the work back to the clumsy and then out of the clever clumsiness, under the seemingly plain appearance of the author's ingenuity, all natural, is what Lao Zi said, "the great cleverness". Wang favor calligraphy is the expression of a kind of big simple not carve the original color, natural and genuine interest.

The ancient clumsiness of Wang's calligraphy is closely related to his ancient method. The origin of his calligraphy can be summarized as "Rooted in Zhong Yao, the heart of the two kings, to serve Yu Shinan, the Sui and Tang masters". His whole life was in pursuit of ancient methods. Wang Chong studied calligraphy under Cai Yu. Cai Yu's calligraphy came from the Second Wang, and Wang's early calligraphy was directly inherited from his master Cai Yu's style. Zhu Yunming and Wen Zhengming, the leading figures of the Wu School of Calligraphy, had a deeper influence on Wang's calligraphy. Zhu Yunming's regular script was absorbed by Zhong Yao and Er Wang, and his regular script was a style of Wei and Jin, while his cursive script was modeled on Zhang Xu and Huai Su. Under the guidance of his teachers and seniors, he has long been devoted to the practice of ancient calligraphic postings. Long-term study of the ancient posters, the formation of his ancient and quiet, sparse and elegant, graceful and elegant art style. Wang favor the interest of ancient calligraphy, from the technical level, mainly expressed in the strokes of implicit, elegant brushwork, pen speed slow.

First, the strokes are implicit. Wang favors calligraphy, thick and rounded, simple and thick, calm and steady strokes. Such as the lower case "xinjishu matter seven" in the "public" "very" "Han" of the last point, with the pen form and Zhong Qing "recommended Ji Zhi table" "not The last point of "Gong", "Very" and "Han" is similar to "No" and "Dun" in Zhong Cao's "Recommendation of Ji Zhi", "於" and "亦" in Wang Xizhi's "Discourse on Le Yi", and " The last point of "終" "於" is extremely similar, all show the brush into the micro-pressing back to close the brush, although the body is small but plump and organized. The hooks are very small and subtle, such as the vertical hooks of "water", the hooks of "fugue", the horizontal hooks of "empty", the vertical hooks of "bag", the vertical hooks of "water", the horizontal hooks of "fugue", the horizontal hooks of "bag", and the horizontal hooks of "bag". "Bao" of the vertical hooks steady strokes, to the root of the heavy rounded, some just hide but not show, was stored but not hair of the state, appears ancient and simple thick. Its folding painting strokes more round and heavy, no obvious angles. Such as "Shou Fangzhai Yuan Jun sixty ode order" in the "with" "Ang" "first" and other words of the folding of the painting are wrapped rounded micro-pressing momentum again.

Second, the brushwork is elegant. Wang Favors of the word contains a lot of clerical brushwork and Zhang Cao brushwork, increasing the word's ancient meaning. Such as the lower case book "zither manipulation ten" in the "subject" "qi" "father" "chase" "Water" "Yue" of the closing stroke heavy press upward, the strokes than previous works have been extended, the official meaning is thicker, and make a single word is no longer a single long and thin, appear more spacious. Apostrophe painting a change in the previous short pen-based tendency, the previous use of short apostrophe so that the word has become implicit and introverted, stylistic collection of the left vertical right, this monolithic program so that the word has become a simple and ethereal, became a significant trait of the small regular script of wang piao. The lower case book "ten qin exercises" made an unprecedented breakthrough in the treatment of the apostrophe, short apostrophe replaced by long apostrophe, especially the long apostrophe is heavier, with a strong sense of scribalism, this way of using the pen is extremely rare in the past. An Shifeng, "Yayi Thousand Writings" cloud: "Yayi Xing Cao, to Zhang Cao pen on the body of the Ting, Xusu below should not be through." And "Mao engraved YaYi XingShu" cloud: "roughly to chapter law for grass ......" all without the "Sacred Teachings" since the binding of the pain of the rush. "Liang Qingyuan of the Qing Dynasty said, "Wang Cuji's later years of cursive writing also used a lot of Zhangcao brushwork, so it is more ancient and elegant." For example, "Zhang Hua's Inspirational Poem" is a piece of cursive work, the strokes are often with wave limbs, containing Zhang Cao brushwork. Dots and paintings are more subtle and short, rarely show the stroke, the strokes are rounded and thick, the whole seems to be a lot of short lines and dots, the strokes are lively and echo each other, but the strokes are fewer than a few strokes in a row. It has the charm of openness and transcendence. Running script "Thousand Character Essay" to "seventeen posts" as the basis, contains more chapter grass brushwork, calm and steady strokes, simple and rounded lines, sparse and fluent rhyme, get the Jin style of the temperament of the spirit, seemingly ancient and elegant simplicity.

Third, the pen is slow. Sun Juan trekking Wang Favored "Jiang Wentong proposed ancient poetry" cloud: "If Cuji in Yongxing, then slightly get layer Taiwan slow step legacy, still lack of bone power." The "slow step on the platform" is a metaphor for the speed of writing, which illustrates the ease and grace of Wang's brushwork. Contemporary scholar Xue Longchun has analyzed the characteristics of Wang's "Eight Extremities on the Lake" and "Six Extremities on the Lotus Flower Swing" in terms of the slowness of his penmanship. It was pointed out that "Eight Extremities on the Lake" is rounded, and there is no obvious difference between the thickness of the dots and the thickness of the paintings. The cursive characters in the word frame are relatively fluent, and the two character groups of "Qing Fei" and "Peach Blossom" have the meaning of finger-palm animation; however, the characters in the running script are more in the form of holding the weight of the words, such as The characters "霞", "气", "映", "浮", and "暖", it is easy to see why. "It is not difficult to imagine the slow and sluggish manner in which the brush was wielded. And pointed out that the book in the year before his death, "lotus swing six stanzas", because it is a high volume of large characters, writing seems to be more slow, is a volume of ink color like paint, heavy and thick, the author seems to intentionally fuzzy traces of the point of painting in and out of, but also has no intention to yanmei interest for the hanging swan. "Ri" "twilight" "screen" "Bi" "pieces The apostrophes of the characters "Li", "Mure", "Ping", "Bi", "Piece", "Qun", "Fu", etc., are mostly pushed to the limit of the front with all their strength, which is similar to the monumental approach, and the speed of writing is relatively slow. The retention of the slow strokes in his running script works adds a gentle and calm atmosphere to his works. At the same time, through this slow writing, one can see a calm and peaceful state of mind.

Xue Longchun pointed out in his article "On Wang Favored's "clumsy with cleverness":" "The subtlety is no match for the childish clumsiness, which is more simple; the sharpness is no match for the baldness of the brush, which is more subtle. Flying does not rival gravity, gravity is more robust; spontaneity does not rival calmness, calmness is more cultivated." Wang Favor's calligraphy is subtle, heavy, steady and quiet, fully displaying the interest of ancient clumsiness. This kind of ancient clumsiness is not like the Qing Dynasty monumental change in the structure of the word that kind of ugly and strange clumsiness, but after the skillful clumsiness, clumsiness, clumsiness in the show, clumsiness in the elegance. Leaving a simple and elegant ink and brush imagery, set up a post tradition in the ancient style of the model of clumsiness.

Second, the realm of ethereal

Zong Baihua in the "On the New Story of the World" and the beauty of the Jin people in the article, the Jin people to pursue the highest aesthetic ideals: "Jin people with the spirit of the mind, the metaphysical meaning of the experience of nature, can be a surface of the clarity, a piece of the empty clear, and the establishment of the highest crystalline realm of beauty!" What the Jin people wanted to create was a realm of clarity, emptiness, and crystalline transparency, and this realm was exactly what Wang Chong was pursuing. In his calligraphy, we see more of an ethereal beauty.

The life of Wang Piao, calm and indifferent, noble and pure, and Taihu Lake, Shihu has been accompanied by. Wang pets "living in the lake, reading in the lake, reading ancient and modern, reading and painting, talking about a lake in the sky and clouds." Sincerely as Wen Zhengming said: "reading on the stone lake for twenty years, not when the provincial service does not count into the city, meet good landscape always gladly forget to go, or when resting in the long forest and grass, including Kaoru Poetry, leaning on the seat and singing; far away from the thought of a thousand years." Wang favor and stone lake companion, appreciate the stone lake broad and open, far and pure quiet after the snow stone lake beautiful scenery. In the poem "stone lake after the snow and friends with the pan" depicts a clear and empty, crystal clear mood. The crystal clear mood of the stone lake evolved into the crystal clear poetry of Wang Chong, and his calligraphy is not the same as the same ice and jade, the spirit of emptiness. Situation is born from the heart, and the heart and the situation are one. The meaning of Wang's calligraphy does not lie in the ink and brush, and has long exceeded the ink and brush, and outside the ink and brush, created a straight and heaven and earth clear air through the realm of meaning. This mood is not only the reflection of the stone lake, but also the reflection of Wang's mind. And his calligraphy is the stone lake of this too simple clarity of the realm, reflecting the beauty of the ethereal. This ethereal beauty, specifically expressed in the point of painting and structural simplicity, planning and layout of two aspects.

First, the point of painting and structural simplicity. Most of the words of Wang Favors are composed of extremely simple lines, which seem to be so simple that they can no longer be simple. The simplicity of strokes is not to simplify or trivialize calligraphy, and it does not mean that the artistic connotation of the simplicity or emptiness. Yun Nantian, a painter of the Qing Dynasty, said, "If the simplicity is subtle, then the dust will be washed away, and the only thing that can be saved is the smoke, the green hair, the convergence of the face and the retreat." This kind of simplicity creates the visual effect of "more white and less black" and "too much reality", which is the simplicity of art. This simple to make the word shape become dynamic and changeable, the word space becomes more sparse, wide, highlighting the beauty of ethereal.

The simplicity of strokes makes Wang Favored's works remarkable for their spaciousness. Not only that, his words are detached from each other between the frame, the strokes between if that is, seemingly even non-connected, short strokes, long, sparse, as if not written in place, the feeling of the strokes and fonts seem to be in the embryonic stage. Wraparound structure of the word, the internal horizontal and vertical paintings are often replaced by different forms of dots and paintings, so that it is not connected with the outer frame. Strokes that must be crossed are also handled as much as possible by the pointing method. At all levels of the technique, it is characterized by simplicity and conciseness, seeming to be broken but not connected, and should be dense but not sparse, showing the infinite charm of ethereal and sparse. For example, the "garden" in "Three Songs to Send Chen Ziling to the Examination" is an all-encompassing structure, its internal structure is rigorous and tight, and the "mouth" part outside, the horizontal and vertical opposite parts are not glued together, leaving gaps, the inner and outer densities are sparse, and the inner and outer reach are connected, and the flow of life is loose but not dispersed, which is quite rhythmic and melodious. He has a sense of rhythm. Another example is that many of his lowercase works in the word "moon", the word within the two horizontal mostly with two dots instead of, and with the left side of the painting, the right side of the horizontal folding vertical hooks do not match, so that the word within the "sparse can walk horses" feeling. His "Three Songs for Sending Chen Ziling to the Examination" appears to be sparse and loose, adding a bit of ethereal interest. Such as the word "light" the whole word without a solid connection, the pen is short and strong, the pen is separated but not loose, but more ethereal.

Second, the planning and layout of the sparse. Overview of the Wang favor calligraphy, its planning and layout of the first people feel is the "white" part, Wang favor is the use of "white" to create a kind of ethereal mood. For example, in the cursive "Poems from the Western Garden" and the lower case "Three Songs for Sending Chen Ziling to the Examination", the spacing between the characters and lines is wide and sparse, and the ink space is organically intermingled with the blank space, which embodies the sense of life that is intertwined with the yin and yang, and demonstrates the chiaroscuro of knowing the white and guarding the black, and the corresponding mutual growth. The "white" in the works has almost the same function as the black of the brush and ink, and they are interdependent, both being part of the overall modeling. This artistic technique, Qing Dynasty Deng Shiru very eloquently called "counting white as black". That is to say, the creative use of white, so that the blank becomes invisible brushstrokes, played a "silent at this time is better than sound" artistic effect. If you want to understand the popular "white as black" artistic effect, Wang Chong's work is undoubtedly an excellent example.

Three, the beauty of elegance

Elegance is one of the aesthetic qualities of ancient Chinese culture, is the artistic realm within the scope of elegant culture. The pursuit of "light" has been around since ancient times. Zhuang Zi advocates the life realm of "quiet and tranquil, lonely and inactive", and believes that "light" can encompass the beauty of all. For example, "Zhuangzi - carve" said: "light and limitless and all the beauty from the." Zhuangzi advocated the "light" is one of the manifestations of the philosophy of life, in fact, also become the later generations of art aesthetics pursuit of a realm. Light art comes from a simple and indifferent heart.

Wang Favor's life is a life of indifference. He came from a lowly background, his father Wang Zhenye business. Since childhood, he lived in a poor and noisy restaurant, more disgusted with the city life, yearning for the "water Huai Li Ze Tui, when the song bow piece" life. Wang favor lost his mother since childhood, "a little longer, began to know the sadness of the adoration, see the mother and child love, crone Xu phase to keep, not pathos heart catalyzed also". Adulthood and failed to pass the test, the ambition is difficult to pay, coupled with the disease, eating away at his confidence in the world of life, reinforcing the sense of frustration. In the face of all kinds of encounters, Wang favor did not choose to retreat, frustration, pessimism, anorexia. Wang favor chose to live in seclusion, but he was not willing to live in seclusion, "and I only what to do, humiliated in the mud between the way". He did not yield to the manipulation of fate, and he was willing to change all the misfortunes through his own efforts, showing a character trait different from that of ordinary people. Even the path of calligraphy is the same, his calligraphy - whether regular script or cursive, are y branded with his mentality. He succeeded in getting rid of the exquisite fluency of Wen Zhengming's calligraphy during the Jiajing period, which had absolutely shrouded the Wumen Calligraphy scene, and tried his best to carry forward the literati's interest of "guarding the steed and limping like a cripple" that Su Shi had so highly emphasized. He aspired to excel, but the times were not to his liking, which made Wang's character introverted and even somewhat repressed. Over time, Wang favored to show people is gradually moderate character, calm, calm impression, all of which is subtle expression of his style of writing, so that his style of writing also gradually become gentle, natural. Specifically, manifested in the following two points:

First, the breath is mild. Zhu Yicheng said, Wang Favored calligraphy is gentle, "gentle breath, gentle ink, even the left and right pointing and painting rhythm is gentle". Gentleness is the low key of aesthetic interest. Wang's calligraphy is not aggressive, not harsh, not misbehaving, not hostile, not biased, and it is the calligraphy of "peace and harmony for the body" advocated by the ancients. For example, the whole volume of his cursive script "Zhan Overlook Poem" does not seek to win the momentum, it appears mild and gentle. There are a lot of longitudinal lines in the piece, just swinging up the whole piece of active feeling, rather than fierce waves hitting the stone to show the luxury of indulgence. The young Wang favored the known charm of gentleness, making it a precursor. His now hidden in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, "Thousand Character Scrolls", to Zhu Silk Bar for the frame line, point and draw between the sharp and strong still have a general mildness, Hu Chuanhai commented that: "the warmth of the strokes of the convergence of the structure of the natural staggering, point and draw the Thuja sparse all make the author caused a kind of appearance of light and elegant within the tension of the characteristics." If Zhu Yunming is to the horizontal and vertical pi for the momentum of broad, Wen Zhengming is to the tight and elegant for the pattern of exquisite, then Wang favor is to the warmth of convergence for the breath of elegant.

Second, the modeling is natural. Wang favors calligraphy modeling is not decorated with carvings, simple and unadorned, showing the beauty of a kind of nature. The term "nature" was first introduced by Laozi, the founder of Taoism. Lao Tzu believed that everything in the universe is natural. People should follow nature and not act intentionally. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yanyuan defined "nature" as the highest level. He said: "If one loses nature, then God; if one loses God, then wonder; if one loses wonder, then essence. Essence is also a disease, and become careful." It can be seen that only the simple, unadorned beauty is the real beauty. There is a word: "I don't know Chang'e's body, plain and without powder." The body of Chang'e, although not decorated with colorful clothes and powder, shows the essence of the simple and unadorned beauty, which is simple and natural, not decorated and carved natural beauty. Tang poetry also said: "Hibiscus in clear water, naturally unadorned." The beauty of hibiscus is a natural beauty. This unadorned, natural beauty, casting the simple and natural ink and brush imagery of Wang Pang.

Wang favor calligraphy does not deliberately seek to work, not intended to be good. Wang pets intentionally weakened the unity of the outline of the word, especially in his later years, gestures, and the natural way. For example, after returning from the northern tour of the Imperial College, he wrote in running script, "To Gu Wang Lin Zha", without intentionally striving for work, mellow and childish, and the spirit of the extreme. Its regular script "Five Memory Songs" is "mellow and elegant, not curious." As a piece of calligraphy, only works that are "not intended to be good but good" have the highest beauty. Seven Songs of Xinji Calligraphy" is a piece of work presented by Wang Favour after copying "Jin and Tang Lowercase Album" for five years from the 14th year of Zhengde to the end of the Jiajing period, and the simple and natural ink and brushwork imagery embodied in this work is the unique artistic language of Wang Favour, which does not lie in the pursuit of the splendour of the external appearances, thus pandering to the world, but rather the pursuit of a kind of "word to the unintentional begin to see the strange, waving all without the eight methods of work The first time I saw a word, I saw a strange word without a heart, and it was a natural state of mind.

Author: Wu Yunyou, male, born in 1954 in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, worked as a teacher. He is a member of Songjiang District Calligraphy Association. He has published more than 200 essays, several of which have been adopted by Chinese core journals, and many of which have been photocopied by the National People's Congress (NPC) Newspaper and Magazine Copying Materials. Published 6 books. He has written nearly 3 million words. He has presided over three national projects and won the first prize for scientific research achievements of the Central Institute of Education. After retirement, he specialized in calligraphy, practicing ancient famous stele and posters, and his works have been exhibited in the Ninth Shanghai Calligraphy and Seal Cutting Exhibition and the Fourth Cursive Script Exhibition, and he was awarded the Excellent Prize of the First Han Yu Cup and the Excellent Prize of the Fourth Fengqing Cup, etc. At the same time, he studied the theoretical articles on calligraphy as well as the treatises, and the theoretical articles on calligraphy, such as "Along the Jin and Touring the Tang Dynasty: the original ecological condition of Wang Wei's Calligraphy," was published in "Calligraphy Guides".