How does calligraphy relate to the traditional cultural mind of the Chinese people?

We have already learned from the above ten chapters about the characteristics of Chinese characters, the evolution of writing styles, and the important functions of writing, and now we can talk about the relationship between the art of calligraphy and the traditional cultural mind of the Chinese people.

The cultural mind of the Chinese people can be found in the paintings on the ancient clay pots exhibited in the Museum of Chinese History, in the sphinxes on the bronze tripods of the Shang Dynasty, in the three major palaces of the Forbidden City in Beijing, and in the Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, which are listed as a World Heritage Site. Qin bricks, Han tiles, Tang poems and Song lyrics also show the unique cultural mind of the Chinese people.

Calligraphy is a high-level art with thousands of years of history in China, and of course, it shows the cultural mind of the Chinese people even more. This cultural mind is rooted in ancient philosophical thinking. It can be traced back to the pre-Qin and Qin zhuzi, mainly the doctrines of Confucianism and Taoism. Both relative and complementary, become an important factor in promoting, influencing the evolution and development of calligraphy aesthetic thought.

Confucius like the founder of Confucianism is Confucius (551- 479 BC), his doctrine has been dominant in China for about two thousand years, and it is the mainstream ideology of ancient Chinese society and culture. Confucianism advocates benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, forgiveness and the middle way. In its outlook on life, it speaks of the human world, enterprise and optimism. In terms of artistic outlook, it affirms the beauty of nature, emphasizes the practical and utilitarian nature of beauty, and stresses the unity of beauty and goodness; it believes that literature and art can cultivate sentimentality, provide aesthetic education, improve people's ethical and moral concepts, and bring them into a noble spiritual realm, and therefore play a contributing role in the harmonious development of society.

The founder of Taoism was Laozi, a contemporary of and older than Confucius. The center of Taoist doctrine is "Tao". It emphasized that human thought and behavior should emulate the Tao, i.e., follow the laws of nature. In terms of outlook on life, Taoism emphasizes emancipation, withdrawal, and passivity. In terms of artistic outlook, it emphasizes the super-utilitarian inaction and "returning to the truth", which means that the ideal beauty is to go back to nature and seek the essence of nature and human nature. Taoism speaks of romanticism in art, believing that aesthetics should be separated from utility, and that one should not deliberately pursue beauty and fulfillment of physiological pleasure combined with utilitarianism. True beauty should be a state of mind that follows nature and enters into freedom without external constraints. Such an artistic aesthetic is more profound than Confucianism, and therefore has a greater influence on later generations.

In a nutshell, the aesthetic concepts of the above two schools, embodied in calligraphy and other art disciplines, are manifested in three aspects, namely: simplicity is beautiful, chiaroscuro is beautiful, and neutralization is beautiful.

Simplicity is beauty, Confucianism and Taoism have a **** the same point of view, that is, nature and things on earth, although diverse and complex, but are composed of the simplest and simplest materials and act according to a most basic law.

One of the classics of Confucianism, the I Ching, holds that there are two kinds of qi in the universe, yin and yang, both of which are very simple. The two are both contradictory and unified, and together they can generate all things. For people, simplicity is easy to understand and simplicity is easy to obey, and things on earth can be rationalized by simplicity and simplicity.

Another Confucian classic, the Book of Rites, says that the grandest music must be easy, and the greatest rituals must be simple ("Great music must be easy, and great rituals must be simple"); they both serve the greatest aesthetic and educational purposes.

The classic work of Taoism, Lao Tzu, says: The Tao produces unity; the unity splits into two opposites; then a third thing is born; and with the third thing, there are a thousand different things. ("The Tao begets one, the Tao begets two, the Tao begets two, the Tao begets three, and the Tao begets all things.") The Laozi adds that the greatest sound sounds like no sound at all, and the greatest image looks like no image at all. ("The greatest sound has no sound, and the greatest image has no image.")

It is reflected in a variety of traditional Chinese arts.

The presentation of traditional Chinese opera (such as Peking Opera) is minimalist: there are no sets on the stage; there are not many props, except for a table and a few chairs when necessary. Therefore, the actors open the door without seeing the door, sit in the car without seeing the car, take three or five steps to travel ten or a hundred miles, and six or seven people to represent thousands of troops and horses. They use the action to mobilize the audience to think of Laozi like an image, leading you to imagine that he is rocking a boat, or sitting in a sedan chair, or to the sky to shoot an arrow, and then pick up a goose that was shot. The actors act realistically, and the audience is energized. It is not like the real like, false place is real, this is called authentic art!

It is also a principle of Chinese painting to depict the world with simple brushwork and colors. Especially in the case of freehand painting, there is not much ink and brushwork, and the technique is used to express the "meaning" of the painter's heart, i.e., emotion, sentiment, imagery, and conception. The painter is not concerned with the form, does not pursue the realistic and precise image of things; but emphasizes the God, i.e. the spirit, the things in his impression, the things he understands, the things he thinks should be that way, or rather, what he conveys to the admirer by means of hints is the gesture and shadow of the things that the author feels in his heart. What he intended to show was not his own keen, fine observation and imitation, but his great imagination, creativity and rich feelings for beauty. Blurring is often more genuine than realism, better able to grasp the true essence of things, more infectious power.

The painter who most forcefully promoted simplicity in painting was Ni Zan of the Yuan Dynasty. His landscape paintings were extremely simple, with little coloring and no figures. He claimed, "The so-called painting of the servant is nothing more than a sketchy brushwork, not seeking resemblance, but writing in his chest." His works are sparse and elegant, simple with complexity, quite durable, and have a great influence on later generations.

The beauty of the word "simple" is especially evident in ancient Chinese poetry. Chinese lyric poetry is distinguished by its shortness and conciseness, often like the montage technique of a movie, which connects sporadic and seemingly unrelated images to achieve a strong effect.

White dew grows on the jade steps and invades the stockings at night.

But the crystal curtains are down, and the moon in autumn is exquisite.

Li Bai, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote this song "Jade Steps Complaint" with 20 words to write about the situation of the courtesans staying awake all night, and the whole poem did not mention a word "complaint", but it is poignant and touching.

The old garden is a long way to the east, and the two sleeves of the dragon's bell will not dry up.

There is no pen or paper to write on, so I have to send you a message to tell you that you are safe.

The above is the famous Tang Dynasty poet Cen Sen's seven poems, "Feng into the Beijing Ambassador", sigh of regret that he was in the remote areas of the military life, Feng into the Beijing Ambassador with a lot of emotions, tears.

Chinese narrative poetry is also characterized by aesthetic simplicity. One of the longest poems, "The Song of Eternal Hatred" by Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty, tells the tragic love story of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei. Yang was originally the consort of a prince, but later entered the palace and was y favored by Emperor Xuanzong. As a result, her brother, Yang Guozhong, was promoted to an official position and formed a party to manipulate the government. Soon, an army started a rebellion in the name of crusading against Yang Guozhong. When Emperor Xuanzong fled to the provinces, Yang Guozhong was killed by soldiers and the princess was hanged by eunuchs. Bai Juyi's seven-character poem weaves together the emperor's devotion to his beloved consort, the subsequent shock and death, and his lifelong longing and hatred. The poem is simple and vivid in its diction, marvelous in its imagery, and such a twisted and entwined story consists of only 120 lines and 840 words. It incites the reader's association and imagination, resulting in a lingering effect.

In contrast, Western poetry is much longer, the British R. Burns (R. Burns) of the lyrical poem "Past Times" (Auld Lang Syne) has 24 lines, more than 140 words. Shelley (P. B. Shelley) "Ode to the West Wind" (Ode to the West Wind) consists of five groups of 14 lines of poetry, the number of sentences, the number of words is much more. Western narrative poems are even longer. The ancient Greek poet Homer (Homer) of the Iliad (Iliad) and the Odyssey (Odyssey) each 24 volumes, detailing the causes and consequences of the event, the character of the characters and the fate of the narrative, and try their best to pursue the story to understand the story, and the story of the tragic effect of the touching.

The difference between this kind of complexity and simplicity is due to the difference between the cultural mind of the East and the West and the traditional view of literature. Westerners focus on the difference between specific things, the rule of literature focus on the reproduction or imitation of things, emphasizing the unique storyline of the bizarre, and strive to twist and tense, heart-wrenching. Traditional Chinese culture focuses on people's own and people and the human heart on earth, the rule of literature focuses on the performance of the author's own feelings, so that readers through the brief plot and hints to strum the heartstrings, although the words are extremely ordinary and simple, readers can understand, and oil born **** Ming. This is a short twenty words of a poem can be sung for thousands of years, often reciting the mystery of the new it.

Now we come to calligraphy. Calligraphy is the simplest and most simple artwork. It consists entirely of a single black dot and line; it does not imitate the shape of objects, but only the combination, distribution and change of lines, with simple, easy, implicit, suggestive and symbolic artistic techniques, so that the dot painting and drawing of feelings, outside the shape of the intent, to create a variety of stylish charm.

Ancient Chinese calligraphy theorists tried their best to praise the beauty and lyricism of the simple calligraphic lines and to reveal the reasoning behind them.

In an essay on brushwork, Zhong Yao of the late Eastern Han Dynasty stated, "The handwriting is the boundary, and the flow of beauty is the person." -- The handwriting is a boundary drawn with dots and lines, and the beauty flowing out of the handwriting is caused by the person, the appearance of the person's aesthetic concepts and ideals.

Tang Dynasty's Zhang Huaiguan said in his article "Discourse on Characters", "In writing, a few words are used to form a meaning, while in calligraphy, a single word has already shown its heart, which can be said to be the way of simplicity." --To express a meaning in writing, several words or phrases are needed; while in calligraphy, a single word can reveal the author's heart, it has really gained the true meaning of simplicity.

The simplicity of calligraphy provides for its ease of use and fascinating features. Engaged in the art of calligraphy does not require complex tools. The four treasures of the literary room are easy to come by. What's more, the words of calligraphy are mainly the words used in daily life, so people can take a step forward from daily writing to the temple of art.

Calligraphy is easy to do, but it is not easy to become. Calligraphy is difficult to master, in terms of specific techniques, because it is extremely complex to grasp as a whole. A brush stroke should be constructed into words, words should be arranged into rows, rows and then form the whole work. The relationship between the individual and the whole should be handled appropriately, and how easy it is. The art of calligraphy is as difficult as an acrobat riding a unicycle, relying on one's mind and body to strike a balance with a subtle sixth sense. Easy to learn and difficult to fine, which is the calligraphy can attract everyone to win, so as to become elegant and popular **** appreciation of the art of a big reason.

Qi Yun for the beauty of the I Ching said: gas cohesion becomes a tangible thing ("essence for the thing"). Another famous work of Taoism, Zhuangzi, says that human survival is due to the gathering of qi. When qi is gathered together, one survives; when qi is dispersed, one dies. ("The life of man is the gathering of qi; when it is gathered, it is life; when it is dispersed, it is death.")

In ancient theories of calligraphy, qi often refers to the situation, qigue, qi bone, meteorology, refers to the work has an active spirit of gesture, that is a basic factor in calligraphy to the beauty. The earliest book theorist, the Eastern Han Dynasty Cai Yong has "nine potential" article, said: "yin and yang are born, the situation out." Later calligraphers also have many articles devoted to the momentum of the book that is the bones of the air. Wang Xizhi said in an article dedicated to the potential of the brush, calligraphy, "the momentum of the wave of air, enough to charm.

Rhyme is different from qi, which originally refers to a harmonious and pleasant sound. Rhyme is used in calligraphy to refer to the proper matching of dots and paintings, words and lines, and the arrangement of stopping evenly, forming a harmonious, beautiful, powerful and rhythmic whole.

The beauty of calligraphy is the compound of qi and rhyme. If qi emphasizes on the beauty of form, rhyme emphasizes on the inner beauty of interest, emotion, spirit, style and so on. If qi emphasizes the richness of formal changes, rhyme emphasizes the depth and breadth of its spiritual connotation. If qi reflects the author's skill and expressive ability, then rhyme reflects his artistic comprehension, imagination and creativity. If qi is what Sun said in his "The Book of Calligraphy", then rhyme is what he said in the next sentence, "combining emotions on paper". Rhyme is actually complementary, inseparable, they are the two sides of a coin, the front and back of the pattern of Wang Duo cursive Gao Shi Poetry Banner, although different, is actually the same coin.

Liu Xizai, a literary critic of the Qing Dynasty, greatly admired the beauty of calligraphy. He said in his book, "The Art of Calligraphy - The Book of Calligraphy," that "high rhyme and deep feeling, firm quality, and vast atmosphere, the lack of one cannot be thought of as a book". He further discussed the relationship between calligraphy and personal cultivation, to the effect that: the charm of calligraphy should be the expression of the individual's mind. Otherwise, even if the work is spared from the thin turbidity, it is only a reflection of others. He emphasized that "the book should be created in nature", that the book in addition to the natural that is imitating the beauty of the elephant to express emotion, but also to sharpen the self, pull out the vulgarity, so that their personality and spirit to be purified, so that you can write the beauty of the charm of the best works.

Centralization and beauty is a Confucian ethical and moral norms. The Book of Rites says: "Neutrality is the foundation of the world, and harmony is the way of the world. When harmony is achieved, heaven and earth are in their proper place and everything grows. Taoism also emphasizes that harmony is the supreme realm and that people should leave nature purely as it is.

In literary and artistic creation, the general meaning of the beauty of harmony is that the expression of feelings should be restrained, and the relationship between the artist's feelings and the physical and emotional environment should be dealt with harmoniously and moderately. It pursues the mood of a work of art in which the subject and the object are in harmony with each other.

The first to put forward the neutralization as a complete concept of the aesthetics of calligraphy and to consider it as the highest guiding principle of the aesthetics of calligraphy was still Sun Shuting of the Tang Dynasty. According to him, the beauty of neutralization is the coordination and unity among the various organic components of calligraphy; it is the affirmation of the harmony between the beauty of reflecting things and the beauty of expressing emotions in calligraphy. Calligraphy is the natural flow of human feelings, but this flow must be in the section, in the reason, not radical, harmonious and appropriate, in the heart of heaven and earth, so that the beauty of human nature and the beauty of nature are harmonized.

Later, many calligraphers further interpreted the beauty of harmony with their own understanding and practice. What they emphasized was that those books which are indulgent, which seek the strange and dangerous, which are both radical and severe, and which reveal one's own natural feelings, as long as they can be withdrawn after being indulgent, and which can turn danger into safety, then they also have the beauty of neutrality and harmony, or even a more advanced beauty of neutrality and harmony.

Zheng Banqiao line book page of the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, Wang Duo is made such a neutral beauty of the master. He tried to break away from his predecessors in writing and tried his best to seek new and strange. Especially write cursive, vertical pen to take the trend, strange and interesting, the pen of the word one by one, as he himself said, "lifting the foot, somersault, driving the clouds to the air line", and then he performed magic, one by one to capture them in the line to come. See how his "Gao Shi Poem Banner" on the previous page was struggled and twisted to generate a diverse and staggering, flashing and flying momentum, and finally reached a higher level of neutralization of the beauty.

Yang Weizhen's calligraphy of the Yuan Dynasty was not subject to the shackles of Zhao Mengfu, who ruled the world of calligraphy for a long time with his peaceful, simple and quiet style that was not aggressive or harsh, and his gentle and elegant style, and he wrote the "Tieyi Style" (Tieyi was his name) that was unique and unique. Please look at his rows of calligraphy "real mirror nuns to collect the edge of the sparse", the word large and small, solid and false, dry and wet, regular and cursive, and often mixed with some ancient characters, varied and yet integrated, called the use of the opposite of each other, the yin and yang to the beauty of the way of a good example.

The works of Zheng Banqiao, one of the Eight Monsters of Yangzhou in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, are another style. He served as a governor in a foreign province, but because he offended his superiors, he was dismissed from his post and returned home, where he made his living by selling calligraphy and painting. His calligraphy has several kinds of fonts mixed into the interest, some people joked that it is "chaotic stone pavement street". Above Zheng Banqiao album page, running script, clerical script, cursive mixed out, sometimes write out of the spirit of the Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi pen, sometimes write out of the strong wave in the Hanbei pick, and sometimes with a few strokes of the meaning of the wild grass. It is not chaotic, change but not abrupt, the more untidy, the more harmonious and wonderful, interesting. Is not such a "chaotic stone pavement" also harmonious and unified, revealing the natural feelings, with the beauty of the beauty of the harmony of the fine arts? He loved to paint bamboo, stone, orchids, he painted orchids like writing, writing and painting orchids.