Riding the wind of rebirth

"Calligraphy is a treasure of Chinese culture, and cursive script is unique for its unrestrained and free-spirited style. It contains the most changes in Chinese calligraphy and can most clearly reflect the author's personal style and emotions. It is an artistic pearl that all Chinese calligraphers are eager to pick."

"As a famous calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, Huang Tingjian's cursive script inherited the charm of the Jin and Tang dynasties while creating his own unique style. His creation is like a winemaker. After years of precipitation, he brewed the most mellow taste in art. From his early learning path to his exchanges with famous calligraphers, his mature works all show his profound skills. This work in his later years, with more than a thousand words and more than 16 meters long, is not only an ultimate display of cursive script techniques, but also a brilliant peak of Huang Tingjian's personal artistic career."

"His cursive style not only has traces of the Jin and Tang dynasties, but is also influenced by the trend of calligraphy at the time. He seeks innovation and change, and emphasizes the combination of inheritance of tradition and personal understanding. After incorporating his personal emotions and experiences, he achieves a breakthrough in tradition."

"Through the wandering, swaying and floating brushstrokes, the characters are varied and well-arranged, and the structure is carefully laid out to achieve the unity of vision and emotion, which is rigorous and rhythmic."

"The connection between characters is like the beat of music, with a natural and smooth feeling. The narrative of calligraphy is not only reflected in the semantics of the characters, but also in the integrity of its composition, which conveys a strong emotion. The flow of this emotion is a kind of charm in calligraphy art."

At this point, Zhou Zhi extended his right index finger and began to imitate calligraphy in the air: "This kind of cursive script is like the sound of nature echoing in my ears. Through bold brushstrokes and smooth character shape transitions, sometimes steady, sometimes flying, it makes people feel as if they are in a symphony of history. Its smooth transitions are like the rhythm of poetry, making the whole work vivid and distinct. When reading this work, the viewer can not only feel the beauty of its character shape, but also appreciate the meaning and power conveyed by the smooth brushstrokes."

When onlookers watch Zhou Zhi's hand movements, it feels like a great conductor conducting a symphony. In this way, Zhou Zhi gives the viewers the most intuitive feeling, that is, how to drive the pen tip through wrist movements and express personal emotions and the "implied meaning" of calligraphy through handwriting.

"Huang Tingjian was not only an enthusiast, but also a genius. He pursued calligraphy from his youth to old age, and was consistent throughout his life. Therefore, in his later years, his brushwork had reached a state of ease, and he was able to achieve a perfect unity of publicity and restraint, surging passion and powerful strength in one work."

"After Yuanyou, Huang Tingjian suffered a brutal blow from party politics, but it was precisely because of this major change in his personal experience that his calligraphy style changed again."

"After his enlightenment, he described his epiphany in calligraphy by saying, 'My writing is so swift and dynamic, very different from what I wrote in Yuanyou.' His subsequent calligraphy works showed that he had achieved a qualitative leap in his technique."

At this point, Zhou Zhi has come to the last word "也" in the sentence "First the worries of the country, then the personal hatred": "This '也" is drawn out in a long line, with a strong momentum running through it. It can be seen that his last stroke is full of strong emotions."

"In fact, he completely concealed his views on party struggles and the ups and downs of his life in his writing, and brought them out through this one stroke. We, the younger generation, can fully appreciate his inner grief and indignation when we observe and imitate him!"

Zhou Zhi's calligraphy level is already quite good. Although he has done little in practicing cursive script, he has the ability to read and copy calligraphy, and has the basic skills in copying. Therefore, after he demonstrates and interprets his works, people who follow him to watch his works have a deeper understanding of the art of Chinese calligraphy.

Especially for some details in calligraphy, such as the treatment of turning points, the treatment of connected strokes, and the use of flying white, in such a large work, you can find examples of various applications. Then, by comparing these details, the viewer will understand that great calligraphers like Huang Tingjian have already engraved the pursuit of change and avoidance of repetition into their bones, while also complying with the composition of characters, that is, the basic logic of Chinese character aesthetics, and the tradition of dancing with shackles on has not been lost.

Many strokes that look similar at first glance, after Zhou Zhi's explanation, everyone discovered that calligraphers have completely different ways of handling them. All of these occur in the swift and fast-paced creative process of cursive calligraphy, where the artist's hands, eyes, and brain have reached a highly perfect state of harmony, a state where the artist forgets himself and lets inspiration completely break free from the constraints of the body.

For Zhou Zhi, there are not many opportunities to experience the most perfect and delicate carrier of Huang Tingjian's calligraphy up close. Even the most exquisite reproductions made with modern technology cannot reproduce the flow and changes of the brushstrokes that can be felt when observing the works in person.

"Both rice paper and brushes are very sensitive tools. They can faithfully record the direction of force and even the slightest changes in rhythm, but this information is difficult to inherit and express through reproductions." Zhou Zhi concluded: "Therefore, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, calligraphy gradually became divided into stele learning and post-learning. Later, it even influenced the formation of ancient character research schools."

"This is also an inevitable phenomenon in the development of many civilizations. Civilizations first appeared primitive and simple, then gradually developed into sophisticated and complicated. But after reaching a certain level, a lot of simplification will begin to appear again."

"As the pace of life gets faster and faster, this simplification is fully reflected in all aspects of culture, whether it is calligraphy, painting, food, clothing, or even music and movies."

“We certainly cannot simply characterize this as the decline of beauty and art. I personally prefer to understand it the other way around. That is, no matter how annoyed we are by the rush of life, we still remember to reward ourselves in a way that can intoxicate our souls.”

"Even if this kind of intoxication becomes less and less frequent and the time is shorter and shorter, it still reflects the famous saying of Chinese thinker Mencius thousands of years ago: everyone has a love for beauty."

There was applause in the hall. The explanation by the young Chinese man in front of them enabled most of the people present, who were oriental art enthusiasts, to have a deeper understanding of the most dazzling pearl in the crown of oriental art - calligraphy art.

They can easily appreciate porcelain, bronze, jade, and sculptures, and can even understand murals and scrolls that are not painted according to the Western perspective aesthetic logic. However, calligraphy is indeed a bit beyond the scope.

Today, Zhou Zhi gave them a brief introduction from the earliest oracle bone script to the latest cursive script. Everyone couldn't help but feel a sense of superiority - it turns out that there is a reason why we like Eastern art history so much, because this wave of aesthetics is indeed advanced enough! (End of this chapter)