In classical calligraphy, many people spend their entire lives without achieving anything, which is disappointing. The key to why you work so hard is that you don't know the secret of writing. Since ancient times, the method of writing has been secretly passed down privately, and as a result it was almost lost.
When people study calligraphy today, they only know what it is but don't know why it is what it is; they only know the form of dot painting, but they don't know why it is the way it is.
Because I didn't know why, I had to use a pen to make the appearance of the writing on the stele, hiding my head and guarding my tail, and being careful... It was extremely painful to write.
The flow of pen and ink in calligraphy books has now become a chore of deliberate artificiality. The so-called difference between a beginner and an expert is just the difference between starting to artificially and being familiar with it.
As for this child specifically, I suggest you cancel the calligraphy class first. Nowadays, teachers are all people who seek wealth and harm people's lives (and harm people's wisdom and life!).
Then start with ink marks, don’t learn inscriptions first. Secondly, don’t write the characters in such big letters, just like the original post. Of course, the pen should be changed to a smaller one. Most importantly: write faster!
Some people may ask: What should I do if it doesn’t look like me when I write fast?
The answer: It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t look like it.
Although there are many questions, let’s solve the most basic one first: don’t write on rice paper! It's time to switch to handmade raw edge paper. If you have plenty of money, you can also use silk.
Rice paper was a widely accepted writing paper only in the late Ming Dynasty, and most classic calligraphy works were produced before the Yuan Dynasty. As for Fu Shan, Wang Duo and others during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they all used silk or damask to write. Even the four families in the Ming Dynasty did not use the rice paper we have today. We won’t talk much about paper for now. You just know that current rice paper is not suitable for writing.
In addition to changing the paper, you should also start writing with small characters about three to five centimeters square. If you don't want to read modern works, you should not read them. Find a classical work and write each word dozens of times. With your talent, you can naturally discover the underlying rhythm of classical works.
Practicing calligraphy for an hour every day is a lot of money. Relying on willpower is not the best way. It is best to find the joy of writing.
The fun lies not only in the final result, but more importantly in the writing process. Then, you should pay attention to the feeling of your own body, not just the visual effect
1. It is best not to learn things from contemporary people. Although learning will produce quick results, the final result is nothing more than artistic calligraphy.
2. "Jiucheng Palace" by Ouyang Xun. This is a high-level subject. You can first take an introductory training course on Ouyang Xun's calligraphy and regular script writing.
3. Don’t learn inscriptions on inscriptions first, because they require a certain amount of understanding. Let’s start with inscriptions on inscriptions.
There are quite a lot of ink books from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as Zhiyong's Thousand-Character Essay, "Da Zi Yin Fu Jing", "Wen Fu", etc., which are all good ways to get started. Although it is a little slow to get started, the correct direction is important for long-term development. Of course, it doesn't matter if it's just for fun.
Mi Fu's writing method is to connect different points of painting through reasonable movements.
You are fluent in writing. This is an advantage that you should stick to. However, if you pursue fluency blindly, it will become slick. For you, it requires stopping. Look at the Holy Order and see where the words in it stop! In other words, after you can let go, you must be able to hold it together. In fact, the two are complementary to each other. If you cannot hold them together, there will be no process of accumulating force. Without accumulating force, the force will not be fully exerted. If you pursue writing speed without sufficient exertion, your writing will become slick.
In other words, you have to re-disassemble the characters in the ancient posts and see how many jumps there are in each character, whether it is a big jump or a small jump, where is the starting point of each jump, which direction does it jump to, and what kind of jump is used? This jump can be successfully completed using the correct pen method... It’s mainly up to you to understand it, because even if you watch others doing the movements, it’s not easy to lose sight of the way if they move too fast.
1. Don't use sheep's hair, especially don't use Changfeng's hair. At least don't use sheep's hair when writing things before the Yuan Dynasty. Tools are very important. The saying that if you are good at writing, you should not choose a pen. It means that you did not choose a pen when writing brushes were similar at that time. Our current writing brushes are very different from those of the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially the brush brushes. Except for sheep hair, purple hair is not wear-resistant, so use wolf hair. However, ordinary wolf hair on the market is made of chemical fiber, so choose a slightly more expensive wolf hair.
2. Don’t write much larger than the original post. A slightly larger size is fine. Secondly, you need to fold the paper into a grid. If you look carefully, you will see that there are fold lines in the original text of "Shupu". When practicing calligraphy on rice paper, use paper with a slightly smoother surface. For example, handmade rough edges are good and cheap. The paper used for formal creations can be made of silk, old rice paper, colored rice paper, or lacquered paper, or you can process it yourself, but it is more troublesome.
3. Your unique problem is that your grasp of form is too inaccurate. Although we don’t seek to be similar in appearance, we still need to be similar in appearance. I guess you copied it down all the way when you wrote the post. In fact, you should break through it word by word. You should write each word a dozen or dozens of times. This will make learning faster. First find a page from a book, or write it down in one sentence.
Fanyi mentioned the issue of the ancients using paper and pen, which is very important. However, many scholars think this is a low-level question and dismiss it. In fact, this is an advanced issue, so it deserves its own discussion.
Let’s talk about paper first. We know that its predecessors are bamboo and silk fabrics, which are often referred to as bamboo slips, wooden slips and silk books. The classic "dian" is the appearance of holding a row of bamboo slips in both hands, and the "jing" is the rope that weaves the bamboo slips. But the bamboo slips were too bulky, and the order could easily get messed up if the rope was broken. The silk books were too expensive, and ordinary people couldn't afford them.
Starting from the Han Dynasty, smart Chinese began to use discarded hemp to make paper. It is worth noting for scholars that almost at the same time as papermaking was invented, the Chinese invented coating technology. The so-called coating is to evenly cover the paper surface with a layer of paint. Why do this? First of all, because bamboo slips and silk fabrics are very smooth, while early hemp fiber paper is uneven, coating can make the interface smooth. Second, bamboo slips and silk fabrics are non-bleeding, but hemp fiber paper is not dense enough, and ink will penetrate into the small gaps between loose fibers, causing ink bleeding. In order to prevent ink from bleeding, it is also necessary to apply coating on the paper.
Because it requires so much processing, paper in ancient times was very expensive. There was once a saying that "Luoyang paper is expensive", and it is no lie. So what do the poor do? Huaisu's family was very poor, otherwise they would not have sent him to the temple. He practiced calligraphy using lacquer plates and banana leaves, both of which were very smooth. The legendary "Chengxintang", the best paper, is also smooth and smooth, just the opposite of our current rice paper.
How to make paper smooth and smooth? In addition to adding paint, another important process is calendering, including beating. But it is a pity that most of the ancient papermaking techniques have been lost. Three minutes of silence. Today's rice paper is completely different from ancient paper, and the materials are also different. Ancient paper uses more hemp and mulberry bark, while rice paper uses sandalwood bark and straw, which has an advantage in cost, so it dominates the world. Ancient paper is coated, while rice paper is generally not coated, and even if it is, it is simply glue. Ink seepage on ancient paper goes vertically downward, while on modern rice paper it spreads flatly. You can transform ordinary rice paper into an effect similar to ancient paper through your own processing, but it may be very difficult to completely restore ancient techniques. The technology of paper processing is generally secret, so it is not convenient to say more here.
Next, let’s talk about pens. Pens are better than paper, but they are also more troublesome. The difficulty in making pens lies in materials and techniques.
Brushes have been made of animal hair since the beginning of time and have been around since prehistoric times. It is a misinformation that Meng Tian made brushes. Maybe he improved the brush-making process? The selection of animal hair is very particular. It requires rabbit hair (purple hair), green sheep hair (sheep hair), and weasel hair (wolf hair) that live in cold areas. As for deer hair, horse hair, ox ear hair, etc., they are only made occasionally. It's not mainstream. Why use the hair of these small animals? Because of their special structure, the tips are streamlined and tapered like arrowheads. It can't be used as a brush if it looks like human hair, because it has a straight up and down column shape. Their fur is not only unique in shape, but also delicate and elastic. In other words, it has both strength and softness. The key to whether a brush is good or not depends on whether it can combine hardness and softness. It must be both euphemistic and delicate, and it must rise and fall freely. Today's brushes are either as hard as a bristle brush and full of paper burrs, or they are as soft as a mop and cannot get up after falling down. Nothing but chemical fibers causing trouble. By the way, the ancient sheep's hair is not the same as the sheep we use today. They use the back hair of wild alpine green sheep, which is very short and has good elasticity. Today's wool is taken from goat hair, which is soft and long. Even rabbit hair and wolf hair are different from those in ancient times. Why? Because the weather is getting warmer, and where can I find wild rabbits and weasels in high mountain areas now? They are all domesticated, with fat brains, thick hair and thick flesh. In short, the wool materials used to make pens are difficult to compare with those of ancient times.
Besides, the craftsmanship of making pens is also different from ancient times to modern times. Pen-making in ancient times was divided into two types: intentional and unintentional, and both are inherited in modern times. This is not the key. The key is that the shape of pen making today is different from that of the ancients. In ancient pens, the focus was on the waist strength of the pen, so the pen tip was deeply embedded in the pen barrel, and the resulting pen edge was thick and short. Nowadays, the focus of the pen is on the tip, which is planted shallowly and the resulting pen tip is thin and long. In fact, the pen-making technology is not the problem, the problem is the cost. The middle of the root of the brush is often filled with hard fibers to increase elasticity, but some people began to add fibers for profit. In a vicious circle, everyone starts to adulterate, which is really fatal. Besides, animal hair is also expensive. A decent pure wolf hair will probably cost more than 200. Purple hair is even worse, the cost is also less than 200, but it only costs three to five thousand words. From a commercial point of view, nylon fiber is better. It is cheap and durable. It has only one drawback: it cannot write well.
The reason why nylon fiber and rice paper are widely used is also related to changes in lifestyle. The ancients held the writing in their hands to read, usually about three centimeters or even smaller. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, household buildings became taller and large characters hanging on the walls became popular. However, traditional paper-making and pen-making processes are difficult to adapt to large-character writing, and the main cost remains high. At this time, rice paper came into being and it was also the need of the times. The pen-making industry also began to produce large-sized brushes, and long hairs such as horse mane and deer hair appeared in large numbers. Of course, the most common ones were long-edge sheep hair. In particular, the prevalence of seal script and official script in the Qing Dynasty also contributed to the popularity of Yanghao. Modern people began to use Yanghao to write cursive. If they want to return to the style of the classical era, they may be going in the opposite direction.
The problem of grayish ink on gold-plated paper is also a common problem. There are two possibilities: 1. Ink fails; 2. Paper fails.
If it is the ink, then there are the following methods: 1. Add some water to the ink and grind it again; 2. Add some wine; 3. Add some gelatin; 4. Add acrylic; 5. Use pine smoke ink; 6. Use Japanese ink (not Recommended, expensive).
What is brushwork? The key to the method of writing is not the shape of the pen and ink on the paper, but the movement of the writer.
Before talking about movements, we must first talk about posture. Although there have been various methods of writing through the ages, there is one principle that cannot be shaken: the finger is strong, the palm is empty, and the wrist is flat.
1. Finger pointing: The finger and the brush should be relatively fixed. Do not use the belly of your finger to hold the pen, but the tip of the bone at the end of the finger. At the beginning, you can hold the pen barrel firmly, and after you get used to it, you can relax slightly. In short, don’t form the habit of picking at the penholder with your fingers!
2. Palm deficiency: To hold the pen correctly, there should be a space about the size of a table tennis ball in the palm of your hand. Your fingers cannot reach the palm!
3. Wrist flat: Wrist flat means that the back of the hand and the wrist are basically on the same plane. A slight angle is allowed, but an erect palm is not allowed!
Learning calligraphy to correct your writing is equivalent to learning boxing to correct your body shape. It is both the most basic and the most important. As for the key points after getting started, we will talk about it later.
By the way, don’t use the “perfect match” of wool and rice paper.
There is a classic writing method that may suit you, so give it a try.
Take two writing brushes, hold them between your fingers like chopsticks, and then take away the lower one. The remaining one is the correct writing posture.
This writing posture is very common among laymen, but it is actually the most classical way of holding a pen. Since there is such an opportunity, I will reveal it in advance. It looks like holding a pen, but it's actually different. Press the penholder with the first knuckle of your thumb, not your fingertip, so your index finger doesn't have to be too bent. It can still achieve the effect of flat palms and flat wrists, and the fingers will not move randomly, so it is more stable.
If you can achieve the goal of cultivating your mind, your calligraphy will have reached the highest level, and you will just smile dumbly when you look back at the so-called famous masters.
Two hours of training every day is indispensable, and these two hours should mainly be spent on copying.
The purpose of copying is not to make the font look like the original post, but to extract and fix the movements in the original post. We can only see the ink marks of the ancients, but we can guess the movements of the ancients. In other words, the process of posting is actually a decryption process, which is very taxing. However, this is also very rewarding. Once you catch the ancient writing movements and fix them, you can write correctly no matter how you write.
My explanation is just my opinion. I don't want to say anything, and you don't want to listen to it.
Jiucheng Palace is too difficult a topic and is not suitable for beginners.
If you like the European style, you can use the Zhang Han and Thousand-Character scripts as regular scripts or regular scripts.
In fact, we are very lucky now to see so many Moben. There are many ink marks in the Tang Dynasty. Let’s start with the ink marks first. This will save you some detours.
As far as the use of sheep's hair is concerned when writing Wei steles, in the Qing Dynasty and modern times, sheep's hair was used a lot to write, and vigorous, ancient and clumsy writing was preferred. But what kind of pen did the person who wrote the Wei stele use at that time? What was the effect of the person who originally wrote the Wei stele? I was fortunate enough to travel to various cliff inscriptions from the Northern Dynasties, but I realized that rubbings are not enough to convey the spirit. The mottled and vast effect on the rubbings is mostly caused by weathering and erosion over time. If you look closely at the writing marks on the stone carvings, you will see that they are all smooth and elegant without exception, and they must have been made with hard work. In the Qing Dynasty and modern times, many efforts were made to write about the Wei stele, but in fact it is not the original appearance of the Wei stele. As for calligraphy in modern times and Qing Dynasty, I don’t think it belongs to the category of classical calligraphy, so I can’t argue with it.
The importance of tools is not absolute, but it is the basis. If you fail this level, you will be unable to succeed.
For example, Xichuang Yiyu's willow-shaped creations are different from paper and pen. The pen is made of nylon fiber and the paper is made of rubber. Writing with these two methods and trying to catch up with the charm of the Tang Dynasty is like riding a horse and trying to travel a thousand miles, but it will not succeed.
Or someone might ask: It’s not possible to make raw Xuan or cooked Xuan, so it can’t be done without rice paper, right?
Rice paper is not unavailable, but depending on the type of rice paper, it is best to use rice paper produced twenty years ago. However, the price is very high, the goods are scarce, and the use is very demanding, so it is better to just use handmade burrs.
As mentioned before, the European body is a problem, but in fact, isn't the Liu body a trap? I remember that when I first learned calligraphy, I was delighted when I saw the willow script, but I wasted several years without success. Are you not diligent in studying? Suppression of shallow talent? In fact, the reason is that the willow body can easily lead to wrong writing methods.
The Liu-style regular script we see are all inscriptions on inscriptions. Liu Gongquan's only ink calligraphy is "Meng Zhao" ("Lanting Poems" is fake), but "Meng Zhao" is not suitable for beginners. Simply starting from the "Liu" characters on the stele, it is most likely to cause the disadvantage of deliberately wrapping the pen around the shape. The more you write, the more complicated and unnatural the writing becomes, and the more you write, the stiffer your hand becomes. On the surface, it seems that the writing is getting better and better, but in fact, it is getting further and further away from the writing method of the ancients. Therefore, when I see beginners writing Liuti, I immediately feel horrified.
When I was a child, the idol I admired when I was writing was called Li Chunbo. He was good at writing in Liu style, and winning awards was like picking something out of a bag. After decades, I saw Li Chunbo's calligraphy collection in recent years, and I was greatly surprised by its inferiority. If there is no other, the development route is wrong. Although there is temporary success, it will ultimately hinder the great cause.
Before we talk about writing techniques, let’s correct a few basics:
1. Select Tang Dynasty ink as the target for posting;
2. Practice and create with handmade raw edge paper;
3. When writing regular script, you must make grids on the paper;
4. Pay attention to writing movements rather than fonts;
If you like willow style, it doesn't matter. In fact, the real brushwork is the same, and the fonts are easy to say. If you know the writing style from other places, then when you come back to write Liu, the feeling will be completely different.
Let me first talk about my evaluation of Liu Ti. Ding Wenjun said, "The sincerity of the calligraphy and the structure of the writing are too soft and reserved... Up to this point, the shortcomings of the Tang Dynasty writing have been deep. If you use it to make big characters, it will be too fragmented, and if you use it to make small characters, it will be too stiff." Ding's statement is also reasonable, because this is how later generations learned. It’s a willow style, so it’s not suitable for beginners to learn the willow style. But in fact, Liu Ti's brushstrokes are very natural, and you have to have a slightly higher level to know this.
Secondly, let’s talk about the ink marks of the Tang Dynasty. We can regard the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties as one period. The ink marks of this period include:
Regular script: countless Dunhuang sutras, Lingfei Sutra, Zhiyong Thousand-Character Classic, Yin Fu Jing, Ji An Zhuan, Zi Shu Gao Shen, Shan Jian Lv, etc. Small regular script can be slightly enlarged.
Running script: Zhu Juchuan's confession, Zhang Hao's poem, leek flower calligraphy, Ouyang Xun's various calligraphy (mainly Zhang Han, supplemented by Qianziwen), Wagtail Ode, Nephew Memorial Manuscript, Tumu Calligraphy
There are more cursive scripts, not listed.
In fact, there is another rich "Tang Dynasty" resource, which is Japan's three strokes and three traces. In particular, the works of Michika Ono and Yukinari Fujiwara can be viewed as works of the Tang Dynasty.
Then let’s talk about the legal system of the Tang Dynasty. Jin and Song people were more casual, so they wrote very free and easy. However, precisely because of the freedom and ease, it is difficult for future generations to get started. It is not a good idea to start with "Lanting" or "Sumi Dang". The people of the Tang Dynasty strictly abided by the rules, from the ink instinct to the standard use of the pen, at least there would be no serious problems. As for the requirements for tools, they are very high in every era, except now, haha. We can only do our best in this regard, it depends on the conditions.
If you give up halfway through studying, it's often because you don't know where to start. But there is no way to do it, and because there are many fallacies in the market. There may be some problems with Shen Yinmo's book review, so be careful!
By the way, the biography of Xiao Wangzhi and the biography of Wang Mang in the Dunhuang scriptures are the best in regular script and can be slightly enlarged.
The issue of Kukai's writing method mentioned by Rinjiang Sheng is another heavyweight issue, so I need to spend a few more words on it. The issue of writing is inherently complex, and the misinterpretation of modern people has made it even more obscure.
In the Tang Dynasty, Han Fangming proposed that the esoteric writing method was double bract, and believed that the ordinary single bract was not a superior writing method. Ms. Sun Xiaoyun had a misunderstanding about this, thinking that double buds are the two fingers of the index finger and middle finger hooking the pen. In fact, double buds are the thumb and index finger. So what is a single bract? Just look at the "School Book Picture" and you will know that it is called Shan Bao by hooking it with the index finger. No one writes like this anymore, but many people wrote like this before the Tang Dynasty.
To put it another way, Kukai’s writing style was double-breasted. Sun Xiaoyun's biggest problem is not the problem of how many fingers are used to hold the pen, but that she mistakenly believes that ancient people twisted the brush back and forth on their fingers, and thought this was the secret of writing skills. Alas, it’s okay to make a mistake yourself, but to write a book to mislead other people’s children can’t help but make people sigh.
Sun Xiaoyun's most direct mistake was to misunderstand the sentence. The original text is: Place the pen in front of the middle section of the big finger, and when turning, use the two little fingers and the middle finger to help. Ancient prose often has no subject, which is also a problem. The subject of "turning" is not the brush, the big finger, the index finger, the middle finger, or the little finger, but the wrist. Kukai didn't explain clearly, so Sun Xiaoyun guessed wrong. How is it possible to twist the tube while writing? Unless you write the so-called Wei Shu or the New Wei Shu slowly.
Sha Menghai was also very interested in Kukai's brushwork. He proposed the idea of holding the pen at an angle, which many of his disciples agreed with. But what he didn't expect was that while Kukai held the pen at an angle, he also held the paper at an angle with his left hand! So the paper and pen are basically still vertical. Sha Laoxie wrote while lying on the table. The charm of Jin and Tang Dynasties is probably rare, and at most it is Su Dongpo.
Of course, it is impossible to achieve peerless kung fu just by correcting writing. There is still a lot of road to go. But the importance of writing exceeds many people's estimates. I wonder if you have watched "The Lost Martial Arts"? Old man Li Zhongxuan said that his master often took the trouble to correct his posture, often for several months. Because the static posture is not accurate, it falls apart when it moves. Once the stillness is correct, then you can be taught how to exert force.
Regardless of martial arts or calligraphy, there are indeed secrets. But it doesn't mean that you can become popular all over the world immediately after you get the secret. You still have to practice hard. However, those who don't know the secrets practice hard but have no success, but those who get the secrets are just effective. Most of Wang Xizhi's children lived short lives, but their calligraphy skills were impressive. Wang Xizhi must have taught them secretly. Kukai's calligraphy improved greatly within one year of his coming to China. This was definitely not possible through hard work, and there must also be secret teachings involved. Of course, there are also those who realize themselves, such as Huang Shanshangu, Zhang Xu, etc.
The ingenuity of ancient works lies in the natural removal of carvings. Deliberately arranged cleverly, it will soon reach a certain height and then go from bad to worse. The ingenuity that comes naturally will gradually improve with age.
Most contemporary calligraphers flourish in middle age, and then their writing becomes worse and worse. Without him, I am old and weak, unable to make trouble. On the other hand, among ancient calligraphers, there is a saying that all calligraphers are old. Must think deeply!
The way to correct it is to reduce the role of vision in calligraphy, and to increase the sensitivity of the body and mind in the writing process. The specific operation method is: when writing, close one eye, or keep your eyes slightly away from the words. At this time, pay attention to the movement of the body: whether it is comfortable, smooth, portable, stiff...
1. The handwritten Cao Jue song was written by Han Daoheng in the late Ming Dynasty. The collected version of the Cao Jue song is written by Wang Xizhi. It may have appeared in the Song Dynasty. However, both versions are inferior and not recommended.
2. When it comes to word formation and writing skills, of course, writing skills come first. Specifically, the arrangement of fonts depends on the strength of the pen. For example, when writing a horizontal line, why are some horizontal lines long and some short? That's because long horizontal lines have unused power, so they are long; short horizontal lines have the power to turn, so they are short. If you look carefully at the two small horizontal strokes in the "shell" in the handwriting of the ancients, they are both extremely crisp and clean, and even the two ends are not touching. This is the result of their extremely fast movement of the pen in the opposite direction. Modern people don't know why, but they still have to slowly add two small dots in the middle of the shell. The result is the same as the original.
Precisely because the writing skills are more important than the knots, I have repeatedly reassured everyone that it doesn’t matter if they don’t write well. It is true that the current calligraphy education pays too much attention to the similarity of appearance, and ultimately it is out of touch. They are very similar, and there is no similarity in the creation process. In fact, it should be the other way around and focus on using the pen. It doesn't look like it when you first create it, but it looks cool when you create it.
Regarding Yan Liu, it is indeed difficult to switch to running script - although Yan Liu's own running script is very good. It is also a good idea to start with Han official script, if you can pay attention to the ink official script of the Han Dynasty. The Chinese characters we use now are basically finalized in the Han Dynasty, both in structure and writing style. Regular script, running script, and cursive script are all derived from official script.
Qingyue Yingguo has paid more attention to the use of pens, has good pen control skills, and has relatively flexible wrists. The next step that should be trained is writing speed:
1. Find a better version and pay attention to the hairsprings in the Holy Order. The hairspring shows that the writing speed here is very fast. You need to write at the same speed. Of course, it doesn't matter if you can't write the hairspring. Just know how to speed up here.
2. Pay attention to the "knotted" part of the word, which is where the strokes are heavier. The heavy strokes are not caused by pressing the brush down, but indicate that there is a sudden brake in this place. Then you should also brake suddenly and be careful to increase the speed first.
3. Although the speed is fast, don’t limit the movement of the pen edge to the inside of the font, but observe the movement of the pen edge in the space outside the font. Open up the pen and write, but put it on the paper in a controlled manner, understand?
The structure of the Holy Religion is almost perfect, so we must remain unmoved and focus on the inner writing. If you can't find the way to write, you can refer to the half tablet.
Is the burr you used machine-made? The machine-made burrs lack elasticity, so replace them with handmade ones.
The tracing pen must be wrong! It's okay to trace it once in a while; it's a bad habit to always trace it twice. But we should know why people nowadays cannot write with natural edges and corners: 1. Wrong writing technique; 2. Incompatibility of paper and pen.
Then let’s talk about the Su style written by Zhilin, a recent Mohist:
1. Old problem, the characters are too big! We will write as big as Su Shi wrote, size is very important!
2. Why is the size of characters important? Because speed is important. Look how spirited Su Shi’s original work is! Where does the spirit come from? Come with speed! This speed is not the speed of a galloping wild horse, but a kind of force, which is the ability to suddenly exert force within a square inch. Look carefully at Su Shi's original works and experience his flickering movements.
3. The initial stage of exerting force lies in the adjustment of the stroke after writing. This movement is very subtle and fast, and can only be experienced by oneself. Anyway, you can't drag the brush flat, because the strokes you drag flat will have no strength. But don't twist it around slowly, as it will also reduce the quality of your strokes. You will gradually understand the details after observing the original work, so the quality of Linxi's inscriptions should be slightly higher.
4. Don’t read it all first, understand it word by word. What is the level of understanding? Writing with pleasure is called understanding.
The choice of tools is very important. If we choose the right paper and pen, we will save a lot of time in the process of studying. The best paper is the paper that you process yourself. We will talk about it later. But you can’t process the pen yourself, right? Therefore, you need to buy a hard pen with less nylon. Many old pens from ten or twenty years ago have less nylon added, which makes them easier to use. But where can I find so many old pens? I had to buy the current production of Xiaolang hair, and I couldn't use the cheap one, because it must be made of nylon.
How to distinguish nylon and animal hair? Look at the elasticity. The strong one is nylon! Animal hair is very soft when it is soaked, whether it is purple hair, wolf hair or sheep hair. But after soaking in ink overnight, the hair will gradually become elastic. In other words, the animal hair is alive and will become more comfortable as you write. And nylon is dead, whatever you buy it will be in the end.
Why aren't you allowed to use Changfeng? Not only because there is no such thing in history, but also because Changfeng cannot convey the rhythm of the wrist to paper and ink. I once heard that you cannot develop writing skills with hard brushes, but you have to use sheep brushes to develop writing skills. This statement may seem reasonable, but it is actually deceptive. I don’t deny that even the best masters can pick flowers and leaves and use sheep hair to feel refreshed. But we let a beginner practice using a paper sword?
From the perspective of classical calligraphy, it is too modern, with only ink but no pen. In fact, this style is the current mainstream. Most exhibition halls and inscriptions are of a similar style, pursuing grandeur, majesty and contrast.
The purpose of classical calligraphy is not for exhibition. Most of the time, I write for my own enjoyment or to enjoy it with one or two friends.
We must make a choice between the calligraphy style formed in modern times and the classical calligraphy style. We cannot step on two boats, and there is no middle way to take.
