Specifically, restraining the left and promoting the right can be divided into the left-right relationship and the up-and-down relationship, which has two meanings: first, from the left and right, it can be summarized as narrow left and wide right, tight left and loose right, closed left and released right, and tackled right left, which means that Ning Zuo does not want right; Second, it should be left low and right high, the left side should be pressed down and the right side should be raised up. However, restraining the left and promoting the right are not equal, one is the cause and the other is the result. Suppressing the left is to promote the right, which is the key point. Because it is necessary to promote the right, it is necessary to suppress the left.
why do you want to praise the right? This is not only a question of calligraphy, but also a microcosm of China culture. In China culture, there is a phenomenon called taking the right as the respect. Let's take an example. For example, driving in China must be on the right, and the horizontal line should be aligned to the right during military training. In ancient times, the right prime minister was greater than the left prime minister and the right general was greater than the left general. Wang Xizhi, a book sage, became a right general, called Wang Youjun for short. Mozi said that "right ghost" means respecting ghosts, ancient Chinese said that "moving to the left" means demotion, and "right text" means Chongwen. Take calligraphy as an example. In ancient times, writing was vertical, with the right side as the head. So far, calligraphy works are still like this. Why should we start from the upper right corner? Is to respect the right. For another example, when writing a calligraphy work with a brush, you must write the first word from the top right corner. Generally speaking, the body part is larger than the inscription, and the inscription is smaller. And the inscription should be lower, which was called Pingque in ancient times. In addition, the font of the inscription should not be ancient in the main text. For example, the text is cursive and can't be signed in regular script; The text is regular script, and you can't sign it with official script; The text is official script, and it can't be signed with seal script; The seal script and other ancient styles can't be signed for the modern styles such as Kai Xing Cao. Why? This is the expression of respecting the right in calligraphy, specifically, restraining the left and promoting the right.
why do you respect the right? The ancients didn't give an exact answer either. I think there are two possibilities. The first aspect is related to the moon. From the new moon at the beginning of the month to the full moon, it is called the first quarter moon, and from the hope to the end of the month, it is called the second quarter moon. Is the crescent of the first quarter moon on the right or on the left? The answer is on the right. Such a natural phenomenon gives people a psychological hint, and the right side is the beginning. China ancient people's hearts are interlinked, the harmony between man and nature, looking at the moon and cherishing people, using the moon to send affection to distant people, can also talk to the ancients, seeing the moon transcends time and space, so the moon is too important to China people. The moon starts from the right, so the right is respected. Writing from the right means respecting the right. The second reason is the example of Huangdi Neijing. In Huangdi Neijing, it is said that people's physiological structure is very regular, the left ear is bright, the left eye is bright, the limbs are just the opposite, and the right hand and right foot are stronger. In other words, the right hand is stronger and the right foot is stronger, which forms a physiological phenomenon that the right is stronger. We write with our right hand because it is powerful. In terms of aesthetic feeling, it is natural to regard the powerful as a position of respect, so it is called taking the right as the respect. A word is written from left to right, from left to right, from left to right.
I understand how to restrain the left and promote the right. Let's look at how the strokes, radicals and structures in calligraphy reflect the respect for the right. First of all, let's look at the strokes, starting from the horizontal. I often hear the requirement of writing Chinese characters horizontally and vertically. Is this correct? The general requirements may be correct, but on closer examination, it is not entirely true. Especially in regular script, the horizontal is never flat, but should be left low and right high. The reason is that the right is respected, and the right is raised, which means that it is respected. Generally speaking, the right side of the horizontal is about 5 degrees higher, and individual writers should exaggerate this form. There are also individual characters, whose horizontal right side is about 15 degrees higher, or higher, such as the horizontal of the words "Ma, Ge, Ye", and the right side is particularly high for balance and deviation correction.
The short horizontal lines in the box can also suppress the left and promote the right. For example, the words "day, eye, month, day" or their radicals all have the characteristics of "short horizontal in the box, left connected with right broken" The disconnection is for the sake of ethereal, but why is the left connected to the right and not the right connected to the left? It's because Ning Zuo doesn't go right.
a ge is also a day and a month
Let's look at how the vertical position suppresses the left and promotes the right. The general writing rule of vertical in regular script is "hanging the dew first, then hanging the needle". For example, the word "Shi" has two verticals, the one on the left is hanging vertical, and the one on the right is hanging vertical. After hanging the needle because the word is finished, you should let the pen tip go out, and when you are exhausted, the pen gesture will transition to the next word. The left side of "Shi" can't be let go, because the words are not finished and the gesture is not completed, so it is necessary to use the vertical dew. This truth can be called suppression before promotion, but it is embodied in the vertical direction of a word, which is called suppression of left and right, and it is also called "hanging the dew first, then hanging the needle"
the words of Yan Zhenqing, a famous ancient calligrapher, are called Yan Ti in the world. Yan-style characters have a characteristic, which can be summed up in one word, namely "fat", which can be summarized as "three fineness and three coarseness", namely, horizontal fineness and vertical coarseness, left fineness and right coarseness. Fine left and thick right include the problem of vertical suppression of left and promotion of right. For example, the words "Sun, Li, and Loss" in the color body are thin on the left side and thick on the right side, which are quite different.
skimming and pressing can also reflect restraining the left and promoting the right. Take Yan Ti as an example. It is very obvious that "thin and thick". For example, the words "people, too, and orders" are very thin and thick from the comparison between skimming and pressing. Why do you want to be thin and thick? Because left, right, right is also respected.
There is another situation in which the left and the right are suppressed, that is, the length of the left is suppressed and the length of the right side is expanded. In addition, the right is the respect in strokes, and there are many manifestations. For example, mentioning is itself a product of restraining the left and promoting the right. There was no mention in the seal script, but later the left side had to make room for the right side, so the mention came into being. For another example, the point next to the wooden character was originally si, but it became a point because it suppressed the left and promoted the right. This point is also the product of suppressing the left and promoting the right.
Let's see how radicals respect right. The most words are left and right structures; The most radical is the left radical. Compared with the left radical and the right radical, most of them are narrower on the left and wider on the right. Narrowness is not enough, but further suppression is needed, and several situations can be determined. First, the left side can't be pressed, but it should become a point, which is characterized by "short right leg". Such as wood, grain, rice, shibu, clothing, fire, shellfish, insects, literature, you, women and other left radicals, all make the right one by turning the right one into a point. Second, the last stroke on the left side becomes a lift. Such as workers, earth, kings, handles, cars, children, cows, horses, birds, fish, twisted wire, feet, ears, two points of water, three points of water and so on. Third, the left side is left-handed, such as single-handedness, double-handedness, triple-handedness and anti-dog. In this way, the right side is "full of respect". The fourth is to depress the left stroke and raise the right stroke. Such as vertical center, mouth, stone, mountain and so on.
Lin Shuangpo Fu
Fu Xing Kuai Tan
The left and right ear knives can best reflect the characteristics of restraining the left and promoting the right. There are four differences between the left ear knife and the right ear knife, namely: left hanging dew, right hanging needle; Left low and right high; The left ear is small and the right ear is big; The left earlobe is small and the right earlobe is big.
how to prevent the shackles of the accompanying department
in the structure of a word, how to reflect the suppression of the left and the promotion of the right? Chinese characters are mostly left-right structures, and if you add words with left-right components in the surrounding and upper-lower structures, they can account for 3/4 of the total. This part of the characters is the most vivid expression of restraining the left and promoting the right, and its prominent feature is that the left is narrow and the right is wide. In the structure of single characters, there are also cases of restraining the left and promoting the right. For example, from the perspective of structure, the word "eight" not only embodies the suppression of left and right relations, but also embodies the suppression of left and right relations. The apostrophe of the character "Eight" is lower than that of the right side, which is the suppression of the left and the right in the up-and-down relationship. Just like a seesaw, it will always be left low and right high. Judging from the left-right relationship, the strokes of the "eight" character reached two sides respectively, while the strokes of the "eight" character were located in the middle axis of the character, and the strokes of the "eight" character were left-sided. The ratio of the width of the "eight" character to the width of the "eight" character must be narrow, which is typical of restraining the left and promoting the right. His words, such as "Er, Cheng", not only reflect the suppression of the left and right, but also reflect the suppression of the left and right from top to bottom.
Baercheng
The core of the structure of a word is the main pen. The core of the main pen is the main pen of the left-right relationship. Those who reach the left boundary are called the left main pen, and those who reach the right boundary are called the right main pen. There are also differences between the left main pen and the right main pen. For example, in Wang Xizhi's On Le Yi, many words are very distinctive, highlighting the right main pen and converging the left main pen. The reason is to suppress the left and promote the right.
official script is earlier than regular script, and compared with regular script and running script, it has lost the upper and lower restraint. The style of official script is basically horizontal, and overall it is absolutely horizontal, not left low and right high. For example, the word "one" is basically flat, and even if there are silkworms and geese, its average value is flat. Why is it flat? Why is there no up-and-down suppression of the left and the right? Because it is earlier than regular script, its aesthetic feeling is more primitive. However, on the other hand, in the left-right relationship of official script, the characteristics of restraining the left and promoting the right have been possessed.
The calligraphy style that is further pursued is seal script, which is also the oldest calligraphy style in China. The standard seal script, not only is the horizontal painting all flat, but it does not suppress the left and the right, and from the left and right, it hardly inhibits the left and the right. In the history of calligraphy in China, from seal script to official script, and then from official script to regular script, a complete overall development sequence has been formed (cursive script is a derivative script of the regular script). Through the above analysis, we will find that restraining the left and promoting the right is a sign of the evolution of calligraphy, and it is also the internal driving force of calligraphy art from unconscious to conscious. It can be said that if we master the suppression of the left and the promotion of the right, we will grasp the inherent law of calligraphy evolution and calligraphy consciousness.