The famous esthetician Mr. Zong Baihua once said: Chinese calligraphy is rhythmic nature, expressing a deep conception of the image of life and becoming an art that reflects life. The culture and art of the Chinese nation have thousands of years of tradition, are complex, broad and profound. As far as calligraphy is concerned, it is like a towering tree with deep and strong roots, luxuriant branches, luxuriant flowers and abundant fruits. From ancient times to the present, there are many people climbing it and cultivating it, and how many people are able to bear fruit? It is also like a vast sea. There are countless people swimming in this ocean of art, but those who can leap over the dragon's gate become a family of their own. are rarely seen. For a calligrapher to be famous in the world, he must be outstanding. He always dares to innovate on the basis of inheriting his predecessors, and continues to carry forward the art of calligraphy. Mr. Hou's Kaijia is such a person who does not follow the trend, does not give up his straightforwardness, and dares to be original, unconventional, and original. He successfully launched his Hou's broken-body seal script calligraphy art and attracted widespread attention from colleagues in the calligraphy circle.
Only through self-examination can one overcome barriers
A person's life must determine his or her self-awareness based on his or her actual situation, so as to make the most appropriate positioning for his or her life. The reason why many outstanding people are successful is that they have a correct and wise self-understanding and positioning. Mr. Hou Kaijia, the famous calligrapher, librarian of the Sichuan Provincial Literature and History Research Center, and master's tutor of Sichuan University, is such a self-aware and introspective person who is neither humble nor arrogant.
To analyze Mr. Hou Kaijia’s artistic achievements in calligraphy, I have to rely on Mr. Chen Fangji’s point of view in "Beauty·Artistic Beauty·Calligraphy Artistic Beauty": "Calligraphy arouses people's sense of beauty not because it It reflects the beauty of real things, but because calligraphers use words to express the subject's life affection, emotional cultivation, talents and skills, and create an image with life interest and personality. That is, calligraphers rely on the characteristics of tools and equipment to use words. The operation has become a living phenomenon with spirit, spirit, flesh and blood.” Therefore, to investigate and understand the calligrapher Hou Kaijia, who is the subject of calligraphy art, I tried to approach him slowly by taking the approach of “style is the person”. , learn to interpret him.
On May 16 of the lunar calendar in 1946, Mr. Kaijia was born in Yibin City in southern Sichuan, which is "the first city on the Yangtze River for thousands of years and the Bo Road leads to three Chus". Yibin, a "famous historical and cultural city", was not only a wild place in ancient times, but also a place where wars raged for years and swords flashed. It is a transportation hub connecting the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. It is an ancient but newly emerging medium-sized city in the Basinzhou Mountains of Sichuan. Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian, Zhang Wentao and others left their historical footprints here. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many famous poets, calligraphers and painters here. Especially in the Qing Dynasty, Bao Bichen, who pioneered the study of stele in Sichuan, even He has extraordinary attainments and is unique. The key elements in the formation of artistic style are inseparable from the blood race of the artist's birth, the era in which he lives, and the regional environment in which he lives. The soil and water nurture the people, and the formation of Mr. Kaijia's calligraphy style is also the inevitable result of the mixture of his rebellious spirit in art and thought and the closed and conservative nature of his living area. When Mr. Kaijia entered school, he made up his mind to become famous in writing and calligraphy. Later, he was fortunate enough to receive careful guidance from famous local calligraphers such as Yin Jilin and Gao Butian. The blue wisps on the road open up the mountains and forests. In the 1980s, like many students, Mr. Kaijia made a solemn oath: "I would rather be a failed explorer than a self-proclaimed mediocrity." Although he continued to explore the art of calligraphy As his lifelong career, but in the face of the calligraphy world at that time, the art of calligraphy that had been thousands of years ago ushered in the spring of recovery due to reform and opening up. There is no obvious standard for the public's aesthetic orientation. As long as the written words can be "pointed like melon seeds and pressed like a knife", it seems to be beautiful, let alone issues such as regional style, school style, and calligrapher's personal style. , Yan, Liu, Ou, Zhao and the "Two Kings" were the style standards and objects of worship in people's minds at that time. In the mid-to-late 1980s, the Central Plains style of calligraphy, represented by the Henan calligraphy circle, aroused great repercussions in the national book circles with its bold, unrestrained, powerful and wild appearance. It developed to the late 1980s and In the early 1990s, the small and exquisite literati calligraphy style made its debut again. Later, hand-tied rulers and tablets, Qin bricks and Han tiles with inscriptions, and Ming Dynasty cursive characters all appeared in rotation, each taking the lead. It seems that the grievances and talents that have been sealed for many years are about to be vented from the calligrapher's chest. Although the calligraphy world at that time showed a scene of hundreds of flowers blooming, calligraphers had the same creative philosophy: "It is better to be clumsy than clever, to be ugly rather than charming, to be fragmented rather than slippery, and to be straightforward rather than arranged." It is enough to recall "Linchi has fallen into chaos." The artistic language that pursues interest, clumsiness, and individuality has gradually become a trend. Even if it fails or becomes popular, we are not willing to bow down to the "pomegranate skirt" of the ancients, and would rather be criticized by others as crazy. , and don’t take the sweet and vulgar road. Especially in the autumn of 1981, one of Mr. Kaijia's calligraphy papers was selected into the "Chinese Calligraphy Research Exchange Conference" held in Lanting and was listed as one of the five papers to be read. His brand-new views attracted the attention of experts and scholars attending the conference. and praise. If the Lanting Club in 1981 was the exposure of Mr. Kaijia’s calligraphy artistic ideas, then in 1982 Mr. Kaijia participated in the “National Invitational Exhibition of Works of Young and Middle-aged Calligraphers” and the “Academic Exchange Meeting” held in Nanchang, it should be said that he was A turning point in the concept of calligraphy creation.
At that time, he found that a calligrapher was carrying "Deng Shiru Shu, Ao Taosun Poetry Review Screen" which he had also written on his back. The calligrapher boldly changed the composition and structure of the original work, and also added many personal factors. In this regard, he started to Mr. Jia suddenly had a sudden enlightenment and a profound understanding of Deng Shiru's aesthetic principle of "taking advantage of the white and using the black to reveal the strange and interesting". After returning home, he uncharacteristically devoted all his energy to the exploration of the formal beauty of calligraphy. From then on, he consciously relaxed the study of cursive script, became obsessed with the creation of official script, and began a series of effective attempts. Official script is an important calligraphy style in the history of the evolution of Chinese characters, and it is also the watershed between ancient and modern writing. It was a great phenomenon in the Han Dynasty, but it will rise and fall in the future. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, official script was mostly neat and even in the writing of literati calligraphers, with strong decorative flavor, monotonous writing style, and little change in structure. It was obviously influenced by regular script. In response to the above situation, Mr. Kaijia adhered to Fu Shan's "fragmented" and "ugly" aesthetic ideas, and was good at exaggerating and deforming, dismantling and replacing text components in specific creations. In the daily class, we went beyond the common Eastern Han dynasty steles and focused on categories such as "Laizihou Stone Carvings" and "Baoxie Dao Cliff Stone Carvings", as well as "Guangwu General Stele", "Haodawang Stele", "Cuan Baozi Stele", "Songgao Ling Temple Stele" and "Runan King Brick Pagoda Inscription" etc. In addition, he also specializes in copying Han seals, brick inscriptions, tile inscriptions and Han bamboo slips. His principle is: as long as it conforms to his own ideas, he should learn it, and if it does not conform well, he should modify it and learn it. The purpose is to find a unique form that expresses his own artistic aesthetics and write a unique style. A strong person knows himself through self-examination, transforms himself through self-examination, and transcends himself through self-examination. The official script works that Mr. Kaijia first published were relatively novel, unique, weird and naive, and were not accepted and understood by ordinary people. He actively accepted the criticism from Mr. Ma Xiao, an industry insider, that "the works of calligraphers of the Monument School all have more or less traces of rational production". In recent years, he has strengthened his exploration of the taste of pen and ink and the study of writing speed and ink color changes, insisting on " Calligraphy should have traditional skills and modern awareness. "All kinds of fonts, calligraphy styles, techniques, styles, shapes, calligraphy theories, aesthetics, etc. that have been handed down should all belong to the category of calligraphy tradition." He broke with the tradition and brought forth the new, applying the seal script knotting methods of Lu Weijian and Wu Changshuo to his own official script creation; he transferred the layout methods of Jin Nong and Wang Fuchang to his own use; he also absorbed Chen Hongshou's unusual structure and used it with reference to Yi Bing The strong contrast between the main text and the inscription in the official script is combined with Zheng Gukou's principle of writing official script in cursive style. Since 1984, Hou Kaijia's broken-body official script has begun to appear in public. In people's aesthetic vision, there is a state of "writing to the extreme is clumsy". His representative works "Chen Yi Yong Orchid" and "Wen Tingyun. Xia Ke Xing" have been praised by colleagues. ; The "Han Danwu·Cursive Screen Poems" created by him won the gold medal in the 1988 "Year of the Dragon International Calligraphy and Seal Engraving TV Competition".
At this point, Mr. Kaijia has transcended his own ideological barriers and the barriers in calligraphy art creation. The calligraphy world has fully affirmed his creative achievements, and his creative experience and techniques It has also become mature and its aesthetic taste has been formally established. Mr. Zhou Junjie commented: "Hou Kaijia's official script has been incorporated into the tablets of the Six Dynasties. The rules are horizontal and wide, and the structure emphasizes seeking balance among unevenness. The writing is slow and urgent, the writing is loose and tight, and it is done with cursive writing. Showing a childish and wild flavor."
God rewards those who work hard and flowers always bloom
A person must dare to boldly dig out unnecessary parts of himself and correct his behavior in daily life. If you turn diligence into your own habit, you will usher in the joy of success. The reason why Hou Kaijia was able to succeed in self-taught calligraphy is that his calligraphy is far different from that of ancients and modern people, and is unique. A very important factor lies in his boldness and hard work. Art requires creation, and creation can create something new. The prerequisite for creation is to be "bold", so that you have the courage to question the golden rules of the predecessors, destroy the rules, establish new laws, state your opinions, and establish new principles, so that you will not fall into the ruts, and you will not be a pioneer in art. Slave of man. Walk to a waterless place and sit down to watch the clouds rise. Any calligraphy work is a combination of technique and Tao, and is a reflection of the calligrapher’s temperament and spirit. This is unquestionable by anyone. Looking at Hou Kaijia's calligraphy works, his "boldness" is mainly reflected in three aspects: First, he attaches great importance to the expression of "inner painting" in his creation. Zhou Xinglian of the Qing Dynasty said in "Linchi Guanjian": "The writing style, ink writing, and emotion are all based on human temperament. This is the first task of a person who is rational and emotional." The expression of "heart painting" is nothing more than "to achieve its purpose" In terms of "temperament" and "shaping his sorrows and joys", the former expresses the calligrapher's temperament, character and sentiments and is relatively stable; the latter expresses the calligrapher's feelings and emotions under specific circumstances and changes with people. The two are closely connected, intertwined and integrated with each other. As an expression of temperament, Mr. Hou Kaijia rarely wrote Xiaozhuan in terms of calligraphy style. Because of the balanced and symmetrical structure of Xiaozhuan and the strict line requirements that do not exceed the rules, he was largely restrained in expressing his temperament. Mr. Kaijia's seal script creation was later than his other calligraphy styles. The work selected for the Third National Book Exhibition for Young and Middle-aged People was his first seal script work to be published. Later, his seal script work was selected for the Fifth National Book Exhibition, which became a blockbuster. His artistic style attracted social attention. In today's calligraphy world, it can be said that there are "two kings" (Wang Yong and Wang Youyi) living in the north and one "hou" (Hou Kaijia) living in the south. Therefore, when studying seal script calligraphy, he chose the boldness of large seal scripts to create. The books were printed from oracle bone inscriptions, bell and tripod inscriptions, Quanliangzhao editions, stone drum inscriptions, to Deng Shiru, Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, scraps of stele, and countless Not involved.
Of course, this is not "to compose new poems and express sorrow". The choice of large seal script is consistent with his own bold, upright and strong character. Only in this way can he finally realize his state of "unity of book and man". When creating, Mr. Kaijia often dips his toes in thick ink, writes firmly, lets the ink swell, and follows the flow until the ink is exhausted. The works created show the intersection of dry and moist ink, the interplay of virtuality and reality, the movement of energy and spirit, and great changes. It also makes the overall style of seal script consistent with its line, cursive and official style. In terms of expressing "sorrow and joy", Hou Kaijia believes that calligraphy works can express the calligrapher's emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, which can only be achieved through changes in lines, structures, and ink colors. Therefore, he often plays with the emotions of the sentences, feels the excitement in his heart, improvises and writes to express his feelings. On the premise that the overall style is generally consistent, he can write works with different interests, showing his strong ability to use pen and ink and line modeling. Second, regarding the use of pens, Hou Kaijia believes that as long as the best effect can be achieved, there should be no boundaries between calligraphy styles. Mechanically and dogmatically understanding some methods will not only easily lead to rigidity, but will also be detrimental to the development of the art of calligraphy. Therefore, in the process of making seal characters, he often used various brushwork techniques. What he used most was Deng Shiru's writing method of "moving his fingers to twist the hair and wrapping the edge to write". However, unlike Deng Shiru, who starts from beginning to end and ends with balanced force, strokes slowly, and rounds up and ends, Hou Kaijia often starts his strokes heavier, strokes faster, and ends up decisively, thus forming a rounded and square line shape. The thickness and strength of the lines are reflected to the maximum extent by combining the thick and dry ink with the solid middle and virtual edges caused by the twisting of hair, as well as the ink effect of solid front and virtual back caused by the speed of writing. But he did not stick to this method. Instead, he used all kinds of methods, taking advantage of the situation, rising with the front, dragging along the front, advancing against the front, moving in the center, and even starting from the side. This not only greatly breaks through the limitations of the pen used by previous generations, but also brings the writing style of Xingli into seal script, making the created seal script works more interesting. Third, in terms of structure, he placed great emphasis on sparse and dense gatherings and dispersions. "Sparse places can allow horses to move, but dense places cannot allow ventilation." At this point, he may have been greatly influenced by Deng Shiru, Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, etc., but Hou Kaijia is different from them. The changes in density of Deng Shiru and Qi Baishi are that the top is denser and the bottom is sparse, the center of gravity moves upward, and the body is slender. There is always a feeling of instability due to a big man with slender legs. Wu Changshuo achieves this by leaning to the side, suppressing the left and raising the right. But the changes in the lines are small, so they lose their ethereal quality. The contrast between density and density in Hou Kaijia's creation is achieved through strong contrasting techniques such as thick and thin lines, thick and light ink colors, empty and solid colors, and the juxtaposition of strokes and seals. At the same time, he boldly increased the opening and closing between the radicals of the characters and centered the center of gravity, thus creating calligraphy works that are dangerous but not dangerous, ancient yet new.
Mr. Hou Kaijia is not only a master in the Chinese calligraphy world who is good at creative practice and dares to create practice, but also one of the calligraphy theorists who influence the development of the Chinese calligraphy world. He is a man of extensive knowledge and accumulation. His research on calligraphy theory started in 1979 when he was applying for the postgraduate examination of calligraphy at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. For this purpose, he wrote an article "Sentiment, Embodies and Artistic Conception - Three Topics on the Art of Calligraphy". One article. His status as a calligraphy theorist should be attributed to his publication of "Hou Kaijia Calligraphy Collected Works" in 1993. Throughout Mr. Kaijia's theoretical research on calligraphy, he dares to challenge authority and outdated academic views; he is good at combining the history of Chinese calligraphy with case studies of calligraphers of past dynasties, keeping pace with them; he is keen on capturing new materials and new perspectives; he has the courage to cite and quote from other sources. Seek truth and be pragmatic, and convince people with reason. The academic papers he wrote were never mysterious or enigmatic, but explained the profound things in a simple way, were clear and easy to understand. God rewards those who work hard, and flowers bloom all the time. Only by pioneering can freedom come. Mr. Kaijia is one of the few contemporary calligraphers I know who has the freedom to create and research. He is also a man who is magnanimous and responsible. He has comprehensive development of both theoretical research and creative practice, has outstanding achievements, and is both moral and artistic. Art everyone.
Don’t judge a hero by his success or failure
Everyone’s life experience is different. Success or failure are all inseparable parts of life. Without these successes Fragments of life with failure do not constitute a complete life. Faced with the highly competitive world of calligraphy, Mr. Hou Kaijia did not adhere to habitual mentality, but established introspective ideas. He established bones with monuments, connected sutras with affixes, filled them with texts, and created a unique path. Whether it is seal script or regular cursive script, he adopts Dharma hero. He insisted that the study of modern calligraphy art should always incorporate "the meaning of seal script and official script". Calligraphers after the mid-Ming Dynasty, especially Zhu Yunming, Wang Chong, Zhang Ruitu, Huang Daozhou, Chen Hongshou, and Ni Yuanlu, as well as Wang Juesi, Cheng Sui, Fu Shan, Zhu Da, and Shi Tao in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, etc., there were a large number of important calligraphers. The style of seal script and official calligraphy is contrary to the calligraphy style of the times. They are the geniuses and masters of calligraphy of the times who resist the popular trend of "adhering to learning", sweetness, vulgarity and charmingness, advocate "the style of seal script and official script", strengthen the simplicity and simplicity, and express their individuality. Mr. Hou Kaijia is well aware of the importance of "shuanli brushwork" in the art of calligraphy. From theoretical research to practical creation, from the formation of Hou's calligraphy style to the orientation of aesthetic concepts, Mr. Kaijia abandons the constraints of formal perspective and adheres to the ancient, true and true. , Xing, Cao and Li are integrated in the artistic conception, so Kaijia calligraphy has an ancient intention and will not be demoted over time. The ancients wrote books to entertain themselves, but today people write books to entertain others. Kaijia writes books for his own pleasure. At different periods of his life, Mr. Kaijia had different creeds and chose self-discipline.
During the first ten years of learning calligraphy, Mr. Kaijia tried his best to follow Sun Guoting's saying that "the one who observes is more refined, and the one who imitates is more valuable". Later, he followed Wu Changshuo's saying "you need to learn more to gain mastery". Go create. Now, Mr. Kaijia admires Zheng Banqiao's famous aphorisms such as "If you learn seven out of ten, you must throw away three, and everyone has his own spiritual seedlings to explore" and Li Yong's "Those who are like me are vulgar, and those who imitate me will die". He did not not long for the palace of calligraphy art because he was a porter on the dock, nor did he give up on finding the strength to lead to the palace of calligraphy art because of his financial difficulties, nor did he give up on finding the strength to lead to the palace of calligraphy art from love, nor did he because he was "not qualified" He took the postgraduate examination for calligraphy and shook his belief in the art of calligraphy. Writing a calligraphy begins with being a human being, and people have written wonderful books since ancient times. He firmly believes that on the road of life, both success and failure are only temporary. It will be a person's biggest mistake to regard the temporary as consistency and the moment as eternity. Success and failure are not eternal, they are just inevitable in human life. Life is supported by the alternation of success and failure. Poverty is the soil for growing happiness, failure is the cornerstone of success, and an open-minded state of mind is the paradise of happiness in life. Mr. Kaijia experiences his own state of mind, insists on working hard, working hard again, practicing, practicing and practicing again. He succeeded. His works were exhibited, his papers were published, he became a member of the Calligraphers Association, his collective enterprise was transferred to a national unit, his status as a worker was transferred to cadre benefits, his hobby was transferred to a professional calligrapher, Hou Kaijia, he survived everything. , but he still lives so simply, contentedly, calm and tolerant of everything, achieving without dazzling and aiming high will be his eternal creed.
Indifferent but knowledgeable
People are always born empty-handed and die empty-handed, unable to take away any wealth or fame during their lifetime. When we understand this truth, people will look down upon many things. As long as you can treat the gains and losses with an indifferent heart, no matter how the situation changes, no one will suffer spiritual harm. With the deepening of reform and opening up and the maturation of the market economy, calligraphy art, a quiet place in the world, has also been submerged by the rolling sea of ????business. The pursuit of quick success, forgetfulness of righteousness, ostentation, speculation, intrigues and other trends have become noisy for a while. Straight up. At the same time, in terms of academic research, it is an era of diversity and change, with strong western winds. In this regard, Mr. Hou Kaijia dismissed it and plunged into the book world, treating himself like a "pickle". Articles such as "The Breath of the Times, Age Patterns and Standards of Storytelling", "On the Steleology of the Qing Dynasty", "Is it difficult to use a pen through the ages"? ", "New Interpretation of "Only if the Pen is Soft, Strange Things Come to Life"", "Dual-line Development Rules of Secular and Official Scripts", "History of the Rise and Fall of Inscription Wall Calligraphy", "Thoughts on the Development and Creation of Seal Script" and other academic papers successively The development shocked the book world for a while. Therefore, Mr. Chen Zhenlian said that his writings and creations were "unique among the Sichuan army." For Mr. Kaijia, although he was poor, he was able to break the old literati's idea of ??poverty and happiness, work hard, and dare to do anything. New, his achievements attracted social attention and received wonderful rewards. He finally turned from a small worker to a professional calligrapher; The ancients and authorities finally stepped from a calligrapher with only a high school diploma to the university platform and became a tutor cultivating master's degree students in calligraphy for the country.
Mr. Hou Kaijia is not immersed in his own personal success and satisfaction. As early as 1983, when he served as the executive vice president of Yibin Painting and Calligraphy Academy, he has been committed to cultivating calligraphy students and discovering and rewarding calligraphy talents. While serving as the executive director of the Sichuan Provincial Calligraphers Association, he climbed mountains and waded in various places in Sichuan. He gave lectures and spared no effort to make his due contribution to the development of calligraphy in Sichuan. At the same time, Mr. Kaijia also worked hard to cultivate calligraphy talents in his hometown Yibin. Through his efforts, a large number of national and provincial calligrapher association members have emerged. It can be said that the achievements are brilliant and the talents are abundant. What is more worth mentioning is that Mr. Kaijia's research results on calligraphy theory have been well transformed into creative practice in the calligraphy circle, and have played a significant and far-reaching educational role.
The inkstone fields are cultivated diligently without taxes, and the Hanhai is full of waves for sailing. Appreciating Mr. Kaijia's calligraphy works gives people a feeling of unity of man and calligraphy, profoundness and natural creation. Looking at his exquisite works is like standing in the mountains and rivers, with the air flowing through the rainbow, and the vast air directly hitting people's faces. It is inspiring and inspiring. ambition. If we can understand the contradictory unity and rebellious revolutionary personality charm of Mr. Kaijia in the theoretical research of calligraphy, then it will not be difficult for us to understand and appreciate the calligraphy works created by Mr. Kaijia. Xiao Ran is outside the world and gets the secret from heaven. Mr. Kaijia's enthusiasm for "strange" and research on "ancient" are no less than his focus on "new" and his persistence on "change". If Mr. Kaijia was said to be "pursuing dangers and dangers" around the age of forty, then around the age of ears, he began to strive for "book nobleness and integrity" again. Nowadays, Mr. Hou Kaijia has passed the age of hearing, but he still works tirelessly to cultivate high-level talents in the art of calligraphy and rides on the forum of higher education institutions. (This article is reproduced from the 2007 Issue 2 of "Literature and History Magazine", author: Chen Mowu, title: "We are all people who never give up the lead").