Recently, a friend asked me to consult the beginner calligraphy want to learn thin gold body appropriate or not, I think this question is also a lot of thin gold body feel very like, and then especially want to learn friends may have doubts, so I think if there is an article can answer this question, it can be once and for all, in the future, someone asked, just need to send this article.
This article is from KnowledgeHub, and the author, “Genie”, is an excellent answerer on the topic of calligraphy. Although there are more highly praised answers, but the answer of this answer is more recognized by me. For a better reading experience, I corrected individual typos, some pictures in the text are added by me, in addition, there are some phrases in order to facilitate your understanding, I added some notes, these explanations are marked in brackets.
—- Qiming special dividing line —-
The full text is as follows:
In real calligraphy circles, the Thin Gold Style is also extremely niche. If you’ve taken Calligraphy Appreciation, it means you really haven’t been listening carefully.
According to my personal understanding, the thin gold body is indeed “no one before, no one after”. Of course, said “no one before” may not be completely right, but go to study Xue Ji, Chu Suiliang and other people’s words, and Zhao Ji thin gold body of the difference is still very great.
Although the thin and strong strokes are inherited from the same lineage, the structure and strokes are not necessarily related. It can be said that the Thin Gold Style is basically Zhao Ji’s personal creation. In calligraphy, “no predecessor, no successor” is not a positive term. For Zhao Ji, the Thin Gold Style is just a playful work outside of his talent. From the calligraphy point of view, although he created a unique style of calligraphy, he did not establish a school because he had no descendants. All the people who learn Thin Gold Style are not as good as Zhao Ji in terms of technical level, and they have not made any achievements in terms of artistic innovation.
Can such a character be compared with Zhao Ji? No. Calligraphy is cruel!
Calligraphy is cruel, the first one who wrote Thin Gold Style is a genius, what is the second and third one? The second and the third are what? They can’t be named in history.
This is the biggest problem of Thin Gold Style, it’s too closed. Thin Gold Style of the whole law is convergent, mixed with any other elements of calligraphy into. That is, it can not be traced back, but also can not be innovative.
To give an example for comparison, the Regular Script is called “strict law” of the Regular Script. But the Regular Script has predecessors and successors.
The Regular Script is a blend of North and South, and the elements of the Sui Stele are very rich.
*Part of the Tombstone of Dong Meiren
Ouyang Xun borrowed much of his structure from cursive and running script, most notably from Er Wang. He wrote Wang Xizhi’s running script with the strokes of regular script, keeping the structure unchanged, and getting a sinuous and unchanged style.
The Regular Script also has a very large number of clerical strokes, such as the floating goose hooks and the way of writing five.
Since there are “ancient people before”, it is easier to “come after”.
For example, the Regular Script still retains the clerical strokes, can they be replaced? Euclidean has the elements of the monument, then I mixed with some of the Weiwei monument is not to try? Since some of the Regular Script is the regularization of Wang Xizhi, then Wang Xianzhi’s regularization of running script is not also possible? Can I even regularize the cursive script like simplified characters? Can the Regular Script and Zhao Regular Script be combined, and can we try the Ou Di Zhao Face? And so on. There are many possibilities.
The Regular Script has elements of Clerical Script, Wei Bei, Running Script, Cursive Script and so on, which is a hodgepodge. In this kind of hodgepodge, you subtract a little bit, add a little bit, it is possible to succeed.
Jiucheng Gong, Yu Gong Gong, Huadu Temple, Huangfu Jun, and so on, are all Ou Kai, and none of them are exactly the same.
Tian Yingzhang, Lu Zhongnan, Meng Fanxi, etc. are all learning the Regular Script, do they write the same? So many calligraphers who learned the Thin Gold Style, can they write differently? Later learn European people, although out of the new way not many people, the level also varies, but there is always a little hope, at least more than the thin gold style.
Tian Yingzhang Regular Script Works
Lu Zhongnan’s Regular Script Works
Meng Fanxi’s Regular Script
Therefore, Ouyang Xun is a master of the school, while Zhao Ji is just a loner. To what extent is the “law” of Thin Gold Style so strict that even Zhao Ji himself writes in the same style?
With this kind of brushwork and structure, it can be said that if you have read a few lines of characters, you will know how the following characters will be written. His down is always a kind of down, his down is always a kind of down, his horizontal is that horizontal, and his vertical is that vertical. (Qiming’s note: In fact, the widely criticized Tian Kai is not like this, this is the Tian Kai has more fans, especially too many stakeholders, as long as you say Tian Kai is not, there must be someone to jump out and scold you.) Even for the different periods of the Thin Gold Script, you can’t find any difference in the calligraphic elements except for the size and the very subtle difference in the regular script. That’s why some people also criticize him as being like a printing style.
Indeed, if the rules of calligraphy’s brushwork and structure are imported into a computer, the Thin Gold Style should be one of the easiest styles to be automatically generated by the computer. The regularity, or law, is too strong. If the law is too rigid, the artistry is greatly limited. (Qiming’s note: This is also the reason why Wang Xizhi on the computer always makes people feel awkward. Wang Xizhi’s variations are so infinite that the developers of Wang Xizhi fonts on the computer can’t fully structure and typify them. (But Thin Gold is almost as consistent and as free of awkwardness as a set of characters).
When the law of a certain style of calligraphy is not open, but closed, then the so-called level is purely based on merit. In terms of power, there is no one stronger than Zhao Ji in Thin Gold Style. Compared with him, what are you playing?
Or in other words, all the people who learn Thin Gold Style, just take Zhao Ji’s words without thinking, following the gourd to draw a dipper, just than who write more, write more familiar, write more stable, then what is the difference between and craftsmen? Craftsmen also take a template to do, only need to be skillful, experienced, and does not require imagination and creativity, they and designers can be the same. (Qiming Note: This is the reason that Wang Xizhi has been unable to be surpassed for so many years and can only be imitated. He has high attainments in the richness and diversity of strokes, structures and chapters. Originality was at its peak.) In ancient times, to be a wordsmith more or less can still participate in the imperial examinations to obtain merit a little practical role, but today’s calligraphy is no longer a practical skill.