Generally speaking, Lishu originated in the Warring States, was conceived in the Qin State, formed in the Western Han Dynasty, prevailed in the Eastern Han Dynasty and revived in the Qing Dynasty. To understand these problems, we must fully understand and understand the historical materials of calligraphy left over from various historical dynasties. There are two main types of historical remains of official script: bamboo slips and silk scripts (written on bamboo slips and silk scripts); Stone carvings (including inscriptions and cliff carvings). Before the end of the Qing Dynasty, people's understanding of official script was limited to the official script prevailing in the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the 20th century, with the archaeological excavation and research of a large number of bamboo slips and silk books, the history of China's calligraphy has been filled or even rewritten, especially the blank of the evolution and development of official script from Qin Dynasty to Western Han Dynasty. Today, when studying and studying the development history of official script, we must make full use of these precious historical resources, broaden our horizons, fully understand and master the evolution process of official script, and lay a good foundation for learning and creation.
Below, briefly introduce the evolution characteristics of official script in various historical periods.
The development of official script during the 400 years from the end of Warring States to the end of Western Han Dynasty. Academic circles call it "official script change", that is, the process from seal script to official script, that is, the brewing stage of official script. This period is mainly bamboo calligraphy and silk calligraphy. Representative are:
1. Bamboo Slips of the Late Warring States Period in Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province. Unearthed in 1980, it is considered as the earliest official script in history.
2. Qin Bamboo Slips of Sleeping Tiger Land in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province. Unearthed in 1975, written at the end of the war and the beginning of Qin dynasty. Belongs to bamboo slips and ink.
3. The Han bamboo slips unearthed in the 1930s and 1970s in Juyan, Inner Mongolia and Wuwei, Gansu are the bamboo slips of the Western Han Dynasty.
4. Western Han silk unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan. 1972 excavation. The famous ones are Strategists in the Warring States Period, Lao Zi's Family Book, Lao Zi's Yi Book and so on.
In the Western Han Dynasty, there were several carved stones. Its representative is Wufeng stone carving. Lai Zihou's stone carving. The number of words is very small, five peaks 13 words, and Lai Zihou is 25 words. This is not an inscription.
The above list is just a few main representatives. These historical remains clearly show us the process of "official change" in Qin and Han Dynasties. People used to call the official script of this period "Guli" or "Qin Li".
These calligraphy remains, because they originated from seal script, retain some characteristics of seal script, but they have the embryonic form of evolution to official script, and even have cursive and regular script brushwork. There are square folds and waves on the pen, and the number of strokes increases. Structurally, some configurations of seal script are preserved, but circuitous and complicated strokes are simplified and some horizontal strokes are added. In composition, it is relatively free, large and small, and meticulous. Because this kind of brushwork mainly comes from the hands of folk and lower-level officials, it is a common brushwork in daily use, not an official brushwork, but also a direct writing ink, so the brushwork is straightforward, smooth, simple and natural. The ancients said, "Those who run official scripts can also carve seals."
Mature official script in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the wind of publishing stones and setting up monuments prevailed, and the development of official script was mature, and a large number of tablet boards and cliff stone carvings appeared. The official also defined the mature and standardized official script in this period as vulgar script. At this time, the official script has got rid of the shackles of seal script, the strokes have changed from pictographs to symbols, and the basic strokes of Chinese characters have been formed. The pen is round, and when it turns into a square fold, the silkworm head and goose tail are obvious. The knot is flattened, such as the word "eight" is divided backwards, so it is called "eight-point book". Its rules are horizontal and vertical, with wide spacing and narrow spacing. The overall style is dignified, heavy, vigorous, elegant and decorative. Now what we usually call official script is the "stereotyped writing" of this period. Also known as Han Li. Han Li pushed official script to the peak of history. The official script of this period is distinctive and colorful. After being honored as an authentic official script. Ancient comments; "Li Fa takes Han as the pole, and each monument is unique and has no similarities." According to the style, it can be divided into two schools: one is wordpad and the other is cliff.
Representative examples of stone carvings on the tablet are: Cao Quanbei, elegant and handsome; A British monument, neat and dignified; Park Fang's simple and clumsy Zhang Qianbei; There are also gift films, light and smart, and so on.
The representatives of cliff stone carvings are: Shimen Fu, Kai Xielu, Yang Huaibiao, Xixia Fu, etc.
Because of the differences in geography, shape and calligraphers, inscriptions and cliffs also show different styles and characteristics. The stone tablet is located in the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province, which is the center of Confucianism. Memorial tablets are made by court calligraphers and carved by experienced sculptors, so they have a dignified and elegant "temple atmosphere". Cliff stone carvings in the wild are mostly carved on the cliff by folk sculptors who live by the mountain, so there is a simple "Shan Ye spirit".
Han Li's evolution and maturity took more than 400 years from the end of the Warring States to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is of great historical significance in the whole history of calligraphy in China. People usually refer to Qin Zhuan and his early hieroglyphs as ancient characters, and Han Li and his later characters as modern characters. Therefore, Han Li became a watershed in the transformation from ancient Chinese characters to modern Chinese characters. "Li Bian" not only created official script, but also derived cursive script and regular script. Modern archaeological research shows that the evolution of calligraphy is not a step-by-step development of seal script, official script, regular script, running script and cursive script. It was based on the Han Dynasty and was an official script before the Qin and Han Dynasties. After Han Dynasty, Kai, Xing and Cao evolved on the basis of official script almost at the same time. Therefore, after the Han Dynasty, the evolution of China fonts has been completed, and Chinese characters have therefore entered a conscious artistic aesthetic era.
Decline and revival of official script. From Wei and Jin Dynasties to Qing Dynasty, Li Shu never got rid of the influence of "Eight Points", never surpassed Han Li's extreme, and remained in a depressed state. However, in the Jin dynasty, there are two monuments worth mentioning: one is the good king. The first is General Guangwu. These two tablets both appeared in the process of the evolution from official script to regular script, which is a good example of popular official script. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, represented by Bao and Kang Youwei, the wind of attaching posts and pushing monuments was suppressed, and Han Li was re-valued and studied. Some calligraphers made bold innovations on the basis of Han Li, resulting in a unique style of official script. Outstanding achievements include Deng, Jin Nong, Yi Bingshou, He and Zhao.
The above gives you a brief introduction to the development of official script, aiming to give you a general understanding of official script, and to broaden your horizons and broaden your thinking in choosing the direction of study and establishing aesthetic interests, instead of blind people touching the elephant and being blind.
Second, the artistic characteristics of official script
Generally speaking, the artistic feature of official script is the personal style of official script in the Eastern Han Dynasty. These have all been mentioned before. Not detailed. I want to talk about the general characteristics of official script from the perspective of artistic aesthetics.
1, heavy. The performance is vigorous, dense, dignified and magnificent. The official script stone carvings in the Eastern Han Dynasty stood tall and majestic in temples or cliffs. The font is relatively large, the structure is dense, and the stippling is strong. Its pen is different from the quotation of seal script, but it is spread out and retrogressed in an all-round way. The artistic feeling it gives people is not elegance and exquisiteness along the way, but broadmindedness and grandeur. It is not as charming as Zhuge Liang's feather fan nylon scarf, but as bold and unconstrained as Guan Gong and Zhang Fei.
2, simple. It is characterized by simplicity, frankness, childlike innocence and natural interest, plain and strange. The emergence and development of official script has experienced a long history. Many bamboo slips and stone carvings come from folk calligraphers, some of which are urgent. Therefore, although the official script is generally square and static, it is flat, dynamic and ingenious. Looking closely at the traditional official script, there are few twists and turns in horizontal, vertical and square structure. Most of them are full of dangers, uneven levels, dense, orderly, with different words, and natural. When people appreciate this kind of calligraphy, they will have a great contrast with their fixed thinking about Chinese characters, and they will feel ugly, like a child's style. Fu Shan said in Qing Dynasty that "Ning Zhuo is not clever, rather ugly than flattering, rather fragmentary and not smooth, rather true and irregular" is the embodiment of this calligraphy aesthetics. However, the essence of Fu Shan's clumsiness, ugliness, fragmentation and truthfulness is to be natural and oppose artificial embellishment, rather than pure "ugly" books.
3. Gogu. It is characterized by noble method, strong classical flavor and heavy epigraphy. Because official script evolved from seal script, the structure of official script is often accompanied by its shape. Some use the brushwork of official script to write the structure of official script, and some use the brushwork of official script to write the form of official script, just like official script. There is a classical beauty. In addition, the official script inscription we see is a face created by hand and nature. On the one hand, there are traces of hand carving, on the other hand, after long-term natural weathering and peeling, so some glyphs are blurred, stippling is mottled, lines are rough and astringent, and there is a hazy beauty.
The aesthetic orientation of official script mentioned above is still abstract, and we can seriously understand and comprehend it by copying and learning traditional official script.
Third, the study and creation of official script
The purpose of calligraphy learning is creation, and creation must find the gap and absorb nutrition through continuous learning. In my study and creation of official script, I talk about the following experiences:
The question of where to start. As mentioned above, Lishu has a long history and rich and colorful development. There are nearly 400 kinds of stone tablets alone. Where should beginners start? Generally speaking, we should start with the mature and standardized official script in the Eastern Han Dynasty and choose a model we like in Han Li. Learn "forget me" according to the correct copying method. It will take a long time. You should fully understand and master the basic characteristics and brushwork skills of this kind of official script you choose. Then, choose several official scripts with similar styles to learn, deepen understanding and lay the foundation for learning. During this period, people mainly moved in from Li Qi, Cao Quan, Yi Ying and Zhang Ying. This is also the three monuments with distinctive features, many characters and clear characters in the Han Dynasty. When you have a certain foundation of official script, you can learn cliff stone carvings, such as Shimen Ode, Dakai, Yang Huaibiao and so on. Learn bamboo slips and silk scripts again at Longmen Thirteen. This is the relationship between specialization and scholarship. Specialize first, then get it. The emergence and development of official script is to change first and then standardize, while learning official script is to standardize first and then change. Sun said: "A beginner who wants to be flat can be flat, can pursue risks and can be flat."
How to choose tools? Most of Li Shu is made of pure wool. The length of the front can be very long, but it is mainly in the middle. Long front is difficult to control. Wool is easy to spread, and it can write rough lines and enhance the taste of stones. Wool, on the other hand, has poor elasticity, and it takes a period of training to master the brushwork gradually. In the process of writing, we should learn to constantly close the brush stroke and adjust the brush stroke. Official script paper generally uses raw or half-baked propaganda, and cooked propaganda is not suitable. Shengxuan has obvious infiltration effect on ink and can reflect the color level of ink.
How to create official script? It is easy to learn official script, but difficult to improve it. This is because its brushwork structure and composition are relatively simple and regular, and it looks passable to use, but it is often dull and falls into the stereotype. It is difficult to write fun and personality. In addition to pursuing the general aesthetic requirements of calligraphy, the creation of official script focuses on highlighting the aesthetic characteristics of official script. It is the rough, simple and ancient mentioned above.
1, use a pen. Speaking of writing tools, the pen of official script has already been mentioned. Here, I emphasize a conceptual problem, that is, the lines of official script pay attention to stone flavor, rough and beautiful, and do not require smooth and round strokes, and can not emphasize details all the way like later learning, and the strokes are accurate. The brushwork determines the texture of the lines, and the official calligraphy pen should be boldly stretched, retrograde and convergent, focusing on the center, such as drawing sand with a cone. Don't be straight, don't shake your pen too much, and develop tacky. Fiona Fang should be combined with pen, and Fiona Fang is mainly reflected in starting, turning and closing. It is also necessary to combine pressing, that is, the lines have thickness changes and are realistic.
2. Heart knot. To be rich and diverse, official scripts can be learned from the following aspects: 1. Gathering and dispersing. In the construction of a word, there should be a contrast between density and density. The so-called sparse horse racing is airtight. White cloth should not be too balanced. Li Shu, in particular, is mainly arranged horizontally and vertically, and it is easy to be dull without paying attention to spatial changes. The second is vertical and horizontal. That is, the potential of words should change vertically and horizontally. Li Shu is mostly flat, so we should try our best to break this fixed pattern and follow the shape. In general, the left and right strokes can be spread horizontally, and the upper and lower strokes can be extended vertically. This is, you can also think backwards. In the left and right combination of a word, we should also pay attention to crisscross and fat and thin collocation. The third is scale. It is generally believed that the font size of official script has not changed much, but it is by no means the same. In the creation, we must consciously increase the contrast, so that the whole work is scattered in size, such as falling rocks. The fourth is correction. In a work, some glyph structures should be dignified, while others should be pressed sideways. It is easy to write correctly, but difficult to press sideways. Be careful not to be horizontal or vertical, not always on a central axis from top to bottom, and not on a horizontal line from left to right. Can shift and tilt properly, break the balance, save the day, simple and interesting. Wang Xizhi said: "To write a book, we must first study the pen and ink, concentrate on meditation, predict the font size, bend the back, be straight, vibrate, connect the tendons and veins, and then write words." If it is straight and similar, it looks like an operator, the top and bottom are whole, and the front and back are flush, it is not a book, but a point. " This famous saying is a high generalization of the aesthetics of calligraphy creation. Everyone should savor it.
3. composition. Official script has two basic rules. One is horizontal and vertical, and the word spacing is greater than the line spacing. One is vertical row, and there is no row. The first ingredient is more common. Most stone carvings in the Eastern Han Dynasty were in this form. However, it should be noted that this vertical and horizontal arrangement is not absolutely neat, especially between the top, bottom, left and right of words, which cannot be placed on a horizontal line, and there must be ups and downs. The second form is taken from Li Shu and bamboo slips and silks in the Western Han Dynasty, which is relatively free and unrestrained. It should also be noted that the official script is characterized by its atmosphere, so the main hall, banners and couplets are more common in form. Write in large letters, usually above 10 cm.
Step 4 use ink. The change of pen and ink in the creation of official script is a new topic. The official script inscriptions we saw were all photocopied rubbings with white characters on a black background, and there was no ink at all. However, in actual creation, we should add ink method to reflect the change of dry and wet shades and enhance the appeal of the works. Existing people use Sumo to enhance this effect.
First of all, we should consider the basic writing characteristics of official script, which are generally summarized as follows: the body is flat and extends left and right; Left-handed and right-handed, silkworm head dovetail; Zigzag square garden with clear stippling; Teton combination, thick accumulation and thin hair. Simplify the complex, change the font into a square and change the strokes into straight ones. Change "Lian Bi" to "broken pen" and change from line to stroke, which is more convenient for writing. This kind of writing is very popular in "Tuli" (a small official in a lower official position), so it is called Lishu. In the Han dynasty, this kind of writing began to prevail and became the main writing. The appearance of official script is a turning point in the development history of Chinese characters, which laid the foundation for regular script. Official script is flat, neat and exquisite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the painting of skimming and pressing was beautified as upward provocation, with different degrees of severity. The aesthetic feeling of the plastic arts of calligraphy is enhanced, the styles are diversified, and the artistic appreciation value is greatly improved.
Representative examples of stone carvings on the tablet are: Cao Quanbei, elegant and handsome; A British monument, neat and dignified; Park Fang's simple and clumsy Zhang Qianbei; There are also gift films, light and smart, and so on.
The representatives of cliff stone carvings are: Shimen Fu, Kai Xielu, Yang Huaibiao, Xixia Fu, etc.