Foreword

Calligraphy, isOne of the traditional expressions of Chinese characters , has a long history. According to research, the ancient Chinese were the first to paint on tortoise shells and animal bones. Carving symbols or characters is the earliest calligraphy in our country. Later, people discovered using animal bones , tortoise shells and shells, after long-term development, gradually formed the earliest ancient Chinese Text - oracle bone inscriptions.

From oracle bone inscriptions to official script, then to regular script, and finally developed into what we see now calligraphy art form. In this long process of development, it followspolitical, economic, cultural, philosophical It is constantly developing and changing due to changes in thinking and other aspects.

Calligraphy art has become famous for its unique expression form and rich cultural connotationA bright pearl in traditional Chinese culture, we say that calligraphy is an integral part of traditional culture because it is used asThe essence of Chinese traditional culture exists.

Historical Origin of Chinese Calligraphy

Calligraphy is a unique expression form of Chinese characters, and its generation and development have a long history. From pictographic symbols in primitive society, to oracle bone inscriptions in Shang Dynasty, toQin and Han official script, regular script , running script and cursive script, the art of calligraphy has gone through a long process of development.

Oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest known mature Chinese character system in the world, and they are also the history of mankind. The first mature text in the world, oracle bone inscriptions arecarved on tortoise shells or animal bones with a knife span>, horizontal and vertical lines, each word has a horizontal or vertical line as decoration, with a certain Structural laws.

Jinwen (Zhong Dingwen), refers toThe words engraved on bronze wares during the Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Contents include eulogies and notes. Bronze inscriptions opened up a new field for the art of calligraphy and became an important period for the development of calligraphy.

Stone Drum Text, Li Si, the Prime Minister of Qin during the Warring States PeriodA kind of text engraved on stone drums according to the characteristics of Qin State characters After Qin Shihuang unified China, in 210 BC when he burned books and buried Confucianism in order to seek the elixir of life, he buried the stone drum with inscriptions about two kilometers northeast of Xianyang City near Xianyang Palace.

Qinli,Measures such as the same book, same track, unified weights and measures.

In addition, it also stipulates the dialects of all parts of the country, from Qin Shihuang's unification of China to Han Wudi period about For four hundred years, after Qin Shihuang unified the country, he issued a series of decrees to strengthen the rule of the people, During this period, the government attached great importance to the art of calligraphy, requiring subjects to learn to write Qin characters;

For ease of writing andPropagate cultural knowledge, text and literature and other important documents and books, compiled the unified book and the same text decrees issued by Qin Shihuang into "Cangjie Chapter", "Yanli Chapter" and "Bo Xue Chapter".

The evolution of book style and style

Calligraphy is based on Chinese characters,Through stippling, lines, An art that expresses the writer's artistic accomplishment, cultural connotation and aesthetic ideal through the structure, Its formation and development are the result of long-term accumulation, precipitation and sublimation during the evolution of Chinese characters /span>, and this process is only after people have a better understanding of Chinese characters. will be gradually formed.

The art of calligraphy has a long history, and the calligraphy styles are also rich and colorful. Seal script, official script, regular script, running script, cursive script and other five styles. Seal script is one of the oldest fonts, which is characterized by square and symmetrical structures,strokes are flat Straight, vigorous, and beautiful, but it also has obvious clerical meaning.

Clerical script is the Warring States PeriodA font that appeared after Qin Guoshangyang's reform, becauseThe strokes are straight and square so named, it simplifies the round and smooth lines of seal script into square folds and straight lines;Regular script refers to a kind of font that is popular all over the country in the Han Dynasty. It refers to a font with fast writing speed and free strokes.

Cursive script is also called "Zhangcao" or "real grass". It originated from the wild grass created by Zhang Zhi, a master of cursive script in Han Dynasty, named for its fast and casual writing. Its characteristics are strokes are connected unrestrained and free, and the style is unrestrained and unrestrained .

The regular script mainly includes "Yan Zhenqing", "Liu Gongquan", "Zhao Mengfu" and other classic calligraphy Works, regular script began in the Han Dynasty, and first appeared inThe Jian'an period at the end of the Han Dynasty.

The regular script is divided intoTrue book and line, grass two body. The real script is like "Yan Ti" created by Yan Zhenqing, and the official script is like "Han Li"; while the cursive script is "Zhang Cao" created by Zhang Zhi is the most famous, regular scriptThe most representative one is "Duobao Pagoda Stele" created by Yan Zhenqing.

Cursive script refers toA calligraphy style developed from regular script, which is characterized by the obvious sense of beginning and end of each word and the change of mention; cursive script refers toA font written with cursive script as the basic strokes.

Evolution of Chinese writing style

In the long-term use of Chinese characters, they have gradually evolved from pictorial characters to pictographic characters with lines as the means of expression, such asOracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script, etc.. After such a long period of evolution, Chinese calligraphy has gradually developed into an art form with independent aesthetic value.

On the writing instrument, by the Stone AgeStone, bone, mussel, developed to the bronze bamboo and wood slips of the Bronze Age, and then developed to iron products and paper, withContinuous improvement and enhancement of writing tools, The way Chinese characters are written is also constantly changing.

The changes in the writing tools make the art of calligraphy have a new style Different from other art forms: In terms of means of expression, by specific things gradually evolved into an abstract concept; in terms of aesthetic features,Gradually evolved from natural form to "learn from nature"; in style,by The original simplicity gradually evolved into elegance and elegance; in terms of aesthetic taste,From primitive rough to elegant and subtle.

Chinese character writing styleAn art activity from the start, it is closely related to artistic creation, and the research on the writing style of Chinese characters is helpful to understand the development history of Chinese characters, and even more helpful Find clues to the evolution of Chinese characters from the changes in calligraphy style and calligraphy creation practice.

It has been thousands of years since the development of Chinese characters.From the primitive period, Xia Shang period, Western Zhou period, Spring and Autumn and Warring States period to the early Han Dynasty and the late Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and other stages.

From the perspective of text development and evolution, we can divide the text development and evolution into five Stage: The first stage isThe emergence and development of primitive social characters; the second stage isThe emergence and development of characters in the Bronze Age; span>

The third stage isThe emergence and development of writing in the Iron Age; The fourth stage isThe emergence and development of characters in the era of printing span>; the fifth stage isThe writing style of Chinese characters has changed from pictographic to ideographic, from picture to picture, and from lines to strokes.

Aesthetic standards and artistic value of Chinese calligraphy

Calligraphy is a style The art using Chinese characters as a tool of expression is a cultural form, as a traditional Chinese art An important part, calligraphy has richconnotation and aesthetic value .

Chinese calligraphy is an art, and its expression is alsovarious, calligraphy creation can be done according to different needs different forms of writing.

Generally speaking, it can be divided intoRegular script, running script, cursive script, seal script and official scriptFive basic calligraphic styles, each with its own specific aesthetic requirements and forms of expression, these five calligraphic styles are also called "five styles", which are the most basic forms of expression in Chinese calligraphy.

More mature regular script appeared, although regular script is relatively easy to create, but because the shape of Chinese characters does not change much, calligraphers of all dynasties have attached great importance to regular script in calligraphy creation.
Because regular script writing takes a long time, and people have a certain understanding of the structure of Chinese characters Therefore, there are higher requirements for regular script writing.

Cursive script is a font used when writing with a brush. Cursive script isA style developed on the basis of regular script, and cursive script and seal script belong to the category of official script.
Cursive script is Chinese writingThe most difficult to master and the most widely used book style, it is different from general fonts and calligraphy art forms, with obvious Characteristics of writing and artistry, cursive script is mainly based on the writer's own Writing with an understanding of the characteristics of calligraphy art, rather than completing creation based on copybooks, this is similar to regular script, Lishu is very different.
Clerical script evolved from seal script, also known as "Qin Li" and "Gu Li" ""Lishu" is a font used after the Qin State unified the script.

The relationship between Chinese calligraphy tradition and culture and art
Calligraphy art is a kind of cultural existence, and the value of culture lies inThe effect and influence on people, the so-called " Words are like people", which is fully reflected in the art of Chinese calligraphy.
Calligraphy is unique to Chineseart form, as a kind of national cultural spirit, national aesthetic taste and national cultural psychology, it is accumulated in the hearts of Chinese peopleFormed a deep foundation, it can be said that it is the most An important form of expression, so it can also be said to be the most vivid and vivid embodiment of the national spirit /span>.

In Chinese history, calligraphy has always beenExists as an elegant art, and even become a kind of "significant learning". As the art of calligraphy, its emergence and development areinseparable from traditional Chinese culture , and this traditional culture isFormed and accumulated in the long-term historical development process.
So we say that in traditional Chinese cultureSome basic concepts and ideas about calligraphy artIt has been integrated into the art of calligraphy and has become the unique aesthetic standard and value of calligraphy art.
In traditional Chinese culture, "Tao" is aVery important category, "Tao" is the metaphysics, ontology, and ontology transformed into "Tao". In traditional Chinese cultureDominance . In traditional Chinese culture, the concepts of "Tao" and "Tao" are relative, not absolute.It is both a philosophical concept and an artistic concept; it is both a natural concept and a humanistic concept .

There are two basic characteristics of "Tao" in traditional Chinese culture:One is integrity, which is expressed as the unity of "heaven, earth, and man"; the other is infinity Sex, it is manifested as "existence and non-existence".
The "Tao" in traditional Chinese culture has two basic characteristics: one isVitality, which determines that it has a process of life creation and life activities; the second isCreativity, which manifests as a developmental change process.
Therefore, the "Tao" in traditional Chinese culture has a kind Wholeness, Infinity, which determines that it can't just stay in a relatively fixed form, but must reflect its development and changesInfinity of self, this kind of infinity can be called "Tao".

Current status of contemporary calligraphy creation
The current situation of contemporary calligraphy creation, There are factors of progress of the times, and factors of change of the times. Generally speaking, it is innovation and development on the basis of inheriting tradition.
The most prominent feature of today's calligraphy creation is a kind of Higher, faster, stronger requirements to measure the quality of the work. The level of creation has improved, and the speed of writing has accelerated, but it is difficult to improve the level of writing.
You can’t simply judge by writing fast and well To measure the quality of a work, but to create a new style on the basis of inheriting the tradition, from the content The spirit of the times must be reflected in the form, so that the works showthe characteristics of the times and individual characteristics.

Some experts believe that there are two misunderstandings in contemporary calligraphy creation: one isToo much pursuit of beauty of form and neglect of content; the second isExcessive Pursue the form of brush and ink while ignoring the cultural connotation. There are problems in these two misunderstandings, the most prominent of which is not paying attention to traditional culture and Spiritual connotation.
We all know that calligraphy art is a part of Chinese traditional cultureImportant part, before the appearance of Chinese characters, the Chinese had a tradition of writing and appreciating calligraphy. The writing of Chinese characters isa kind of skill, a kind of instrumental writing method; and calligraphy isA cultural phenomenon, an art form.
The art of calligraphy actually contains two meanings:First, it has the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture; second, it has the characteristics of calligraphy art.

Calligraphy, like other arts, has its own unique form of expression and aesthetic characteristics. In the course of its development, Chinese characters have formed a special art form and aesthetic characteristics different from other art forms such as Western writing and Western painting.
As far as Chinese characters are concerned, itExpress the connotation and emotion contained in pictograms, references, understanding, etc., to give people a visualization,Emotional and intuitive.
The pictographic and ideographic features of Chinese characters have been developing for thousands of yearsNo fundamental changes, Chinese characters have developed to this day and have become a Very mature system.

Conclusion
Calligraphy is a major feature of Chinese culture.Chinese The excellent cultural heritage of the nation, which is closely related to the formation and development of Chinese civilization, It isan important achievement of the development of human spiritual civilization, as an art, calligraphy has always been in a unique position in the long river of history, and it shows the essence of Chinese culture in all aspectsUnique charm and artistic value.
In today's society, under the background of globalization, calligraphy art is regarded as a kind of Spread the world language, the influence of Chinese calligraphy in the worldExpanding, the international influence is also increasing.
Chinese calligraphy as a styleTraditional Art, contains rich cultural connotation and profound aesthetic meaning, it is a kind of expressive beauty , the art form of creating and disseminating beauty, has strong vitality and extensive social influence.

references
1. Chen Zhenlian: "Introduction to Chinese Calligraphy", Tianjin People's Publishing House, 2009 edition.
2. Xie Zhiliu: "History of Chinese Calligraphy", Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 1994 edition.
3. Wang Dongling: "Contemporary Calligraphy" (Volume 1 and 2), Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House, 2009 edition.
4. Du Zhihao: "The Cultural Charm and Artistic Value of Chinese Calligraphy", Beijing: People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1995.