On the characteristics of Chu Suiliang's ci and how to write it well (preface to the sermon on the Wild Goose Pagoda)

Chu Suiliang was a famous calligrapher in Tang Dynasty. His calligraphy was a beginner in Shinan. In his later years, he accepted Zhong You and Wang Xizhi and merged with Han Li to form his own family. Together with Ou Yangxun, Yu Shinan and Xue Ji, they are called the four great calligraphers in the early Tang Dynasty. According to legend, after Yu Shinan's death, Emperor Taizong sighed that no one could discuss books. Wei Zhi praised: "Chu Suiliang's efforts won Wang Yi a reputation." Wei Zhi believes that he has a deep understanding of Wang Zi and has the ability to identify the authenticity of Wang Zi. His handed down works include regular script "Monument to Mencius", "Preface to the Holy Teaching of Yanta" and "A Que Buddhist Shrine". The Tang Dynasty had a highly developed culture, which, on the whole, was higher than any previous era. Under the influence of this culture, a large number of first-class politicians, literati and connoisseurs have emerged. They are polite and thoughtful, with excellent artistic accomplishment and noble aesthetic taste. The purpose of the study of art history-as Wolfling said in Principles of Art History-is to imagine style as an expression, an expression of the times and national temperament, and also a manifestation of personal temperament. Chu Suiliang's calligraphy just embodies these points. In other words, in his calligraphy art, we can not only see the ethos of his time, but also see the aristocratic atmosphere of his class, and at the same time, we can also see his own aesthetic attitude which can be called "aestheticism". Like him as a politician, he embodies the temperament of an artist. Unfortunately, Chu Suiliang's works on calligraphy have hardly been handed down, so that we can't see his thoughts on calligraphy at a glance. However, Chu Suiliang's father Zanliang is friends with Ou Yangxun and Yu Shinan, which will inevitably affect his calligraphy style. There is a conversation between Chu Suiliang and Yu Shinan: "Chu Suiliang also took the book as his own name and asked Yu Shinan,' How can my book be as wise as ever?' Answer:' I heard that he is 50 thousand straight. How did you get it?' Say, "Who is it?" Yue:' I heard that I didn't choose paper and pen, but I got what I wanted. How did you get this? Sui Liangdao: "So what?" ? Heather said,' If you have good handwriting and good writing, that is really valuable.' I am very happy. "(The Book of the New Tang Dynasty (Ou Yangxun Biography, 1988) may have been encouraging Chu Suiliang. Since the beginning of calligraphy, people have explored its beauty in various ways: during the Han and Wei Dynasties, people praised its "potential"; During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, people talked about "brushwork". During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people began to appreciate the "structural" beauty of calligraphy. However, they obviously didn't touch on a more critical issue: the relationship between "heart", "hand" and "pen" in calligraphy creation. If so, it may have started from Yu Shinan. Yu Shinan is the author of "On the Essence of Pen", in which the section "Wonderful" says: "Words with attitude are supplemented by heart; Understanding the heart is not the heart, but it is also wonderful. Borrowing copper as a mirror is not the understanding of craftsmen; It's a wonderful thing to change your mind with a fake pen. Must be between pure heart and exquisite thought, God should think deeply, and be born with drums and nylon fingers at will; Hold the tube and make the front, but escape the country. A reader's mind is enlightened by the supreme Tao, and a book is bound by inaction. Get involved in glitz, and eventually you are ignorant! "This is the fundamental sign of moving from art form to art, so Chu Suiliang, like Yu Shinan, pays more attention to the cultivation and creation of art, and the problems they face with the calligraphers who are" Shang Yi "are obviously the same, which is a progress in the history of China's calligraphy creation. Quote two paragraphs from Yu Shinan's "On the Essence of Pen" and "Reasoning" to ponder Chu Suiliang's calligraphy creation: ... If you turn a flat wheel, you will get it from your heart, but you will get it from your hand, and your mouth will say nothing. Sweep light and heavy, if it is cloudy on a sunny day; Waves are like a breeze swaying on the blue sea. As neat as a horse hook. Change comes from the heart, but the wonderful use depends on the hand. However, the body is about eight points, with the potential of Cao Zhang, but each has its own interests, and there is no difference. What a lyrical and brisk style! " The body is about eight points, doesn't it contain a strong sense of official script? Everything is empty. "Isn't that how Chu Suiliang moved from material to emptiness in his later years? If you pull your wrist straight according to the front, it will rotate inward and expand outward, and turn around to untie the knot. There is no end to the rotation, and the internal turning front is also; Put pen to paper, stone breaks jade, naturally. It is also like a hairspring in the sky, which can drag and walk; It is also like a worm network wall, strong and complex. You Junyun said, "It's naive to break the hairspring and continue. The Peace Wheel is the same. "Another cloud said," Every time I paint, I hang it up to make it open and natural. "From the beauty of the image of calligraphy to the beauty of the brushwork of calligraphy, Chu Suiliang's beautiful calligraphy style has been cast. The most prominent feature of Chu Suiliang's calligraphy is "ethereal". Guo Liang said in the book "storytelling": "Chu Shu's pen is empty, and its pen is clever. Thin and hard, it is necessary. "The ethereal essence of calligraphy is reflected by the movement and lifting of the pen. We can't find any obvious writing trace in Ou Shu or Yu Shu. But Chu Suiliang is different. He doesn't hide the trace of his pen, and even likes to emphasize this trace to show the lively rhythm he loves. When he touches it, it will produce an unusually bright rhythm. Like Sun's Book Score, "Between a painting, there are ups and downs; In short, it is the most thoroughly expressed in Chu Suiliang's calligraphy. Chu Suiliang has a better chance than Yu Shinan or Ou Yangxun. He can lead a leisurely life, and his pen and paper are excellent. When facing a piece of paper, he can carefully consider how to deal with every point of painting. Therefore, his calligraphy shows an elegant, subtle and erratic mood change. When we look at Chu Suiliang's works in this way, we will be surprised to find that none of them is not a masterpiece: it is a world and a whole. When Chu Suiliang pushed his calligraphy art to the peak, he built his calligraphy realm with all kinds of beauty: everything was so simple, natural and calm without any extravagance, and he didn't need the unexpected strong stimulation of art, just needed the novel effect of pen, style and lines. It's just a beautiful dance with the tip of the pen on the paper-its beauty lies in its chic. It makes people feel that it is just a realm of smile and a delicate taste. In his later years, Chu Suiliang's calligraphy reached a superb level and made great contributions. If we put Ou Yangxun's and Yu Shinan's regular script works together with Yan Suiliang's works, we will obviously see the change of style. Obviously, the pursuit of brushwork has caused this change. If the performance of regular script in calligraphy is to use pen, Chu Suiliang is the highest. If the North Monument embodies a kind of beauty of backbone, Ou Yangxun embodies a kind of rational beauty from strict laws, and Yu Shinan embodies a kind of gentle and restrained beauty, then it shows a kind of beauty from brushwork. In Ou Yangxun or Yu Shinan, lines and brushwork are used to shape fonts. Chu Suiliang is a master with aesthetic charm. He deliberately handles every stroke, every line, every point, every turning point ... So, this deliberate transcendence of glyphs seems to have an independent meaning out of form, making the dotted line an abstract beauty. It can be seen that the rigorous regular script structure established by Ou Yangxun and others has begun to loosen under Yan Suiliang's pen. This looseness is not due to his lack of skills or anything else, but because he knows how to express his wandering feeling with the density of structure and the slowness of pen. If Ou Yangxun is a "master of structure", Chu Suiliang is a "master of lines". His lines are full of life, and the calligrapher's life consciousness is also integrated into the structure, which obviously embodies an important aesthetic category in China's artistic aesthetics: the beauty of flying. Where did this flying beauty come from? Obviously, Chu Suiliang is more artistic than Ou Yangxun or Yu Shinan, that is to say, there is a kind of wisdom in his artistic character. Yuan Zhongdao said in the preface to Liu Shi, Volume I of Zhai Ji: "Where wisdom flows, it is extremely flowing and interesting. Interest in the world is not without wisdom, the mountains are exquisite and polymorphic, the water is rippling, the flowers are vivid and colorful, and the list is endless. This is all caused by a shrewd spirit between heaven and earth, so it is cherished by people. " In Chu Suiliang's calligraphy, we can really see the beauty of flow and dance brought by such "shrewdness". When he uses a pen, he rolls freely like a dancer's sensitive toes. In the constant movement of flying light spirits, one beautiful shape after another has been completed. In Chu Suiliang's delicate and graceful lines, there is a kind of comfortable feeling like flowing clouds, which flows leisurely between his fingers and wrists and is implemented in the painting room, reflecting the author's upright character and profound accomplishment. The preface to the holy teachings of Yanta is also called the preface to the holy teachings of Jigong. There is one stone for every two under the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Jionji, Xi, Shaanxi. The full name is Preface to Tang Sanzang, written by Li Shimin of Emperor Taizong and written by Chu Suiliang. Line 18, 42 words. After The Story of the Stone, the full name is The Story of Sanzang in Tang Gaozong, written by Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Chu Suiliang, with 20 lines and 40 words. In the pen, Fiona Fang uses it together, and the reverse is the opposite; Horizontal painting is vertical, vertical painting is horizontal, there are ups and downs between the head and tail, and there are certain rules in lifting and returning. Zhang Tang Huai Jin's evaluation of this book is: "The beauty Chanjuan seems to be no less than Luo Qi, and the protagonist is very graceful." Qin also commented: "Chu and Deng are a good book, which looks like Luo Qi and looks like copper and iron. This monument is particularly graceful and elegant, and the waves are like gossamer. You can spread out the nuances of the turning point one by one. The essence of Moeller is the crown of all the monuments in the Tang Dynasty. "