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Chinese calligraphy has a long history, with many famous calligraphers and countless works. There is a reason why some people are called "masters" and their calligraphy is praised as "divine works". Even after thousands of years, we still learn their calligraphy and copy their calligraphy, which proves this point.

So, what are the common advantages of these classic works? What conditions do we need to meet in order to write excellent characters? In general, there are four "iron laws" that apply to any masterpiece, even the works of the "calligraphy saint" Wang Xizhi.

The first "iron rule" is that the strokes must have a sense of power. We can look at the "Shenlong version" of "Lanting Preface" and the regular scripts of Ou, Yan, Liu, and Zhao. "Lanting Preface" is known for its unrestrained and unrestrained style, with graceful strokes, but with inherent strength. Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is "powerful through the back of the paper", and this sense of power has also produced different styles and treatments, such as "house leaking marks", "bent iron", "thousand-year-old withered vines", etc.

If the strokes lack strength, no matter how clever the writing is, it cannot be called good calligraphy. Many experts and scholars criticized the calligraphy of Dong Qichang and Qianlong as being empty and weak, and "noodle characters". This is the reason. When we compare Wang Xizhi's "Sangluan Tie" and "Kuaixue Shiqing Tie", one of the main reasons why the former is of higher level is that the strokes are particularly powerful.

The second "iron rule" is that the brush must have a three-dimensional sense, and can write a three-dimensional effect on a two-dimensional plane, such as using the center of the brush, and the lines are round and thick with texture. People often say "drawing sand with a needle" and "wrapping iron in cotton" is exactly like this. Look at Wang Xizhi's running script, Huaisu's cursive script, and Yan Zhenqing's regular script, all of which have this advantage. As Shen Kuo said: "When the sun shines on it, there is a thick ink in the center of the line, and the sun can't shine through it." That is, the bones and flesh must be symmetrical.

The third "iron rule" is that the ups and downs of the brush must have a sense of rhythm. The brush follows the heart, and the speed of the brush, the size of the handwriting, the thickness of the ink, and the density of the layout all follow the ups and downs of the inner emotions. When we look at Wang Xizhi's "Sangluan Tie" and Yan Zhenqing's "Jizhi Wengao", we can feel the inner grief of the two calligraphers. The tension of that emotion is expressed through the ups and downs of the rhythm.

The fourth "iron rule" is to avoid the monotony of "looking like an abacus". Wang Xizhi said: "If it is straight and similar, like an abacus, square and neat, and even front and back, it is not calligraphy, but just the strokes." As the saying goes, "writing is like looking at a mountain, you don't like flatness", and the same is true for calligraphy. When writing, we should pay attention to the changes in the use of the pen and the formation of the characters to create a dynamic momentum, such as the danger of Ouyang Xun's regular script and Mi Fu's "wind wall and divine horse" in calligraphy.

If you only pursue the same size, horizontal and vertical lines, and even use of ink, then it is no different from "printed characters". When writing, there are changes in the strength of the pen, the slowness and sluggishness, the structure has differences in contraction and expansion, straightness and tilt, height and lowness, and the composition has a contrast of density and gathering and dispersion. Only in this way can it be fresh and new every time.

What do you think about this? Feel free to leave a message in the comment section to discuss!