news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

The structural techniques of cursive script

Four major elements and basic techniques of cursive script

It is said that cursive writing is difficult, but it is not difficult if you master these

1. Keep it simple

If the structure and strokes of regular script are taken as the standard, the primary characteristic of cursive script is simplicity, with fewer and fewer strokes and simpler strokes. Sun Guoting said: "Cursive script is based on the use of turning and twisting as its form, and the strokes are its temperament. That is to say, the structure of cursive script is mainly based on the use of turning and twisting, and the body of the word is completed in one stroke. "Cursive script cannot form a word without turning and twisting." The turning and twisting should not be horizontal or vertical, and should not have edges and corners. Therefore, the movement of the dot-stroke lines of cursive script is mostly in the shape of an arc. This is the inevitable result of the fast and smooth writing speed. The continuous cursive script often has a number of characters in one stroke, and the lines are intertwined. Sometimes two or three characters are connected together, and it is difficult to separate the characters. The shape changes are extremely strong, and the various pitches, density, facing, and yielding, and the contrast of the unevenness can be exaggerated to an astonishing degree. The problem is not whether it is continuous, but whether there is a sense of breaking at the turning point during the connection process. The most important thing is to be able to seem to be broken and connected. Therefore, although the cursive script of Wang Duo, a great calligrapher in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, often has dozens of characters in a row, it is still valued by later generations because of its explanation of each stroke.

2. Radicals are replaced by specific symbols

In order to seek simplicity, the radicals of cursive script are replaced by symbols, which greatly changes the shape of the strokes of cursive script, which is quite different from the strokes of regular script and running script. This is the characteristic of cursive script. However, cursive script should also be subject to the rules of cursive script. There are strict rules for cursive script, and you must not draw symbols at will. As the saying goes, "If cursive script is out of the rules, even gods and immortals will not recognize it." Cursive script cannot be out of the rules, and the "rules" are the rules. Ge Shouzhi said in "Hanxi Calligraphy General Explanation": "Cursive script is not difficult to be wild and unrestrained, but it is difficult to be wild and unrestrained without violating the meaning of the brush." ​​Therefore, calligraphers have always pointed out that writing cursive script requires solid basic skills in regular script. Zhao Gou said in "Han Mo Zhi": "Most of the predecessors were good at regular script and then cursive script. It is necessary to master both methods. Regular script is elegant and solemn, with dense and appropriate structure, like a minister wearing a crown and sword, standing solemnly in the temple. Cursive script is like a soaring dragon and a phoenix, with swift and powerful strokes, outstanding and bold, but never loses its authenticity." No one can write fast and wildly without mastering the regular script. As Sun Guoting said, "If you don't understand the true meaning, you will be confused if you practice cursive script."

3. Seek overall balance instead of symmetry

Generally, the structure of regular script, running script, and official script seeks to be even, symmetrical, and coordinated. According to the law of unity of opposites, the characters can have changes in density, length, width, extension, oddness, evenness, pitch, and back, so that the length of the characters can be appropriate and evenly spaced on all sides. However, the structure of cursive script does not follow the principle of symmetry, but depends on the changes in the writer's inner emotions. Generally, cursive script ignores straightness and symmetry and pursues the beauty of imbalance, because imbalance and asymmetry make the characters more turbulent. Turbulence is the key to cursive script, especially large cursive script. Even if a character loses its power, tilts and loses its center of gravity, you can use the wrist strength to tilt the character to the other side in the following characters to balance the entire structure. Therefore, the structure of cursive script does not mean that it does not want to be balanced, but that it pursues the overall effect of not losing its center of gravity. Chinese characters are made up of various dots and strokes connected in a continuous manner. Calligraphy is the combination and arrangement of the dots and strokes of Chinese characters, with the length, weight and weight of each character varied as much as possible, making the artistic image magnificent and intriguing. The only rule to be followed is the balance of the center of gravity of the characters. If the center of gravity can be maintained in the structure, no matter how unique the conception is or how steep the combination is, it is in line with the principle of structural beauty. Change and balance are contradictory, but the artistry of the structure is also generated in this contradiction.

The distinctive style of calligraphy works is often reflected in their unique structure. Each calligrapher has his own unique structure. Some are flat and fat, some are thin and long; some are sparse, some are tight; some are slanted, some are dignified. The trick is often to do the opposite of others. Shorten the long, stretch the short, make the square slanted, flatten the slanted... Boldly imagine, comprehensively balance, win by surprise, and not follow the routine. You can create a new look that is natural in form and conforms to the general principle of balance, which can also reflect your personality. Therefore, structural change is the most effective way to reflect personality, and balance is the principle of structural change.

The structure should be varied, but we should avoid falling into the cliché of focusing on the structure. Anyone who puts the art of calligraphy into a fixed pattern and misinterprets calligraphy as an assembly of parts without emotion is putting the cart before the horse and will go to a dead end. Wang Xizhi has long warned us: "If it is straight and similar, like an abacus, square and neat, and even from front to back, it is not calligraphy, but only the strokes." On the other hand, those who pretend to be thrilling but are actually weird, seemingly unrestrained but actually vulgar, and those works with twisted characters, pretentious changes in size, large-scale movement of strokes, and serious imbalance of proportions are against reason and emotion, unnatural, and are also undesirable. Change and loss of form are both undesirable, as are rigidity and rigidity, and are both misinterpretations of "change" and "balance." In terms of individual styles, Sun Guoting's elegant and decisive, Mi Nangong's unrestrained and strange, Zhao Mengshun's beautiful and even, Huaisu's crazy and angry, the temperament of the brush is very different, and the change of structure can always contain danger and extraordinary in the ordinary, the ordinary has the strange, and the strange is not weird. The structure is born from the brush, so it is also called "structure born from the brush". The change of the structure born from the brush is alive, because it comes from the center of the wrist movement, so it can maintain the center of gravity, and there is no mechanical hardness; because it comes from the center of the brush, it can maintain the rules, and the internal quality of the dots and lines is good; because it comes from the changes in the brushstrokes and the brush intentions, the postures are different, the temperaments are different, and the spirit of calligraphy art can be obtained.

The structure of cursive script emphasizes change and randomness. Of course, the standardization of small cursive characters is also very strict, but the same character can have many different cursive methods and is varied. The structure of large cursive characters can be described as "mysterious and unpredictable", which has greater freedom. The large degree of freedom does not mean that you can do whatever you want, but in fact it is more difficult to grasp its correctness. The irregularity of the structure of cursive script comes from the rules, and the irregularity is born from the rules. Everything irregular is always more difficult to grasp than the regular. Because of its irregularity, it can break through the dullness and give people a sense of thrill. But because it contains rules, it feels very generous and smooth, with each stroke belonging to each other, each word looking back, there is emotion in the words, there is sound beyond the strings, it is innocent and natural, full of vitality, it not only fully reflects the image of the object but also conforms to the laws of nature, it breaks the convention and is reasonable, giving people endless aftertaste and imagination.

The deconstruction and combination of cursive script originate from the writer's artistic conception, the rhythm of the heart and the expression of emotions. In a word, art comes from thought, and thought is subject to the rules and influences of traditional philosophy, ethics, social environment, personal experience, etc., and also requires rich imagination. The most ancient and profound philosophical work in China, the Book of Changes, profoundly expounds the Eight Trigrams, which are the deconstruction and combination of lines. Eight three-line shapes are combined into sixty-four six-line shapes. These sixty-four combinations are composed of the two most basic lines, one is a complete horizontal line, and the other is a horizontal line that is divided into two in the middle. The origin of all things is a single line. Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching: "One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things." That is, all things are born from one, and everything starts with one. The structure of calligraphy art is also built on a single line. The great painter Shi Tao said: "One stroke is the root of all things and the root of all phenomena." It is the same truth. One stroke determines the generation and structure of Chinese characters and gradually evolved into calligraphy art. The deconstruction of a stroke can be analyzed into reverse and forward strokes, twists and turns, straight strokes, back strokes, out strokes, breaks and connections, etc. The changes of a stroke can be heavy or light, dry or moist, thick or thin, soft or hard, strong or weak, thin or fat... Different styles can be formed by the changes of a stroke. Of course, the combination of a stroke is even more varied, which forms the structure of a character. There are two major schools of calligraphy, "straight stroke" and "non-straight stroke", and the difference is only in one stroke. In this way, the art of cursive calligraphy is that the wild lyrical consciousness, the agitated and exposed momentum, and the momentum of the pen are the development of the changes of lines to the highest peak. It is the most unrestrained performance of people's own wildness with the help of lines. The cursive calligrapher can take the deconstruction and combination of a line to the extreme, reaching an irrational and unrestrained level. The essence of artistic creation lies in the release of the author's spiritual power, and this release, which comes back to one, in calligraphy relies on a line that is the beginning of all things.

The pictures and texts are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete them!
For business cooperation, please contact QQ: 954458