Wu Xuchun
(School of Art Nantong U niversity,Nantong Jiangsu 226007)
Cursive is centered on emotion,vehemence,and creation,rather than specific brushwork in the later middle of Song Dynasty.As a representative cursive calligrapher,Huang Xingjian’s fulfillment was recognized as a mile stone in cursive developing attached great emphasis on cursive more than ancestors.Huang demanded for brushwork severely in the process of practicing cursive,putting whose unique view of cursive into practice,which formed his unique style named“Valley brushwork”.Throughout the experience of his learning cursive,chasing tirelessly for a cursive brushwork runs through all his life in the process of learning cursive.Different from wild calligraphy in late Tang dynasty,he was filled with rational consideration on the research and creation of cursive.
Huang in his early years followed Zhou Yue’s inspiration to write cursive.Qian Xie provided him with a deep introspection on Huang’s cursive;therefore,Huang once stopped writing to incarnate his serious attitudes on cursive composing.He later described his early script“as sticky skin wrapped bone in Zen.”〔1〕He then spent much energy on comprehending,so as to achieve the goal of“character embeds brush”.
The first year in Shaosheng,Huang got pith of cursive script in Huanglong Mountain promoting him to be hard-edged about the cursive.〔2〕And“Hard-edged”here indicated rough brushwork,inappropriate writing,straight lines,beyond implicit or charming.As the Pei Jingfu,a connoisseur in cursive in the Qing Dynasty,commented on his script:“Huang wrote straightly without the harmony of hands and hearts.”〔3〕However,he was unsatisfied with his initial comprehension of cursive until he had a deep comprehension in Rongzhou in the fifth year of Shaosheng.Studying authentic work of the autobiography,Huaisu had the greatly impacted Huang’s cursive.Appreciating Huai’s autobiographic genuine,Huang mainly concentrated on the study of Huai’s calligraphy works in his twilight years and absorbed the essence to refine his own works according to his own rational thinking,which assist his enormous strides in cursive.
Huang’s style written in the Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru was close to Huai’s.Since Huai attached much importance on momentum rather than brushwork,and Huang changed full-line style to mature,vigorous one and mixed with fragrance in his twilight years,forming a distinctive line style.Huai’s direct lines,which were brimming with momentum and smooth sharp turns were all arranged rationally by Huang,operating into changing,rational layout.Additionally Huai’s bold style was changed into rational one,indicating Huang’s emphasis on subtlety of brushwork;therefore,he had reached proficiency level through long-term understanding of the brushwork.
Moreover,referring to the ancient brushwork,Huang sought inspiration from nature to refine his brushwork.He considered his cursive failed to express his true feelings exactly as a result of excessive pursuit of“twisting”.During Yuan Fu’s times,Huang got deeper understanding of cursive rules in Fuling by observing paddling.〔4〕Then,he replaced the smooth line quality of Tang cursive and formed his own style with a slow and twisting way,which increased fluctuation and abortion in the line movement,and enrich the content of line.Considering Huang deeply comprehended the dialectical relationship between cursive rules and momentum,he was familiar with the rules by which he achieve the realm of high spirits and clear the importance of skills training on cursive creation.
After being criticized for being“indelicate”and“vulgar”,he dedicated himself to introspecting and studying the cursive brushwork,realizing the importance of regular script and specializing in it.As he proposed,“mastering regular script before learning cursive,it is not difficult to excel at cursive supposing seizing the rules.”〔5〕Synthesizing above statements,he made a new understanding of Zhang’s cursive from another perspective.His cursive,however,was extremely regular following the ancient rules.
Huang revered Zhang Xu while set Ya Qi as a negative example.Ya Qi,as a cursive monk during late Tang Dynasty,emphasized the pursuit of changing in his book.In order to stress on the importance of regular script rules,Huang criticized Ya Qi’s wild,strange and rampant cursive which was regarded as typical example after late Tang.He even criticized his favorite calligrapher Yang Ningshi:“Merely Zhang and Lu were qualified for perfect calligraphers,and then Yang Ningshi followed.Huang associated regular script with cursive and pointed out the dialectical unified relationship between them.“Regular script is intrinsically like a speeding horse galloping to the woods while cursive always follows a potential rule.”〔6〕Only with the perfect brushwork and rigorous standard can cursive escape dropping into the vulgar style which full of wild odd thoroughly.
Seen from the cursive works during Huang’s late life,his emphasis on regular script had an effect on his cursive,which is manifested in two main aspects.First of all,it is the feature of regular script,such as lifting and pressing,stalling and twisting,which is applied to cursive script making the lines change on shape more exquisite on the basic of Xu and Su.In addition,the morphology of the brush’s using on the first and last stroke,and the wave of the processing as well as the dispose of twisting are more attentive and precise,which increased the richness of lines model.Furthermore the soul of regular script had a significant impact on cursive script.Huang created cursive with rational and serious state possessed by regular script,and researched the skills of cursive with careful and scrupulous attitudes and paid attention to the line’s shape and quality according to regular script’s peculiarity,focusing on the arrangement of stipple position.
Judging from the cursive development of Tang and Song Dynasties,there are fewer interrelationships between Tang cursive and Tang regular script:Tang regular script emphasized on rules while the other prefer passion and momentum.the majority of the North Song calligraphers attached much importance on regular script rules because they were the significant part that were seldom ignored during the cursive learning.As Cai Xiang supported,“An excellent calligrapher must have thorough understanding about the regular rules first and then practiced in cursive.”〔7〕Huang have made tremendous contribution to the development of cursive through putting the regular script rules into cursive,combining the passion and rules of cursive,and adjusting the weird culture of Kuang Cao since middle and late Tang Dynasty.
However,the influence of Tang regular script rules to cursive is also a significant disadvantage.As a model,mature Tang regular script had a dramatic impact on forming other calligraphy styles.For example,“The focus was moved to the stipple and turning point resulting in hidden twist turn and the malady that the stroke was monotonous and the middle was weak.”〔8〕Nevertheless,this setting was incompatible with cursive,which shed light on the turns and continuity.Huang,however,had solved the contradiction through adopting the ancient method,
Huang’s extension on Tang Cursive pencraft,moreover,broke through the sheer skillful level of cursive script and shed light on the depth of cursive evolution with ancient rules.He inscribed in his postscript that“Rarely did literatus achieve ancient rules but write characters disorderly,claiming that these characters are cursive.These literatus failed to realize that cursive shared the same rules with Kedou,seal cutting and official script.For centuries,merely Zhang Changshi,Huai Su and me conceived such pencraft”.The excessive pursuit of emotion,posture and the wildness of creation atmosphere were driven by a host of monks followed by Zhang Xu and Huai Su’s Tang Cursive style.As Dong Qichang had mentioned“the pencraft was developed from elegance and ease to vulgarity and eccentricity without any rules.”Therefore,Huang clung to the belief that cursive script lost the ancient rules completely at that time,since characters were judged as cursive only by superficial standard,which impelled his disgust at the prevalence of this phenomenon.Furthermore,he indicated“the majority of today’s literatus failed to comprehend pencraft,and rarely did there calligraphers master the connotation of seal cutting and did they devote themselves to the rules.”
As far as Huang is concerned,seal cutting was the basis of other calligraphy.Once he argued that“The characters carved on stone of Han Dynasty are appreciable,and I comprehended the marrow of regular script”.He was also very proud of his ideas,proposing that merely Zhang Xu,Huai Su and me gained comprehension of that.In order to demonstrate the correctness of his theory,Huang standing on the shoulder of Wang Xizhi who was a prestigious calligrapher often emphasized on the importance of ancient pencraft which driven cursive script to a delicate and subtle level in the perspective of calligraphy history.He argued that“Wang had appreciated the seal cutting of Qin Dynasty and the authentic work of Shi Jing,and great progress was achieved on his handwriting.The one who will be uneasy under the cartwheel fail to realize the ingenious beauty which is unable to be expressed verbally.Since merely Wang Xizhi,Yan Zhenqing and Yang Shaoshi seized the intrinsic quality of Lan Ting Xu’s pencraft.”“The pencraft in Shigu’s paper is as distinctive as the high qualified jade,which barely be fabricated by the posterity.One can learne the rules on official and running script by digging into this work proficiently.”said Huang.
Huang’s emphasis on seal cutting and official script indicated that his studies on cursive pencraft neither confined to the level of external posture and rigorous pencraft,nor lingered on the up-down-intermediate movement and the superficial craft level,but penetrated into the connotation of line.Judging from Huang’s work,seal cutting and official script enriches cursive script in following ways.Firstly,every line is mid-fronted,and astringent in the turning point.The mid-fronted pencraft enabled the line to be mellow and full of third dimension,outshining by its plump sinew and bone.Besides,the astringent handwriting entitled the line with magnificence and solidarity which seal cutting possessed.Huang abundantly applied the starting-pen against front to cursive script,making it a quite typical rule of starting the pen.The against-front anticipation entitled the line with elastic strength as well as connotation,compared with quadrate and straight one.Additionally,Huang employed the twist-turn pencraft and waving Zhan Bi to the cursive line,which is a vital characteristic of Valley Cursive.Twisting and turning enable the line to remain the astringent nature at every moment,which enhanced the boundless and primitive line texture.Huang’s focus on cursive script is up to the exquisite and ingenious level,being the antecedent in the cursive history.
Seen in the perspective of cursive evolution development,the transmutation of chirography has ended in Tang Dynasty.U nder this circumstance,Huang innovated a new atmosphere by searching for new ways on the basis Tang Cursive.He integrated the features of other chirographies with cursive script and corrected the wired cursive style appearing in late-Tang Dynasty.The pursuit of ancient method is the crucial factor that Huang eventually been an elite in the field of calligraphic.
Given above,we confirmed Huang adhered to the principle that“character embodied with pen”and pursued cursive testimonies and pencraft,which makes the cursive a different appearance compared with Tang Dynasty.Zhang Xu and Huai Su,the representatives of Tang Cursive,eclipsed others by their imposing manners which are like the running water and smooth airstream.“Pleasure or startle can be entirely seen from the calligraphy”Han Yu commented.Zhang Xu employed the brush with abundant variance and turbulent ups and downs,which entitled his work with bold posture and acute rhythm.While Huai Su wrote characters swiftly with natural line with few rising or pressing.As for Huang,hardly did he win by the imposing manner while the style is peculiar and sheer.He penetrated the pencraft ideas of seal cutting and official script into cursive line,making every line middle-front and deep-inset to paper with astringent posture.Com-pared with Tang Dynasty,cursive made great advance in its form and initiating new aesthetic connotation based on Tang Cursive.
Huang’s inspiration and study on cursive pencraft opened up a new development direction based on the wildness and catharsis of Tang cursive,which contributed to a great influence on the cursive development afterwards,especially for the Ming-Qing Dynasty cursive style.Copious calligraphers’works in Ming Dynasty were directly influenced by Huang’s unique cursive pencraft,lines and posture.Besides,Huang’s innovation in cursive had enlightened the later generation and promoted the stylization of Ming and Qing Dynasty’s Cursive.Pondering over the way of innovating Cursive,Huang created a new method different from Tang Cursive and formed a special style of Valley Cursive.Such creative minds had inspired calligraphers in Ming and Qing Dynasty.For example,Xu Wei,a representative of Romantic calligraphic style in the late Qing Dynasty,learned running script from Huang in his early years.Huang’s extension on cursive pencraft is of great significanceto current calligraphic creation.Learning from Huang’s cursive should not linger on the superficial imitation,but dig into the cursive philosophy that can inspire creative sparkles.Only in this way can new calligraphic realm be discovered.
〔1〕Huang Tingjian, Valley PostScript,Shanghai:Shanghai Far-East Press,1999,pp.225.
〔2〕Huang Tingjian, Valley PostScript,Shanghai:Shanghai Far-East Press,1999,pp.144.
〔3〕Chen Zhiping, Study on Huang Tingjian’s Calligraphy,Beijing:Chinese publishing Company,2006,p.134.
〔4〕Huang Tingjian, Valley PostScript,Shanghai:Shanghai Far-East Press,1999,pp.256.
〔5〕Huang Tingjian, Valley PostScript,Shanghai:Shanghai Far-East Press,1999,pp.146.
〔6〕Cui Erpingdianxiao, Calligraphy Collection,Shanghai:Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Press,1979,p.355.
〔7〕Cui Erpingdianxiao, Continued Works on Calligraphy Collection,Shanghai:Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Press,1993,p.50.
〔8〕Qiu Zhenzhong, Form and Interpretation of Calligraphy,Beijing:Renming University of China Press,2005,p.78.