Let’s begin with calligraphy. Consider the emergence of Chinese characters – what extraordinary phenomenon accompanied it? As you surely know, Liu An, the King of Huainan, wrote in his Huainanzi: “When Cang Jie created the characters, grain rained from the heavens, and ghosts wailed through the night.” Isn’t that what it says? It’s astonishing! The mere appearance of writing caused the heavens to rain down grain, millet – see? It makes our modern saying “it’s raining manna from heaven” seem trivial, doesn’t it? But truly, with the birth of writing, ghosts wailed at night. Why? Because they sensed that with writing’s arrival, they had nowhere left to hide. How profound! This was an earth-shattering, spirit-shaking event of immense significance.
Today, you study calligraphy – many from childhood, through undergraduate studies specializing in calligraphy, and even into master’s programs. While the external dimensions (like the size of your work) may change, and the internal dimensions within your writing also evolve, you have yet to reach a heightened consciousness about the act of writing itself, about writing Chinese characters. This is precisely why we must discuss the Book of Changes and explore its aesthetic implications. Look at that single stroke – “one stroke opening heaven and earth.” Just this one stroke – see? – presents us with an aesthetic problem to contemplate.
发表回复
要发表评论，您必须先登录。