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Prose: Calligraphy Past Events

Some lives are often a process of constant migration. Traveling from one place to another, spending time in space. Once you can no longer walk, time will end in a certain space. For example, I have been traveling from north to south since middle age, drifting in the wind like fallen leaves. I returned to my hometown in my later years and am not yet familiar with the city I haven’t seen for a long time. Recently, I have to move to another coastal city.

Since you have to spend your later years elsewhere, you have to take away some old things. That day, I used my free time to sort out some clutter from my old residence and prepare to take it away. After flipping through it, I didn't find much belongings, but there were quite a few old books. There were probably hundreds of them stacked up. I bought this book twenty or thirty years ago when I was concentrating on my studies. Most of the pages are yellowed. Looking at a pile of old books covered in decades of dust, I can't help but feel a little emotional. I didn't succeed in learning, so I embarked on an official career unexpectedly, and I couldn't help but lament the weirdness of life. Later, after many years of traveling abroad, these books lay idle. After the family moved several times, many of them were probably lost. However, a rough inventory shows that some of the more precious complete works of famous writers and large reference books are still there.

His eyes wandered around and rested on an object tightly wrapped with old newspapers on the top of the cabinet. He looked at it for a long time without remembering what it was, so he took it off and spent some time to remove the old newspapers. His eyes suddenly lit up. This is a framed calligraphy work. In calligraphy terms, it is a two-foot central hall. The two big characters "Huwei" in the letter are written in a concise and powerful way, with a mixture of virtual and real, which shows the author's profound calligraphy skills.

While I was pleasantly surprised by this precious frame of calligraphy, it also brought back some old memories of calligraphy.

I worship words and regard them as totems.

Therefore, I have been devoted to the study and research of ancient characters for many years. So, by the way, I also liked things related to words, such as calligraphy. This complex seems to have some genetic factors. My father loves calligraphy and especially admires Mao Zedong's pen and ink. He once told me more than once that it is a kind of broad and uninhibited chic. He himself often plays brush, although he is not a famous person. As for me, I naturally fell in love with calligraphy. Moreover, he also inherited his father's aesthetic sense and is especially fond of cursive paintings.

Strictly speaking, I am an amateur when it comes to calligraphy. Even if I appreciate it, I am still ignorant and have little knowledge, let alone writing. However, this does not affect my interest in calligraphy. I always feel that a divine soul jumps between the lines of a good calligraphy, reverberating with an aura that transcends human imagination. It makes people think about it, and the spirit is elegant, entering a kind of aesthetic realm. Perhaps, this is what people often call the artistic realm and artistic charm.

Because of this, between calligraphy creation and appreciation, I am more fascinated by the latter. It is a supreme spiritual enjoyment. Thoughts can meander along the path of pen and ink. The end of the pen may disappear into the forest or fly into the sky. The thoughts will become deep and narrow, lingering for a long time without end. In this sense, an excellent calligraphy work should have no end. To use a literary expression, it means endless aftertaste. Sometimes after appreciating a work, I still think about the suspenseful or magical strokes in it for a long time, thinking about its ins and outs, and it is difficult to let go. Even, it will be brought into a dream inadvertently.

I remember that there was a time when I often sat in the vegetable field under a broken rock and read. Sometimes, the weather suddenly cools down, and a gust of wind comes with moist air. When you raise your head, you will see black swallows flying up and down, indicating the coming of rain. But I forgot to take shelter from the rain, and was intoxicated by the swallows circling in the sky.

The vast sky is like a huge piece of rice paper stretched out, and the shape of the swallow is like a pen dipped in ink, swaying freely on the rice paper. The black swallow shadows are vertical and horizontal, carrying the sound of the wind, turning and stroking, all of them are elegant and free, like a stroke of God, so comfortable. I think this should be Yanzi's calligraphy. It seems chaotic and clueless, but in fact, whether it is pointing directly into the sky or folding its wings and swooping down, it is quite organized and has its own charm.

So, this piece of work hung over my head. In fact, its inherent beautiful cultural connotations have been replaced by vulgar officialdom habits. In the specific context of the office, people are more aware of its officialdom meaning.

Later, a friend came to my office, looked at the room and said, "This calligraphy is a good thing, but it is not suitable to hang here."

I felt strange. I thought a little unhappy in my heart, it's obviously very good, how could it be inappropriate?

When my friend saw that I was a little confused, he smiled faintly and said, "It is best to hang the calligraphy works on the opposite side of the desk. You are hanging them behind you now. This..." As he said that, he winked at me mysteriously. blink.

I stared at his strangely rotating eyes for a long time, but I still couldn’t figure it out, so I could only shake my head in self-consciousness.

"Turn your back on the words..." He blinked again and slowed down his speaking speed.

Under the dual prompts of his words and expressions, I finally had an idea and blurted out: "Recite the words!"

He breathed a sigh of relief and nodded approvingly at me.

In northern dialect, the word "Zuobei'er" means bad luck or unlucky. As an official, I naturally keep this word secret.

I couldn’t help but take another look at this shrewd friend in front of me. No wonder he has risen through the ranks and has a prosperous official career. It turns out that he has studied this taboo so thoroughly and understands its secrets.

I was a little embarrassed and said with a blush, "I really didn't know there was such a thing. Thank you for the advice, but what is suitable to hang here?"

He smiled slyly again and said: "Landscape painting."

I stared at it and thought about it, suddenly enlightened again, and laughed loudly: "That means I have a backer!"

This He didn't smile back and gave me a thumbs up.

Later, I actually took down the calligraphy, but I didn’t hang it on the opposite wall, nor did I find a painter to hang a work of mountains and mountains behind me. I feel ashamed of my tacky officialdom, and I also feel sorry that the words on the painting have been tainted by worldly thoughts. As for that friend, I have been very disdainful since then. I always feel that being an official depends on ability, not the prophecies of those Feng Shui gentlemen.

五

Although I am useless in calligraphy, I am still very grateful for calligraphy. Because I like those weird Chinese characters written by calligraphers, it brings me into a new aesthetic field and artistic realm. In order to learn and master the rules of cursive calligraphy, I bought a "Chinese Calligraphy Dictionary" (Hong Kong Chinese and Foreign Publishing House, 1983 edition), and looked it up when I encountered cursive calligraphy that I didn't recognize. Although you can't write it, you can recognize it, which is undoubtedly very helpful for reading and appreciating cursive works.

Unfortunately, the author of the work "Huwei" has passed away. When he wrote these two words, he was already eighty-six years old. He is the world-famous Chinese calligraphy and painting appraisal master and museologist Yang Renkai. It was he who discovered and identified the authentic copy of the world-famous "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". Mr. Yang Renkai lived at the age of ninety-three, which can be said to be a long life. People say: "People who are good at calligraphy in ancient times have a long life because their minds are calm. If a person can calm his mind, there is nothing he can't do."

Calligraphy pays attention to Mogu, "Like a ghost enjoying a sacrifice, but absorbing it" Qi does not eat its essence." I think the same goes for appreciating calligraphy works.

Make a pot of tea, light a cigarette, put your eyes on a piece of rice paper, follow the ink-colored footprints, and walk into the depths of the art of calligraphy, like walking on a Zen path, thinking far and wide. , even fortunately.

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