Therefore, whether you understand and master the method of using a pen not only directly affects whether you enter the door of calligraphy art, but also directly affects your future calligraphy level. Calligraphy, as a unique traditional art, its materialized form is to write lines and compose words with a pen, just as Sun said in Book Score that "the pen is the body and the ink is the success". Therefore, calligraphers of all ages attached great importance to the use of pens. Calligraphy masters of all ages have superb level and solid calligraphy practice.
Using a pen is very important and complicated in the whole calligraphy art system. In the book "My Views on Linchi in Qing Dynasty", Zhou Xinglian once said: "Calligraphy with a pen is expensive." "In short, the first writing method makes the wrist pen vivid, and it is incredible to volley and gain power. Being able to use this pen correctly, horizontally, smoothly, repeatedly, lightly, virtually and realistically, grasping it correctly, drawing it vertically, grasping it tightly and expanding it greatly depends on the sharpness of the pen tip. " This theory vividly introduces the changes and essentials in the process of using a pen.
Cai Yong's Notes (Nine Trends and Pen Theory) involve many aspects, such as calligraphy techniques, calligraphers' feelings and the relationship with foreign objects and images. The most crucial sentence is that "a round pen has a backing paper, and a vivid pen always has the power of painting." This is an important magic weapon repeatedly quoted by calligraphers and regarded as a brush stroke: the central pen lifting.
To learn calligraphy well, we must master the "four degrees and three principles".
The so-called "four degrees", that is, the angle of paper entry, the pressure of lifting, the radian of strokes and the four degrees of strokes, are all very important. The paper feeding angle, that is, the paper feeding angle of the pen tip, can often produce positive and negative, Fiona Fang, front and back, and straight effects. If you don't pay attention to the angle of the paper, it will often form a sick pen, which can accurately reflect the lines. The radian of strokes is mainly produced between strokes, even between strokes and whole characters, that is, a relationship, or an echo relationship, or an elastic change in straightness. The elasticity of lines varies with the radian of strokes. Stroke speed is an intuitive and important factor, which is closely related to the first three items. It can reflect the rhythm and thickness of lines.
The so-called "three principles", that is, starting a pen, starting a pen and closing a pen, require different actions. Different strokes have different effects on lines. As Zhao Ziang said, "It is not easy to use a pen through the ages", no matter what kind of strokes, these three elements should be reflected.
In a word, brushwork is essentially a measure, and brushwork is actually a synthesis of "four degrees and three principles" In the process of learning and creation, as long as we grasp the "four degrees and three principles", that is, the main contradiction of calligraphy, we will certainly be able to learn with ease.