My Take on Appreciating Chinese Calligraphy (Part I) 我欣賞中國書法意見（第一部分）

Warning:  I am not a professional scholar on the subject of Chinese calligraphy.  I am merely an amateur connoisseur of Chinese calligraphy  Corrections and constructive criticism are welcome.

聲明：  我不是中國書法專家。我只是個中國書法業餘愛好者。歡迎各位的批評和指教。

A master calligrapher makes his craft look effortless.  It takes only 5-10 minutes to write 10 to 100 characters, but masterpieces are treasured and save for millennia.

書法工藝外觀看來不費絲毫力氣。寫出幾十百字只要幾分鐘，但被視為佳作就能珍藏幾千年。

I have tried a few times writing calligraphy, and it requires hand and mind to flow as one.  I don't say this in a artsy or flowery sense, any doubts or  wanderings of the mind literally translates to the hands.  The slightest twitch can ruin a masterpiece.

我自己只試過毛筆幾次而已。書法需要手於心靈相通。我說的不是藝術氣息或華麗感，而是心裡的一絲懷疑就會影響到手的動作。手的細微抖動能毀掉傑作。

I'm not going to start the discussion of Chinese calligraphy in chronological order with oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty.  I will start with the most familiar.

首先，我不按時間順序從商朝甲骨文談起書法的字體演變。我先講各位比較熟悉的。

The most commonly used script that's still used in practice today is called "Kaishu"（楷書）.  Calligraphy taught in the Far East teaches Kaishu first in standard public education.  While American schools used #2 carbon pencils to write between comically large lines, Chinese students jump into the deep end of the pool and use the same tools as calligraphy masters.  The four basic tools are called "The Four Treasures of the Study Room" (書房四寶), they include the paper, paperweight, brush, and ink.  Albeit, beginners get to use grid paper like this:

現在最常用的字體是楷書。  東亞地區教書法先用楷書做標準字體。而美國用二號鉛筆碳寫字在滑稽的大線裡面，中國學生跳進池深側而用書法大師的工具。  基本工具稱為“書房四寶”，  它們包括筆，墨，紙， 硯。  儘管，學徒用九宮格紙：

(Source)

Once a calligrapher starts, everything is about copying previous masters.  But how can copying be a creative form of art?  Without originality in calligraphy, is it even an art form authentic to the expression of the creator?

要成為書法家都從擬摹以前的名家著手。但抄寫如何稱為一種藝術？  書法沒有原創的話， 這種藝術形式真實傳達創作者的意念？

I respond with the master mimicker, Zhang Daqian 1899 - 1983 (張大千)：

我舉模仿大師，張大千1899 - 1983：

(Source. I hope I age as gracefully as him when I'm old)

Zhang Daqian was known mostly for his Chinese painting, but the brush techniques in painting derive from writing characters.  Although his works are fairly contemporary to the time scale of Chinese history, he was able to re-discover painting techniques lost for 1300 years when he studied the Dunhuang caves.  Even today, some paintings that were originally thought to date from the Tang may have been Zhang Daqian's works.  That's like someone during the Great Depression painting Da Vinci fooling professional historians today!  Except the forgeries of Zhang Daqian were older than Da Vinci by another 500 years!  It was his ability to mimic that helped rediscover the techniques of ancient painting.

張大千的作品多為中國繪畫，但繪畫技術啟發自書法。雖然他的作品表現了當代中國歷史的時間尺度，但當他研究敦煌石窟時期，  他重新發現失落了1300年的粉刷技術。即使在現在，有些繪畫原先以為可上溯唐朝，事實上卻可能是張大千的作品。這就像大蕭條時期的達文西的繪畫愚弄了今日的專業歷史學家！  但張大千的贗品比達文西通過年長另外500 年！  他的模仿能力幫助世人重新發現古代繪畫的技巧。

(Even the color pigments Zhang used were authentic to the Tang Dynasty!  The colors dude, the colors!)

(Source.  East and West meet! Starting from left to right:  Pablo Picasso, Zhang Daqian, Xu Wenbo (Zhang Daqian's 4th wife))

The act of copying also preserves calligraphy and it's influence on people over time.  Imagine if there was a secret original copy of Beowulf was saved, and every major literary and historical figure decided to attach an their own commentary after reading appreciating the masterpiece.  Let's say Chaucer, King John, Shakespeare, King Edward II, Keats, Aquinas, Dickens, and George Washington all wrote something.  English majors would build a cathedral and have a nerdgasm of excitement, worshiping this document.  Such a document exists in the Chinese literary culture called "Sunny after Snow"  by Wang Xizhi (303 AD to 361 AD).

複製的行為還保留了書法及其對人們長期的影響。試想一下，如果有貝奧武甫的一個秘密的原件被保存，和每一個主要的文學和歷史人物決定閱讀欣賞的佳作後附加一個自己的評論。比方說，喬叟，約翰國王，莎士比亞，英國國王愛德華二世，濟慈，阿奎那，狄更斯和喬治華盛頓都寫了些什麼。英語專業的學生將建立一個大教堂和有興奮地崇拜這個文件。中國文學文化的存在一份名為 “快雪時晴帖”的書札王羲之（公元303至公元361 ）。

The entire scroll is much longer.  Here's the full version.  The right side with the blackened paper is Wang Xizhi's original calligraphy. It's only four lines of poetry, 28 characters.  So what does Wang Xizhi have to do with Chinese calligraphy?  Wait for part II!

整個捲軸更長。下面是完整版本。右側的熏黑紙是王羲之的書法原創。它只有四行詩， 28個字符。那麼，王羲之與中國書法有什麼關係呢？等待第二部分！

Feel free to leave a message for requests on future blog topics.

隨意留言給未來的博客主題的請求。

The Chinese Art Book: Music in Visual Art

Marquis Yi Bell Set, 433 BC

Dancing Figure and Musician, 2nd Century BC

Sound are longitudinal waves that propagate through air.  For those who are fortunate enough to have a sense of hearing and sight, we instinctively correlate the size and weight of an object to its sound.  We can feel the vibrations of the instrument as it moves through our bodies.

Some music in Chinese history was used for ritual and ornate state ceremony.  In this case, the bells in the picture above are black, heavy looking, and regular it its pattern and adornments.  Everything about this piece is deliberate and controlled.  They don't appear to be household objects, too heavy to be practical.  They appear to serve a grand purpose.  The size of the bells imply the sound carries over a large distance.  The picture above isn't from The Chinese Art Book, but there are also long wooden rods used to strike the bell.

The figures on the bottom are curvaceous and asymmetric, suggesting imbalance and movement.  I will assume for now that the figures are female.  The dance figure on the left has these long sleeves that accentuate her arms.  The movements are meant to take space with the purpose of attracting attention.  The figure looks as if she's mourning over a tomb, but it's a 25-stringed instrument that sits on the ground.  The position of her heads shows her direction of focus, and the hands are poised, ready to use the fine motor skills of her fingers to pluck complex chords and melodies.

The instrumentalists in the following video look dorky, but this is an accurate historical recreation of music from the Warring States period.  Ancient music sheets survived along with someone having the foresight to label each bell with its respective note.  The dance sequence is based on small models and historical painting:

I'm not sure what to make of these pieces.  I can only imagine myself an emperor of my court.  As all of my ministers are wining and dining in front of me, I am sitting on my throne, listening with my eyes closed as I consider the present moment of my empire.  I'm hoping no one assassinates me.

The Chinese Art Book: Text and Permenance

Diamond Sutra 868AD  

Stamping on Water, Song Dong, 1996

Note: The man is holding a seal carved with  "水," the character for water.

The Diamond Sutra is the earliest example of printed text that exists today.  This piece depicts a monk kneeling and prostrating himself in the front of the Buddha and enlightened deities.  The power of the written word derives from it's ability to create ideas that surpasses an individual's imagination.
Yet the written word on text is immobile.  It needs the human agent to influence action.

I find it ironic that the earliest published book is a Buddhist text because Buddhism preaches suffering from the attachment to identity.  The very nature of text is to identify and categorize.  Ideas of human beings are based on how humans relate the outside world to our own perceptions.  Buddhism claims perception in itself is a form of illusion, impermanent as nature erodes and constantly shifts identity.

When Song Dong attempts to imprint a human label onto nature, the label has no permanence.  The water has no ability to self identify, or hold onto such a label.  The liquid simply returns to it's original state and continues to flow.  Man cannot force nature to accept a label.

Song Dong's piece also shows how text relates to the flow of time.  Text will always be about recorded thoughts from the past.  Ink holds and maintains ideas when it attaches to paper, but the the of the present moment becomes the past.  The present in infinitesimally fleeting.  Nature needs no sense of self identity and continuously changes.

This contrast reflects upon the power and weakness of text.  If humans cling nurture the values of the past, text can multiply and remain within our social consciousness.  But just imagine what would happen if we placed The Diamond Sutra into the water.  Ideas that have life on paper would disintegrate into the impermanence of nature.  Perhaps we have to accept that even the grandest and deepest of human thoughts must dissipate into the constant shifting of nature.

The Chinese Art Book: Introduction

I remember one of my professors explaining how viewing cultural history from a chronological perspective generalizes the narrative as progressive, or future work "improves" from the past.  This isn't just a symptom of our capitalist society, where the passage of time provides growth.  It's also been used by Chinese dynasties to criticizes the flaws of the past.  Historical narratives written by dynasties tend to distort the narratives of its previous dynasty.  This doesn't mean that everything in the past must be inferior to the present, but we should at least be aware of such distortion trying to explain the values of a culture.

So the next thing I'll attempt is a series of art critique in The Chinese Art Book by Colin Mackenzie, Katie Hill, and Jeffrey Moser. Chinese art seems completely alien to the Western world because the viewer has to relearn all the historical context and baggage behind the art.  At least Western art is familiarized in our everyday world, like the mosaic in a church or lingerie on a billboard.  But why is Confucius on a can condensed milk? Question for the philosophers.

The Chinese Art Book does not place the pictures of artistic works in chronological order, rather each open page is a binary to the other side.  As the book jacket puts it, "The dialogue between each couple invites meanings that often go far beyond those of the individual works."
The next project I'll attempt on Blogger will attempt to figure out why The Chinese Art Book makes these binaries.  I will try my best to make these themes relatable to those unfamiliar with Chinese culture, but at certain point I'll have to delve into Chinese history.  Understanding Chinese culture is like trying to understand an episode of the Simpsons.  I remember showing The Simpsons to a guy from Shanghai, and I had to pause the video every 10 seconds because each joke derived from a unique aspect of American culture.  When a Westerner looks at Chinese culture, it's like a version of The Simpsons that lasted 3000 years.

My Tumblr thing was a complete failure.  It was boring and completely devoid of context.  Pandering to the internet crowd was pointless. Screw it, I'll write what I want. I want to do this because my bigger project involves delving into Chinese art, trying to pinpoint the artistic details that the Chinese saw in art.

Classical Words of the Day: April 3rd, 2015

Adjectival phrases of more than one syllable are followed by the noun modifier, 之

士shi4
knight

豪傑hao2jie2
heroic

若夫豪傑之士
As for heroic knights



Comparative degree is expressed by the coverb 於，which takes on the meaning "than."

望wang4
to hope

則無望民之多於鄰國也
then do not hope that your people will be more than [those of] neighboring countries (Mencius 1A/3)






Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: April 2nd, 2015

Classes of Verbs

Stative verb:  denote state rather than action, closely associated with adjectives

ie:  山高:  The mountain is high.

*Note:  高山 would be high mountain


Intransitive verb:  requires single noun to complete its meaning

ie: 王來:  The king comes.


Transative verb:  requires two or more nouns

ie: 王殺人:  The king kills people




Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: April 1st, 2015

The Copula 為wei4
can be used in the sense of "to be," like the modern 作。

孟子為卿於齊
Mencius  was a minister of Qi.  (Mencius 2B/6)

子為誰
Literal:  sir make who
Translation:  Who are you? (LunYu 18/6)

不為不多矣
Literal: not make not many PERFECT
Translation:  is (already) not not-many.  (Mencius 1A/1)


Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: March 31st, 2015

已yi3
already.   (已 does not imply a change in state, but a change in knowledge of state.  The following quote uses 已 after verb-less noun predicates.)

亂luan4
disorderly, chaotic

是亂國已
One can tell this is a disorderly country.  (苟Gou3 10/89)



君子jun1zi3
Gentleman, scholar, sage

妄wang4
reckless

亦yi4
also, too, likewise

矣yi3
(particle of completed action)

曰yue1
says

君子曰：此亦妄人也已矣。
The gentleman will say, "I now realize that this is a wild, reckless fellow."  (Mencius 4B/28)




Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: March 30th, 2015

必bi4
Necessarily, must

若ruo4
like, similar to

桀jie2; 紂zhou1
(Proper nouns)

必若桀紂者也
...will necessarily be one like Jie or Zhou.  (Mencius 5A/6)



固gu4
certainly, definitely

願yuan4
desire, want

所suo3
this, it (this is a demonstrative pronoun)

固所願也
It is certainly what I want (Mencius 2B/10)




Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: March 26th, 2015

乃nai3, 即ji2
then, thereupon

仁ren2
humanity

術shu4
technique

是乃仁術也
This indeed is the technique of humanity (Mencius 1A/7)

貺kuang1
to reward

乃夫子也。 吾貺子。
It was then you.  I will reward you.  (Zuo3 Ding4 9/5)

Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: March 25th, 2015

是shi4, 此ci3, 斯si1
This

**Note:  是 is not like the modern copula "to be."

勇yong3
courage

此文王之勇也
This was King Wen's courage.  (Mencius 1B/3)

走zou3
running away, flee

是亦走也
This was also running away. (Mencius 1A/3)



皆jie1
"all", similar to the modern 都

聖人sheng4ren2
sage.  A wise man.  Not the plant.

皆方聖人也
They are all sages of old.  (Mencius 2A/2)

Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

Classical Words of the Day: March 23rd, 2015

非fei1
Not

也ye3
(An end particle with no meaning)

Typical form:  A 非 B 也。

非我也，兵也。
It was not I, it was the weapon.  (Mencius 1A/B)

是不為也， 非不能也。
This is not doing, it is not not-being-able. (Mencius 1A/7)


Reference:  Pulleyblank, Edwin G. Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver [B.C.: UBC, 1995. Print.

博客介紹： “中國文化” 是什麼？: What is "Chinese Culture" for?

(Source： http://www.indiewire.com/film/marina-abramovic-the-artist-is-present)

要了解這句話先就要先除去籠統且陳腔詞濫調的刻板印象。我們先看這模糊句子的完全相反：Marina Abramovic's: 有一位藝術家在場。

To understand this phrase you have to remove the mask of stereotypes and clichés that weigh it down. Let's look at something that’s the complete opposite of this ambiguous phrase: Marina Abramovic's: The Artist is Present.

看來有一位小姐穿着笨重的裙子坐在椅子上，盯著對面座位的其中一人。觀眾看完了就換位盯着Abrimovic. 沒什麼了不起。不過，Marina Abromovic 三個月來，都在博物館的營業時間裡坐在這張椅子上！ 她也不是只坐着發呆。如果對面觀眾對現在時態想得開，她盯着全神貫注。雙位手無寸鐵，觀眾感覺到一個無借口,無自傳，最純凈的感情。

It appears to be a woman sitting in a large clunky dress staring at a member of the public across a table. Once a viewer is done, the person leaves and another sits staring at Abramovic. Nothing special. But Marina Abromovic has sat on this chair during museum hours for 3 months! She's not spacing off either. If the viewer on the other chair is open to the present, she stares straight into you with full concentration. Both are defenseless, the viewer senses emotion in it's purest form without hiding behind ego or pretext.

和一般認知的中國文化是完全相反的。文化是舊的，傳統的，充滿象徵意義。可是有意義嗎？

The general perception Chinese culture is the complete opposite. Culture is old, traditional, full of symbolism. But is is meaningful?

我忘記那個統計，可是大家都談到中國超過整個世界的算數和科學技巧。這究竟是根據“中國文化” ？我不確定。論語第一句不是說，“學而時習之，不亦樂乎？” 這些孩子高興得泡選擇題答案? 中國人和外國人都有這種先入為主的概念，教育將等同於成功，而只有少數人質疑測試本身是有意義的. 在漢代科舉約幾乎百年之後，那個時代充斥著腐敗和賄賂。我懷疑孔子設想他的前任，爭取SAT完善。文化不只是為了經濟發展。

I forgot which survey, but there's always talk that China surpasses the entire world in math and science. Was this due to "Chinese culture" ? I doubt it. The first line of the Analects quotes, "If there is the practice of learning, is there not joy?" Were these kids happy when they were bubbling their multiple choice answers? Both Chinese and non-Chinese have this preconceived notion that education will equate to success, but rarely do people question if the test itself is meaningful. Barely after 100 years after the civil service exam during the Han Dynasty, it was riddled with corruption and bribery. I doubt Confucius envisioned his predecessors to strive for perfects on the SAT. Culture isn't solely for economic progress.

像觀眾看着Marina的眼睛，我們必須放棄自己的自負和偏見試圖尋找背後文化的意思. 中國的文化不是因它原有的特色產生意義，它的意義來自通過我們可以感受到其中的價值。希望我繼續寫博客，能讓讀者現學習的快樂。

Like a viewer looking into Marina's eyes, we have to let go of our own ego and prejudice when trying to find meaning behind culture. Chinese culture isn't meaningful because of it's traits, it's meaningful through the values we can sense and intuit. I hope that as I continue writing my blog, my viewers will find joy in learning.

Understanding the Opposite Sex

在戀愛過程中，女人往往聽不懂男人的話。

Through the course of a relationship, women typically don't understand what men say.

傾城之戀   作者：張愛玲

Love in a Fallen City   by, Eileen Chang

A Chinese Woman's Face at Night

她安慰著他，然而她不由得想到了她自己的月光中的臉，那嬌脆的輪廓，眉與眼，美得不近情理，美得渺茫，她緩緩垂下頭去。

She comforted him, then unwillingly thought about the glow of the moon on her face, that delicate feminine outline, the eyebrows and eyes, an uncommon beauty, an obscure beauty, she gently lowered her head.


傾城之戀，作者 張愛玲

Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang

Words of the Day

卑鄙bei1bi3
base; mean; contemptible; despicable; grubby; sordid

公佈gong1bu4
issue, announce

信函xin4han2
letter envelope

洩/泄xie4
wreak

**Note:  Okay, how do these characters mean the same exact thing and sound exactly the same when they look completely different!!!??

垮kua1
fall, collapse


惠卿卑鄙公佈王安石的私人信函，離間他和皇帝的情感，王安石就垮臺，他晚年常一天寫【福建子】好幾次，以發洩心中的怒氣，呂惠卿就是福建人。

Huiqing contemptibly announced Wang Anshi's private letter, giving distance between Wang Anshi and the emperor's close relations.  Wang Anshi then fell from his position.  In Wang Anshi's later years, he frequently wrote "That Fujianer" during a given day on many occasions to express the rage of his broken hear.  Lv Huiqing was a Fujian person.

Mother's Day and the Mother Tounge

My graduation ceremony for my Chinese major was on Mother's Day.  The best graduation speech I ever heard was my classmate talking about why so many languages use the phrase "mother" when describing a native language.   In Chinese,母語 mu2 yu3 literally translates to mother language.  I wish I had a copy of that speech, but my paraphrasing is only a shadow compared to the original.

He talked about how our relationship to language is as intimate as our relationships to our mother.  If we think about it, the way we communicate and are able to exist in the world is through our mothers, and that our mother tongues frame the way we see the world.  And of course he gave a shout out to his own mother as well.

Although I first learned TeoChew (a Chinese dialect) and English at the same time, TeoChew has a much more visceral and intuitive oomph.   For me, I never empathized with English poetry until I hit college, but Chinese poetry was thoroughly enjoyable was I around 10.  It was because I wanted to learn more about my mother tongue that propelled me to major in Chinese.

If you are bilingual, or event if you only know one language, think about how your native language feels compared to a secondary language.  I like to describe this feeling as eating your grandma/mom's best dish versus eating a well prepared dish from a culture you are unfamiliar with.   A good dish from a high end restaurant taste's good, but mom's good cooking hits you at a deeper level.  Your cultural history, your biological mechanisms that evolved to process that particular food, and your mother's understanding of your personal preferences nourish your soul with that one dish.  That's the feeling you get from speaking in your mother tongue.

So as you are talking to your mom, eating with your mom, or even thinking about your mom, remember that you think and speak with your mother tongue.

Happy Mother's Day!






**Personal note: I'm enjoying cheesecake with mom.**

Words of the Day

奸佞jian1ning4
crafty and fawning

為了便於認識三位奸佞小人，我把李定，舒亶和鄧綰的名字譯成容易拼的英文。

For the sake of convenience recognizing the names of three tricky lesser people, I took Li Ding, Shu Dan, and Deng Wan's name and translated them to easier English.

隱瞞yin3man2
conceal, hide

李定隱瞞母親的死訊，不願辭官，在儒家社會是大膽的冒犯。

卿qing1
A common surname

Words of the Day

甘gan1

willingly

庸yong1

lowly

強國的美夢破碎了，他自甘治庸才政府。

The dream of a powerful country was shattered.  He [Emperor Shenzong] willingly governed a lowly government.

陷入xian4ru4

fall into a trap

牢籠lao4long2

cage, shackles, bonds

犧牲xi1sheng1

sacrifice, scapegoat

般ban1

just like

他陷入自己野心的牢籠，成為美夢的犧牲品，夢境增長廣大，然後就像泡影般破滅了。

He [Wang Anshi] fell into the trap of his wild heart, becoming a sacrifice to his dream.  His dream kept increasing in size.  Afterwards it would pop like a bubble.

Words of the Day

軌gui3
track marks, gauge

勃勃bo2bo2
thriving, vigorous

一邊是元老重臣，人數多得足以代表全體，一邊是神宗所支持的王安石，和一群新進小人，野心勃勃卻心懷不軌。

On one side you have old, experienced ministers, who's number mostly represents everyone.  On the other is Emperor Shenzong chiding Wang Anshi, along with a group of new people of lower rank with wild, vigorous hears that are bad-hearted with no gauge.

牽涉qian1she4
To involve

列lie4
rank

為了便於參考，也為了不牽涉太多人名，我排出下列黨爭重要人名表，讓大家看看力量的排列：

For the convenience of examination, and not to involve too many people, I arranged a list of the rank of important members of the partisan battle.  This will allow everyone to see the arrangement of power:

**The text then lists major members of reformists and anti-reformists.  Su Shi belongs to the list of anti-reformists.