Mr Zhang Xuguang is a strict man. He believes that the highest realm of calligraphy is the elegance of Confucianism. As the saying goes, "I don't dare to be sharp and stick to the rules." He believes that if I can't maintain the elegant style of Confucianism while innovating, I would rather maintain the status quo. Therefore, when he recalled the course of calligraphy creation, he was filled with emotion: "This journey is too difficult."
At first, Mr Zhang Xuguang only learned calligraphy by copying everyone's inscriptions. 1992, he went to the forest of steles in Xi 'an and saw a stone carving of the Han Dynasty. He was shocked by this natural smell and suddenly had a strong idea to integrate this vast and majestic feeling into calligraphy and express this heroic spirit with calligraphy.
After returning to Beijing, he began to look for the shock of aesthetic experience from his posts. First of all, he started with Yan Zhenqing's regular script in the middle Tang Dynasty, which was open, atmospheric and square, and then went deep into the official script of the Han Dynasty. He summarized the artistic style of the Han Dynasty as: vigorous, broad, open, full, romantic and carefree. During SARS in 2003, I had to stay at home and write posts because I couldn't go out. He recalled: "At that time, day and night, I was always immersed in a trance." After continuous building, running-in, refining, breeding and sublimation, suddenly one day he found that the feeling-open, vigorous, atmospheric transpiration and elegant realm. For Mr. Zhang Xuguang, more than ten years is a long time, but it has established his unique creative style.
Eight years' thinking contributes to a healthy way of book creation.
In his calligraphy creation, Zhang Xuguang insisted on the principle that China's calligraphy could not be divorced from China's traditional culture. In 2002, at the first China Lanting Calligraphy Award Conference, the article "Care for this Soil" was submitted. In his view, calligraphy is a wonderful flower growing in the soil of traditional culture. In order to make this bloom look beautiful, we must first water the soil where this flower grows. Traditional culture is the driving force of calligraphy creation, and calligraphy shows the thought and essence of traditional culture.
In 2003, China's book circle was in a confused period of creation. At that time, there were differences between the creative ideas of the old and new generations of calligraphers. The older generation should stick to tradition, while the new generation should abandon tradition. Some individuals even advocate breaking with tradition. At the propaganda meeting of the Eighth National Exhibition at that time, Zhang Xuguang put forward four laws that should be followed in calligraphy evaluation, namely, historical inheritance is an irreplaceable law in the development of calligraphy art; Expressive temperament is the basic feature of artistic creation; The unity of artistic style diversity and unity is the symbol of artistic prosperity; Arousing aesthetic feeling is one of the important features of artistic works. Among them, when talking about the diversification of artistic styles, his ideas of "all schools of calligraphy creation are equal" and "it is our goal to build a prosperous leading style of the times with a hundred flowers and colorful flowers" aroused strong repercussions in the book circles at that time. He also pointed out that adhering to tradition, encouraging innovation and diversified styles are the mainstream orientations of calligraphy creation at present and in the future. This view soon formed * * * knowledge in the book world.
Regarding the aesthetic orientation of calligraphy art, Zhang Xuguang put forward the standards of "being in place" and "being interesting". "In place" refers to the improvement of the ability to use traditional ancient methods, that is, to master all the elements needed for calligraphy itself. "Taste" refers to the author's unique aesthetic pursuit and individual emotion. These two standards are popular, easy to remember and easy to operate, and soon become well-known evaluation standards and creation standards in the book industry.
When talking about the future development direction of China's calligraphy, Zhang Xuguang pointed out that if calligraphy art wants to conform to the trend of the times, it is necessary to improve the modern aesthetic ability, and modern aesthetics and traditional culture are interlinked. China's culture is profound, and sometimes "the more traditional, the more modern". Therefore, it is necessary to explore traditional culture through modern aesthetic consciousness, so as to enrich modern aesthetic art and make modern calligraphy works not only come from the long river of tradition, but also stand on the wave of the times, that is, the old is new and serve the times.