Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

TRAINING

usually show marked divergencies, and different works by the same artist are by no means identical. Sometimes strength and sinuosity are coiled up in one stroke, sometimes they are bodied forth separately ; an apparent smoothness may disguise the bones and sinews, or a burly vigour beat and throb upon the surface. In any case the student should delve deep into his subject ; and if he starts by copying, he should copy his model without equivocation. When he fails in this—when, from absence of mind or reluctance to copy slavishly, the distribution of the strokes falls out of order and the structure of the body is loosely shaped—then, to what is splendid and to what are the pitfalls in this art, he is equally stranger, and such he will remain.

To achieve a perfect copy would require a lifetime’s practice. In time, of course, writers are able to evolve and establish new styles of their own, but their power to do so always depends upon good early training and unremitting practice. It is the same with other arts. For a dancer the road to proficiency lies equally through the sometimes tedious regions of training and practice.

Nothing is of greater importance than constant practice. In your work you will be ever confronted with difficulties, but do not despair ; every obstacle can be surmounted by perseverance and assiduous practice. ... It is only by practice that one may attain proficiency, and it is only by practice that one may preserve it.

A brief period of idleness or indifference regarding this essential of dancing causes the pupil to lose what it has cost him so much labour to acquirehis equilibrium becomes faulty . . . whereas by daily practice the pupil acquires and maintains that nice poise, facility of movement and elasticity of spring, which are a joy to the eye.”

To Chinese scholars calligraphy is the hobby of a lifetime. The majority of our most famous calligraphers reached the

* From an essay ‘ On the Fine Art of Chinese Calligraphy ’, adapted from the translation by Sun Ta-Yii (f% # fj) in the ‘ T%en Hsia Monthly’, September 1935.

* From ‘A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing’, by Cyril W. Beaumont and S. Idzikowski. London, 1932.

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