氣勢自然 林鈺堂 簡繁轉換 - 繁體

氣勢自然方為美,靈活一體神情傳;
稍加修整添敗筆,難堪調整成僵局。

弟子王浩正研擬將拙書之「放心」、「清風徐來、水波不興」(後者有鋼筆與毛筆二種)刻石。「放心」印之草圖,我一見即覺「心」字佈局不佳。而後方知,草圖中並非複製原作,而是仿筆。原作氣勢連貫,生氣盎然,便無佈局之問題。仿筆堆砌而成,立即引發佈局之缺陷感。

「清風」印稿,寫成兩行。浩又依宿習印文佈局之規格,將字之排列上下移動。所成印稿,一看即覺死板,良以行筆之氣勢完全破壞流失矣。完全沿用原稿,彼所擔憂之佈局問題,反倒不顯。因為氣勢之自然流暢所產生之整體感完全含蓋了局部的均衡問題。

由此可知自然流暢之生氣,是心無罣礙的流露,在筆畫間自然形成活生生的氣勢,而不為規格所拘。任何出乎機心之添減,皆是敗筆。稍加調整,反成死物僵局。吾人運筆、用心皆當順其自然,不為成見所侷,而令真情活潑流露。若能如斯,生活之中自當美不勝收矣!


                     二○○九年四月廿三日
                     養和齋   於加州


Natural Flow of Movement Yutang Lin

Only natural flow of movement constitutes beauty
Lively as a whole and conveys intents and feelings
Slightest modification only adds damaging strokes
Couldn't survive adjustments that rendered it petrified

Comments:

Disciple Wang Hao is working on how to carve my calligraphy of "Fang Xin" (Let Mind (worries) Rest) and "Qing Feng Xu Lai, Shui Po Bu Xing" (Clear Wind Gently Arrived, Water Ripples Not Arise) onto stone seals. (The latter calligraphy had been done once with fountain pen and once with Chinese brush pen.) As soon as I saw the draft for the Fang Xin seal, I felt that the arrangement of the Xin character is not good. Later I learned that the character inside the draft was not an exact copy of my calligraphy but only an imitation. The original one contains continuous flow of movement and looks lively, and hence is without problems of arrangement arising. The imitation was constituted by strokes put together artificially, and thus immediately yielded a sense of deficiency in its arrangements.

The draft for the Qing Feng seal was written in two columns. Hao again followed the rules of patterns that he had learned in the past and moved the characters up or down. The seal draft thus obtained looks stiff at first sight because the natural flow of writing the calligraphy had been broken up and hence completely lost. When the original draft was adopted as it is, the problem of arrangement that he was worrying about does not show up—— contrary to what he suspected. This is because the sense of a whole that comes about from the natural and fluent flow in the calligraphy completely absorbed and covered possible problems of imbalances of local arrangements.

Thus we have learned that the lively force, that is natural and fluent, is revelation of mind free from worries, and among the calligraphy strokes it naturally formed a lively flow of movement, without being confined by artificial regulations. Any addition or subtraction out of calculation would be a damaging stroke. Slightly rearranging it would yield a dead object in a stiff position, contrary to all good intentions. As we apply our minds and move our pens we should let it follow the natural flow, without being hindered here and there by preconceptions, so that true feelings could be lively revealed. If we could do so, then there would be abundance of beauty in our daily lives!

Written in Chinese and translated on April 22, 2009
El Cerrito, California


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