2018年：陈建华谈英校生与中华书法

An English Educated Student and Chinese Calligraphy

Dr Chen Jian Hua

There is a common perception that Chinese calligraphy as an art form is "culturally specific" implying that a good foundation in Chinese culture, in particular the Chinese language, is necessary to appreciating and writing calligraphy. Some even liken Chinese calligraphy to the crowning jewel in Chinese art and culture. Traditionally, a good calligraphy hand was seen to reflect not only a person's learning and self-cultivation, it was also considered an extension of his/her personality.

Growing up in an English and Cantonese speaking environment, with barely two years of private lessons in Chinese, I was made acutely aware of the vacuum in my "cultural ballast". Yet within the broader cultural environment of a "huayi" (华裔) in Southeast Asia, I was culturally exposed to many things Chinese, be it ethnic food, folk religion, ancestral rites, popular music, Cantonese "talkies" and opera, festivals, Rediffusion, etc. Call it "low culture" (not in a derogatory sense) if you like, but it was no less "cultural".

However the reading and writing in Chinese just eluded me. Since I could neither read nor write, I occasionally found myself described in jest as "uneducated". This void was starkly brought home to me during my under-graduate and post-graduate studies in London where among other things, I regularly did the rounds of museums and oriental galleries. Whenever I stood before a piece of Chinese calligraphy, I could intuitively sense its aesthetic beauty but could never articulate the reasons why I felt that way. And if I disliked it, I probably did so for the "wrong reasons"! More importantly, I could not make sense of its contents, literary context, history or origin.

In subsequent years, an exclusively English language work environment provided little incentive to make good the gaps in my Chinese education. It was only upon retirement that I found the leisure to reconnect with my cultural past, hopefully at a higher level. Although inevitably, there was a tinge of regret, knowing that time was no longer on my side.

So instead of waiting for the "fundamentals" to fall in place i.e., attaining an acceptable level of proficiency in the Chinese language as a foundation stone to learning calligraphy, I decided to use calligraphy as a back-to-front approach to learn more about Chinese language, culture, history, philosophy, literature, and even imperial court politics. I recall Zhou Xingsi's  ( 周兴嗣, 470-521) assignment to compile the thousand character text，the "Qian Zi Wen" (千字文) wherein no two characters were alike - and incidentally drawing upon the calligraphic legacy of Wang Xizhi (王羲之, 303-361) for the purpose of teaching calligraphy to the sons of Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty (梁武帝). What I have tried to do is turn that around, using calligraphy to re-learn the "Qian Zi Wen" and other elementary-level Chinese classics that I had a fleeting encounter with in the Cantonese dialect, during the few months before I went for overseas studies. This is a personal experience and some might think my approach is too clever by half!

I was fortunate in getting started in calligraphy by a bi-lingual teacher who did not subscribe to the view that proficiency in Chinese was a pre-requisite to learning calligraphy. More importantly, he taught in the English language at least in his basic education course. Readily available English language books on Chinese calligraphy helped supplement the needs of a newbie like me. By sheer luck, I also found another compatible teacher to help build up my Chinese language, side by side with my calligraphy learning.

Along the way, I began to acquire an interest, even love, for Tang and Song poetry - the sources of many calligraphy "copy books" that we use. I recall an incident about 4 years ago during lunch with my Chinese language teacher, when he suddenly recited in melodious Cantonese, Du Fu's (杜甫) poem of yearning, "Thinking of my Brothers on a Moonlit Night" (月夜忆舍弟) and proceeded to write it down for me to take away. I was so struck just hearing the terse, beautiful poem that I resolved to learn, recite and perhaps even write it with brush. And when I eventually progressed to writing with the aid of calligraphy copy-books, I found page after page of Tang and Song poems including that very poem by Du Fu which fired up my curiosity in the first place. Thereafter calligraphy gave me a new purpose as it opened another window to Chinese literary experience and language learning.

Returning to the "terra firma" of Chinese calligraphy, there is the inevitable basic training (基本功) which any student has to undergo. At this basic level of "gong" (功) or effort/work，an English educated student with a rudimentary knowledge of Chinese can, with constant practise and perseverance, acquire competency in brush technique, word structuring, appreciation of "flow" between characters, acquaintance with different calligraphic styles of the iconic masters, familiarity with a variety of scripts - from the official script (隶书)，standard script (楷书)，running script (行书) to cursive script (草书) and layout of characters within the scroll. All these will add up to a considerable achievement and with encouragement from an enthusiastic teacher, trigger a curiosity about what lies ahead.

However, beyond basics, a host of challenges await the student aspiring to move his/her calligraphy to higher planes - advancing from the basic "gong" to "yi" ( 意) or "thought force" that sharpens the intent and focus, to "qi" (气) that gives life or breadth to a character and the flow from one character to the next, and finally to "shen" (神) that captures the spirit of the piece that is written and expresses its essence.

It is precisely at these frontiers that lack of Chinese proficiency can pose a certain barrier, for there is a wealth of resources, commentaries and analyses as well as annotated collections of writings in classical and modern Chinese that will remain elusive. At higher levels of calligraphy learning and practice, much of the discourse and interactives are conducted in Chinese (Mandarin). Meaningful engagement in such experience-sharing among peers and with learned teachers will necessitate a good grasp of the language.

But even at the basic level, while language proficiency is not a prerequisite, some acquaintance with the language is helpful to make sense of the texts from which the contents of the copy books are derived. The alternative would be blind copying. I also found that familiarity with "hanyu pinyin" (Chinese phonetic system) was most useful in bridging the gap between the simplified texts (简体字) that conveniently accompany the scripts to be copied, and the English language I operate in. While the simplified characters provide an essential tool for a student trying to figure out the Chinese scripts, "hanyu pinyin" helps to locate the characters in an e-dictionary thus helping to fathom the meaning of each character and ultimately the piece as a whole.

Thinking of the challenges at a higher level, i sometimes wonder whether it is the "spirit" of a poem or a particular passage of prose that moves the brush and gives special character and spontaneity (the so called "Omph factor" )  to a piece of calligraphy. Can such "spirit" be transmitted in a non -Chinese medium or will something be inevitably lost in translation? A related question is whether the availability of more local and contemporary themes in copy books (which remain largely grounded in classical literature) might make calligraphy more relatable.

These are just personal musings, nagging reminders that the English educated student with limited knowledge of Chinese may increasingly have to contend with a glass ceiling as he/she progresses.  To me, this was brought home starkly as I began to learn "caoshu" (草书) the cursive or "grass script" where accurate reading of each character, understanding the cursive derivatives from the traditional characters (繁体字) and ability to recall the cursive characters as one writes (instead of breaking the flow by having to constantly refer to the copy book) are essentials for ease of writing or avoidance of hesitancy within the calligraphic piece.

For me the road is long but the days are short. I reconcile myself to the glass ceiling with the reminder that an enjoyable journey through self-cultivation and self-awareness, can be even more important than the destination  -  no matter what claims have been about the contribution of calligraphy (through calmness of heart, stillness of mind and purity in breadth) to one's longevity!

Chen Jianhua (乐游人)