increased. For a long time, due to the long-term isolation between eastern and western cultures, people know little about these heritages in the East. Scholars in China and
other countries are more and more interested in studying music, drama, painting and other literary phenomena in Far East countries. It is precisely its unique national characteristics that make it difficult for European audiences who don't know much about the aesthetics, history, spiritual civilization and material civilization of the East to understand them. Through comparative analysis, scholars in the west and China have made great achievements in examining certain cultural phenomena on an equal footing. This method is considered to be the most advanced, because it can prompt the dialectical relationship between "general, special < P > and unique, and explain all kinds of special forms reflected by the characteristics of * * * of all human cultures; The further concretization of these
characteristics is carried out in various unique ethnic variants in each region. (1) in this kind of research
, the most important thing is to explore the characteristics of eastern and western art as a part of the world
through the special factors of its types and genres.
Due to the unique economic, political and historical development in the historical and cultural regions of Europe and the Far East, some
elements with the same terms in eastern and western literature and art will have different contents. No matter from the point of view of understanding a particular cultural phenomenon more deeply or
understanding the whole culture of a country in general, it is meaningful to suggest the nature and depth of these differences or shortcomings. Therefore, we intend to investigate the connotation of the concept of "calligraphy" in both western countries (mainly western Europe here) and China.
First of all, it should be pointed out that Europe and China have different interpretations of this concept. In western Europe, it refers to
an art of beautiful and clear writing, which is mainly related to chroniclers, calligraphers and book transcribers in medieval European countries, and then the documents of the court and government departments. The writing tools and materials of these people are parchment, plain paper, ink and quill pens. This concept has little to do with general writing, that is, people's non-official writing. Therefore, the great achievements of European calligraphy are mainly in the monasteries where government departments and writing schools need to write and copy religious books. By the end of the 19th century, this unique art form in Europe had declined, giving way to the rapidly developing printing and typing machines.
China's interpretation of calligraphy is relatively broad, which refers to all hieroglyphics created by hand. That is to say,
regardless of the specific materials and tools for writing, there is no time limit. Therefore, China artists actually
put all the inscriptions into this concept, from the Oracle bones of the Yin Dynasty (in the middle of 2 BC) to the bronzes of the Zhou Dynasty. From the point of view of European aesthetics, calligraphy is first related to the inscription on paper, but not to the inscription on other materials.
Therefore, in the eyes of Europeans, the concept of
"China Calligraphy" refers to the words inscribed in ink on paper at first, although there are no fewer books inscribed on stone in the classical period of China's calligraphy history than those written on paper or silk. For this reason, it is difficult for Europeans to regard Oracle bones and bronzes as calligraphy works. Because according to the scientific concept of Europeans, this kind of cultural relics are traditionally regarded as inscriptions, which
first arouse people's interest from the perspective of ancient philology or history.
There are a series of reasons
to explain the fact that the connotation of "calligraphy" in China is different from that in European historical and cultural regions. These include China's long writing history (nearly 4, years), the developed writing tradition and practice, the worship of calligraphy for about 2, years, and the reverence and
love for all kinds of written words, no matter what font they are written in. In addition, it also includes that the theoretical basis of calligraphy art is relatively developed (there are more than one OO kinds of basic documents alone, which originated in the second century). According to the earliest book theory, calligraphy art has existed as an independent art for nearly two thousand years. In this respect, we can't help but take into account that China's writing style, types and fonts are far more than those in Europe, and there are countless inscriptions, rubbings and their explanations, the unusual preferences and enthusiasm of linguists from traditional schools and even today's schools for the study of
ancient philology, and China people's cherish of ancient cultural relics. Due to these
circumstances, every inscription in China culture actually has a high aesthetic quality, which can be examined from an aesthetic angle
. In the process of research, the focus will often shift from the characteristics of ancient Chinese characters to the aesthetic characteristics, that is to say, < P >, the things carved in books are regarded as calligraphy works, whether they are on Oracle bones, bronzes or steles.
there are still many factors that determine the inconsistency of this concept, so let's leave it for later. Here, I just want to find something
that is * * * in common, so that we can talk about the
similarity of calligraphy art in two historical and cultural regions with such great differences.
First of all, it can be pointed out that, as Kapoor, a German literary theorist and artistic character artist, demonstrated, any inscription of
has certain aesthetic expression and the color of the times, and because any artistic character of writing system
has great decorative ability, these inscriptions will cause a high degree of aesthetic feeling. ② This can also be explained by
psychological acceptance of lines and their combinations, regardless of what these lines are made of, whether they are written symbols, hieroglyphs or plane groups
. As Helem argued, the process of watching means "capturing" and quickly realizing several representative < P > characteristics of the object: color, transition, form, and so on. (3) He also pointed out that every
new visual image obtained in the process of visual acceptance of reality "will be related to the impression left in people's memory in the past. These morphological impressions interact with each other on the basis of their similarity, and the new image can't get rid of this influence. ④ When watching the written symbols in a certain language, the audience who don't understand it should first pay attention to the quantitative characteristics, the relationship between the thick and thin lines of the symbols, the
"game" of the strokes and their expressive force, and the dynamic connection between the rhythm organization of the text and the symbols. In this case, viewers can enjoy beauty even if they don't understand the meaning of words. ⑤ Because of the same psychological reaction mechanism, some styles of European < P > and China's calligraphy can cause similar associations. This enables us to talk about their similarities in aesthetics and even structure.
From this point of view, when comparing some of the most representative western European and Russian cursive characters with the calligraphy of hieroglyphs, we can find that, for example, the solemn Gothic experience used in European prayer books in the 13th and 14th centuries caused rich decorative associations, and its solemnity was no less than that of Chinese seal script; In ancient Russian, the decorative calligraphy style-Hua Zi was widely used to highlight the title and decorate the spine in the 14th to 17th centuries, which was quite similar to the ancient Austrian calligraphy style in China during the Warring States Period (5th to 3rd centuries BC). The Gothic style of writing textbooks and theological works with
in Western Europe from 14th to 15th centuries has some similarities with the official script of Han Dynasty. However, the German italics at the end of the 15th century, the popular French calligraphy in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the ancient Russian cursive script in the 15th century have almost the same visual association as China's running script. Of course, these associations are extremely relative < P >, and they are not so much caused by some similarity of specific factors or structural characteristics of two completely different writing systems < P >, but rather by the above-mentioned visual art acceptance characteristics of treating lines as different color blocks. At this time, the combination of lines according to the law of < P > correspondence forms a closed structure with various shapes tending to erect rectangles. In the west, this is a < P > letter; In China, it is hieroglyphics. However, both the former and the latter are mainly composed of vertical lines, horizontal lines < P > and other lines derived from them. These lines reflect the harmony of rhythm in the form of calligraphy and have the same expressive force. However, the alternation of strokes' thickness, straightness, twists and turns and Fiona Fang will produce the same sense of order, regardless of which writing system the symbol belongs to.
The inscription of any collection and writing system, as long as it is completed according to the needs of calligraphy art, will make the viewer have a high degree of aesthetic feeling, even if he does not understand the content of the book. This situation can also be explained in this way, whether it is the < P > structure of individual symbols or the aesthetics of calligraphy in Europe and China, its principles are the same. This refers to the sense of
symmetry, rhythm, "weight" and harmony of the overall artistic structure of symbols, the relationship between symbols and blanks, symbols and surrounding space, and the decorative and changeable, dynamic and so on. All this is determined by the same psychological characteristics of visual acceptance of reality. In essence, no matter what race or nationality the audience belongs to, these characteristics are all the same to him.
The similarities between European and China calligraphy enable us to talk about their similarities, and we can also find these factors in the writing history of these two historical and cultural regions. Before the emergence of calligraphy as an art, there was a long historical period. At this time, whether in Europe or China, writing only played its basic function as a tool for communication, recording and expressing some useful information. The similarities between the development of calligraphy in China and Europe in this period lie in the accumulation of practical experience in this kind of social practice. By exploring more suitable lines, we gradually
improved the writing font, improved the writing materials and tools, and formed the aesthetic
principle of writing for the needs of cultural tradition and social aesthetics, so as to finally make calligraphy an independent art (in China) or an art form (in Europe). It should be pointed out here that, according to Malov's definition, until the 19th century, European calligraphy was only a rather neglected art form, and ⑥ it never reached the lofty social status that China's calligraphy had in the past and now.
Different from European calligraphy, China calligraphy has been regarded as one of the most important mental arts since the 3rd to 5th century A.D. (alongside painting and poetry), with a high status, solid theoretical foundation and extremely rich practice. Since then until today, calligraphy has always been cherished in China as a noble, popular and independent art that is liked, respected and understood by the society. About that time, hieroglyphics began to play two functions: on the one hand, it continued to serve the writing needs of society, that is, to complete its basic functions; On the other hand, as a calligraphy art, it plays a role in the field of art < P >, thus serving the aesthetic needs of society. Although the development of writing in western Europe also led to the emergence of
in calligraphy art, the latter never formed an independent art, and still stayed at the
level of an neglected art form, which was only used for copying and writing, mainly to serve the purely practical needs of society, of course, at a higher artistic level than in the past. It can be seen that the appearance of European calligraphy only means that the beauty of italics has < P > qualitatively increased due to the increase of decorative factors, which is very different from the function of China calligraphy after Qin and Han Dynasties.
We also want to point out that since China's calligraphy became an advanced mental art independently, the functions of hieroglyphic writing have been clearly divided into
categories (one is practical writing for the national society and the other is art). Therefore, their functions belong to
official or personal copywriters, and naturally they do not belong to the art category, even if they are well-written and reach a fairly high level of art
. Here, we can find the difference between China's calligraphy and European calligraphy in its function, position and aesthetic principles. In China
, calligraphy works are either ancient inscriptions with high aesthetic quality, or the ink of artists, poets, painters and professional calligraphers who have been engaged in calligraphy for life, as well as the works of talented officials and
state activists, all of whom have received special calligraphy training during their education. In addition, when this or that
handwriting is classified into the category of art, the aesthetic principles at work are also different from those in Europe. This not only means that the author should have high
superb skills, but more importantly, the content of the inscription, the writer's purpose and the calligrapher's inner freedom expressed in spiritual strokes. It is not a rut, but a willingness to have a distinct creative personality.
when comparing the social functions and status of China's calligraphy and European calligraphy, we can't help but find the differences that determine the different connotations of the concept of calligraphy
that we are studying. These differences are caused by many factors, including fundamentally different writing systems, different paths of historical and cultural development, and different aesthetic standpoints of traditional culture in these two historical and cultural regions.
Some researchers believe that these differences lie in the structure of writing itself, that is, in the structure of writing extremely (the western side writes pinyin letters, while China writes hieroglyphs), and all kinds of contents are recorded with the help of these extremely writing. For example, Willetts believes that this is the essence of the difference between European and China calligraphy. He said that the number of
letters in various languages in Europe is strictly limited, the writing form is relatively fixed, and the structure is relatively simple, so the expressive ability is not as good as that of China's
hieroglyphs. He pointed out that although the number of strokes that make up hieroglyphics is generally limited, each single hieroglyphic can be written as a unique structure, and the appearance of each word depends on the skill of calligrapher
and his style and aesthetic tendency. ⑦ We don't
dare to disagree with this topic that the so-called European alphabet is less expressive. The history of European writing provides a large number of examples with high expressive force, expressive force and rich decorative features. The expressive substance of writing lines or strokes in books
enables us to write every symbol (words and letters) with the charm of expressing
strength and beauty, no matter which writing system these symbols belong to. Kapoor said: "There is no stroke without < P > beautiful performance factors. ⑧ China hieroglyphics can be explained by the description characteristics of their painting origins, and their unparalleled expressive ability and modeling ability enable them to produce rich visual images and intellectual images under certain conditions. When accepting these abilities, we should pay attention to the fact that the essence of China's calligraphy is to express people's inner world, feelings, his relationship with nature and the universe, and to reflect the rhythm of life, and pet-name ruby can fully and richly embody the hieroglyphics.