| The effective, traditional process of practicing handwriting
consists of three steps: mo, Lin and xie. Mo means tracing. There
are two ways to trace: Trace the calligraphy printed in red in the
copybook, or use the model in the exercise book to trace the character
on semitransparent or transparent paper. Mo means to practice wielding
the brush. You must acquaint yourself with the process of basic
stroke writing and the order in which you write your strokes. In
practice, attention should be focused on the strokes of your model,
the structure and the style of calligraphy. This lays the foundation
for the next step, Lin, which is to put the model on the desk for
you to copy. Deng Sanmu (1898-1963), a calligrapher, cautioned against
tracing the model characters slavishly. You must study the structure
of the character. Study the way it is written. Study the characteristics
of the structure. In this way you will have some idea about writing
it before you take up the brush. Mere copying without thinking leads
nowhere. After a few months of study, proceed with the next step-lin
xie.
Lin xie means that you have before you a specimen of writing-inscription
on a stone tablet, etc. There are two steps in /in xie. You have
before you a specimen of writing, then you make a copy of the specimen
on paper with squares. You use this new copy as the model and copy
the characters from it on paper also with squares. This is the first
step of /in xie. After copying you compare the copied strokes with
those in the model to see whether the positions of the former strokes
are similar to those of the latter ones in the squares. This will
make you acquaint with the characteristics of the form and structure
of the characters.
The second step is to study the specimen, trying to memorize the
strokes, then take it away. At first you may be able to memorize
only a few characters. Later you may memorize the entire specimen
of writing. Now study the specimen again. Compare your own work
with the specimen. This is a basic skill in calligraphy. Guo Moruo
(1892-1978), a calligrapher, remarked that he could still remember
every stroke in the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi in the preface to
The Literary Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, even though Guo was
already over eighty years of age.
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