Prof. Wang Yuechuan: His Art  
and His Thinking on Calligraphy

By Fan Di'an, Director of National Art Museum of China Vice President of Central Academy of Fine Art

                    
Professor Wang Yuechuan is a unique scholar of many accomplishments in the contemporary academic world. He distinguishes himself by broadly and deeply involving himself in many fields, these fields include the ontology of art, modernity, postmodernism, aesthetics, cultural studies, western cultural trends, and he addresses the problem of reestablishing Asian cultural identity. Reading Wang Yuechuan's works is not only enjoyable, it is an inspiring experience. Most of the problems he raises are concerned with the pressing issues in the contemporary academic world such as the meaning of ontology in the study of literature and arts, the relationship between modernity and contemporary cultural values, the problem of intercultural dialogues in contemporary Chinese culture studies, the discovery and transmission of the Asian cultural values, the future of Chinese culture in the 21st century, and so forth.
   
His efforts and contributions to these issues have exerted a great influence in the contemporary Chinese academic world and are widely acknowledged.
Beyond these achievements, Professor Wang's interest in calligraphic theory is also very impressive. He has written several books: The Aesthetics of the Art of
Calligraphy, Fifteen Lectures on Calligraphy as a Culture, and Spirit of Chinese Calligraphy. He also edited a very important book titled An Outline of Chinese Calligraphy. In his work, Wang Yuechuan gives the field of contemporary Chinese calligraphy the benefit of his knowledge, and, I might add, it is worth while to describe his contribution as being most significant to the meaningful creativity and culturally improved changes in contemporary Chinese calligraphy.
In recent years, Professor Wang has devoted his attention to exploring and giving impetus to the idea of "cultural calligraphy."Quoting him, "The contemporary meaning of cultural calligraphy lies in effectively dealing with the relationship between calligraphy and culture--being creative as well as learning from the tradition,
  
but creativity is not merely new ways of doing things, the so called 'newest'and the 'post.'Rather creativity is the sense of responsibility for the development and the transmission of culture."He goes on to argue that contemporary calligraphy artists should learn to put their individual understanding of culture in their works and achieve an inner, psychic response to it. In other words, calligraphy is a way of self-cultivation. It is an expression of the achieving the wholeness and harmony of an individual's technical, moral and spiritual achievements in relation to traditional culture. Contemporary calligraphy artists cannot merely pursue technical creativity or the development of technique. They should cultivate a sense of "scholarizing"because calligraphy is not just about technique, it is "Dao" and the ideal condition of calligraphy is philosophy. Only by a true culturally-cultivated and creative heart can an artist be brought to the moment of transcending to the wholeness of heaven, earth, and humanity.


Improving the cultural quality in calligraphy and exploring the cultural sensibility within the art of calligraphy are Professor Wang's main concerns. He argues that tradition is not supposed to be just a text. Tradition should rather be a spirit, which is concretely embodied and transmitted by individuals. In this regard, he insists that calligraphy is a scholarly venture. In other words, the artist's creative vigor should always be involved with philosophic thinking. A calligraphy artist, with true cultural sensibility and wisdom, will not only pay attention to the improvement of his or her brushwork technique, but will also avail himself or herself to the spirit of traditional academic thinking and to the idea of the particular calligraphic expressiveness. Calligraphy and its spirituality are the most subtle part of Chinese culture and should be carried forward in the 21st century as the very symbol of the Chinese cultural spirit. So, for the main issue of the reconstruction of Chinese calligraphy,



Professor Wang has five principal concerns: 1. The reincarnation of Chinese civilization, that is, to properly deal with cultural and spiritual legacy;
To reflect on the negative aspects of the efforts of contemporary experimental calligraphy art works; 3. To study the achievements of great contemporary calligraphy artists and art theorists by transforming their achievements into a cultural achievements and new art forms; 4. To gather calligraphers who are proficient in English and translate the representative works in the calligraphy field to the West; 5. To transmit the modern idea of calligraphy practice and engender a better world understanding of the cultural meaning and cultural value of contemporary Chinese calligraphy.
Professor Wang has given lectures and academic interviews to promote a contemporary cultural critique of Chinese calligraphy. He argues that the best way to evaluate a real artist is to see how deep his or her reflection is on "bubble culture,"or popular culture, and whether his or her sensibility and understanding of cultural philosophy is based on a deep understanding of cultural history. Only the vulgar critic will give every trendy object or occurrence applause without judgment just because they are "new."Such critics are unprincipled and participate in the short-sightedness of cultural bubble activities. In the context of modernity, the difference between real art and false art is to see which causes the corruption of value, which pursues the depth of thinking. According to Professor Wang, the idea of "cultural calligraphy"reiterates the cultural basis and cultural meaning of Chinese calligraphy, and highlights that spiritual culture as the ontological basis of calligraphy. To use the calligraphic form to portray this spirit, calligraphy is the aesthetic embodiment of culture. As an art form, the very philosophy of calligraphy is "a great technique without technique."Calligraphy has two types of techniques: the inner technique ― the technique of brush, ink, plane,
and space; and the outer technique ― the technique of meaningful representation of life, experience, vigor, and spirit. Calligraphy transcends mere technique and turns into a spiritual activity when it expresses the very nature of the human heart and mind. Calligraphy is the vivid aesthetic display of the condition of life and the meaning of philosophy. The masterpieces of calligraphy are not created from perfect technique because great calligraphers have belief in "technology as a dao" What this means is that they pursue the value of the great transformation of the cosmos. Calligraphy that stops at mere technique and technology cannot invite real appreciation.
From Wang Yuechuan's viewpoint, contemporary calligraphy needs to resolve the following problems: "Art for whom?" "How to do calligraphy?" "What is calligraphy supposed to write?"He argues that calligraphy should not pursue "popular"notions or "be part of current trends"for that will result in a generation crowding itself onto a narrow road of generalization. Contemporary calligraphy needs resources from the spirit of culture.Only this cultivated sensibility should enter into the spirit and thinking of contemporary calligraphy for only it can bring the reality, the power of classics, artists'creative personalities, the art market, and the sublime sense of value to a new and challenging, yet promising, basis and platform. The different calligraphic spiritual paths created from this new platform depend on the personal choices of individual calligraphers and they would become responsible by themselves, which is not only necessary for a multicultural world, but is also the right way to comport ourselves to traditional culture and lay claim to the future .
Wang Yuechuan has been practicing calligraphy since he was a child. He copied and imitated the masterpieces of great calligraphers. He received the First Class Award when he was an undergraduate student in an Undergraduate Calligraphy Competition in Sichuan; he also received a prestigious award from a National Undergraduate Calligraphy Competition and a First Class Reward from the National Education Committee Calligraphy Competition. He has been creating calligraphy and teaching calligraphy while he teaches the aesthetics of literature at Beida. His academic achievements equip him with an incomparable scholarly style and situate him as a unique calligrapher.
Professor Wang Yuechuan imitated Yan Zhenqing's Kaishu (regular inscript) in his early years and pursed the thick and heavy brush style to achieve the beauty of greatness in his works. Later he turned to copy Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi's Caoshu (Grass script). He combined Xingshu with Caoshu by blending together square brushwork with round brushwork to achieve a particular intellectual style with his "combined"(中) method. Later, he was inspired by both Su Dongpo's spiritual freedom and Mi Fu's powerful expression and through them he gained the perfect unity of natural freedom and careful arrangement of structures. In the 1990's, he concentrated almost exclusively on Caoshu.
His own understanding of Huai Su and Wang Duo, makes his calligraphy not only the great expression of intellectual feelings for this world, but also displays the embodiment of the artist's free spirit and values. Wang Yuechuan's Caoshu is characterized by using lines to cut space and forms a unique arrangement on paper. The brush stroke with its deep ink created in one stroke is a powerful stroke and the perfect arrangement of characters creates energetic traces that bring a peaceful and powerful momentum--the classical Caoshu's spirit is best expressed by this very contemporary scholar-artist's brushwork. His Kaishu inherited the very spirit of Yan Zhenqing ― the fullness of significance, integrity, sincere honesty, and the peaceful, elegant heart and mind.
Wang Yuechuan thinks that the aesthetics of calligraphy are expressed by the beauty created from the movement of lines and strokes. From my limited knowledge, the life of calligraphy is its lines and strokes; the vivid and energetic lines are the most meaningful language, which is the full meaning of aesthetics. In Wang Yuechuan's works, one can see the lines and strokes that are filtered by his deep thinking and feelings for they are comprised of pure movements, which not only appeal to the eyes, but also to the spirit. The complex collection of lines with their various, unexpected and enchanting changes, and their traces, meanings, and spiritualities cannot be emptied by language. Within the movement of these lines and strokes, one can see the whole physical and spiritual experience of an artist, which in turn is the expression of the rhythm of the cosmos.
It is Wang's belief that cultural identity is a nation's collective unconsciousness. Chinese cultural identity implies the validity of a Chinese cultural position. Only a positive attitude and the ability of self-reflection can lead China to be properly self-settled in the tension of globalization and locality. He likes to interpret the history of human civilization from the following three phases: Terrestrial Civilization, Marine Civilization, and Aquarian Civilization. During the Terrestrial period, Chinese civilization was at its most developed stage; in the Marine time, the West was the world power; and now in the Aquarian time, the East and the West would mutually benefit from intercommunication and Chinese civilization would rewrite its own cultural identity.
It is the hope of Wang Yuechuan that Chinese calligraphy can play an important role in intercultural communication in the new century. The true essence of this emissary is the lines that are saturated with cultural feeling and visual capability. The art of calligraphy, its free movement of line in the void of space is the movement of heart and mind; it is the free heart of the artist himself. Calligraphy, as the most direct and the most inner form of the visual arts, is a bridge for dialogue and communication between different cultures. nw

Prof. Wang Yuechuan