Lao, an adjective in Chinese, literally indicating the oldness of human beings, has been gradually transformed into an important esthetic ideology in literary theory as well as in calligraphy theory. Instead of being unfounded, such transformation has been deeply rooted. Lao has made its appearance in calligraphy theoryto motivate the transition from the ethical quotation to the esthetic appreciation, through which, Sun Guoting has acquired solid bases and narrative strategies for his esthetic estimation.In the context of The Calligraphic Florilegium of Sun Guoting, Lao indicates the beauty of neutralization. Afterwards, its implications and esthetic orientations have never been unchanged. Instead, it has been pursued in different ways from time to time in different historical periods, which, reflects the increasing separation of the calligraphic creation from the daily handwriting. The separation is such an inevitable and irreversible tendency that even modern calligraphers cannot get rid of it, and therefore they have to face the unprecedented new project so as to seek for a new reasonable way to getting Lao (mellow).
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