Research On Restrained Cursive

Having developed into its wild style, cursive has gradually strayed far from practical use and moved towards the arts. Wild cursive expresses emotion with more vigorous strokes, which embodies persevering and striving spirit of Chinese people, thus, is regarded as the freehand brushwork of Chinese calligraphy and has been very popular. Calligraphers of wild cursive, influenced greatly by the spirit of traditional cultures, such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, were unexceptionally individuals in pursuit of freedom. Living in different times, times of peace or turbulence, these calligraphers experienced different circumstances and possessed dissimilar personalities, always expressed their sentiment through their works of painting or writing for save of their nature and freedom. Meanwhile, in actual world, they always behaved in mad manner, underlying which was the endless and persevering life spirit. This is exactly the core of Chinese calligraphy art and it dominates the trend of calligraphy styles through the ages. However, in the history of calligraphy, only the external forms of wild cursive are constantly dealt with while the personalities of"wildness"and"restraint"are under investigated. Based on the differences of the two types of personalities and the principle of"like author, like book", the present paper proposes another concept of cursive script: restrained cursive, which parallels with wild cursive."Wildness"is a kind of extroverted and expressive personality while"restraint"is introverted and self-ease. Wild cursive is always written by calligraphers with the personality of"wildness"whereas the restrained cursive is written by those with"restrained"personality.This paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is preface, which exhibits the thoughts and doubts during the study of the spirit of "cursive" and proposes the concept of"restrained cursive"paralleled with"wild cursive". Chapter 2 expounds on the term"restrained cursive", which covers four parts: the definition of restrained cursive, the distinction between wild cursive and restrained cursive; representative calligraphers, the significance of studying restrained cursive. Chapter 3 takes Huaisu, Bada as examples and mainly discusses the origin of both wild and restrained cursive from sociology, psychology and other aspects with the conclusion that wild cursive is a cursive which explicitly exhibits the characters while restrained cursive reflects the intrinsic and real state of life. Chapter 4 describes the morphological features of restrained cursive from three aspects: arrangement, technique and stroke. Chapter 5 discusses the historical value and contemporary significance of restrained cursive.On the whole, this paper argues that restrained cursive is the perseverance and guard to one's own heart without desire for the material and is solid in itself. It is the courageous attitude towards the free life, the essence of Chinese culture, and the soul of cursive as well. In this sense, those in favor of"restraint"personality in inner heart are real great cursive calligraphers.