书法临摹：体现礼仪 Copying Calligraphy: It is About Observing Ritual Propriety

孔子推广礼乐文化。儒家传统看法把艺术当作实工具来现两个互相关联的社会目的：修身养性与社会和谐。他们相信当我们把自己投入礼与乐的节奏中并得到欢乐时，我们会因此而获益。

艺术实践中的一个重要德行是礼仪之适当应用。但是，一个人不能盲目地追随礼仪，因为应用礼仪就是要把它据为己有，使它们个性化 - 以特殊方式来呈现。我们应该知道如何产生归为己有的拥有感，这是修身养性过程的一个重要组成。

在发展艺术技术中，艺术家获得了美学应用的具体知识。好的书法家深知笔法，了解每一个字的空间安排逻辑，了解章法原理，也晓得各个书体的异同。这些都是适当应用的不同部分。

吸取书法礼仪的办法就是持续临摹古代大书法家的作品，把難写的字解剖为个别元素，然后以流畅与有节制的动作把它们结为整体。这个过程为书法家与传统建立了形体关系。通过临摹，学生可以对大书法家的形态有深入的了解；就是说，大书法家行动的姿态体现了每一个字的节奏与形式。学习者对他们所学习传统的领悟并不限于反省，通过具体与仪式化的临摹动作，学习者亲密地体验传统。他们的动作所得的是深沉的，因为这些动作是在传统的具体技巧中领悟与建立起来的。

但是，比如在临摹《千字文》时，我们不能盲临，而应该想个办法把它据为己有。很多时候，一帖法书被临摹久了，文字的内容本身会消失于书法之中，就是说，内容已经被当成理所当然，很少会成为关注点，只当成是呈现书法技巧的格式。

所以，学习艺术的一个重要方向是进入传统，吸取传统丰富的养料，然后找个方法把它真实地为己所用。就书法而言，进入传统就是忠实地临摹古代大书法家的法帖。

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Confucius promotes the culture of rites and music. The Confucian tradition views arts as instrumental in actualising two interrelated social ends: self-cultivation and social harmony. It is believed that one stands to be improved by the enjoyment found in attuning oneself to the rhythms of ritual propriety and music (arts).

A virtue essential to artistic practice is the appropriation of ritual propriety. However, one cannot follow the ritual propriety blindly, because to appropriate the ritual is to make them one’s own, to personalise them by developing a characteristic style of enacting them. One must learn how to produce a sense of authorship that is an essential component of the self-cultivation process. In developing techniques of arts, artists gain an embodied knowledge of aesthetic appropriateness. Good calligraphers master brushwork, understand the spatial logic of individual characters, understand the principles of composition, and are aware of stylistic variations. All these are a part of appropriate execution.

The way to absorb calligraphic ritual propriety is to repetitiously copy the work of past masters, to break down difficult characters into their constituent and to put them together again in fluid, controlled movements. This process establishes a somatic relationship between calligrapher and tradition. Through copying, a student gains growing insight into the master’s corporeality, that is, the manner in which the master’s movements inform each character’s rhythm and form. Students’ awareness of the tradition they work within is not limited to reflection; through embodiment and ritualised action, students appropriate the tradition in an intimate way. Their actions acquire significance since they are informed by and build upon a tradition of embodied technique.

Hence, in reproducing the ‘Thousand Character Essay’, one must avoid blind repetition and find a way to make it one’s own. Many a time, a model calligraphic work can be transcribed so often as a writing exercise that the text itself may be thought to have disappeared into the calligraphy, that is, the text is so well known that it is doubtful that anybody paid much attention to what it says, accepting it simply as a format for the display of calligraphic skill.

Therefore, one of the most important aspects of taking up an art is participating in a tradition, drawing upon the richness of the tradition and finding a way to appropriate it authentically. In the case of calligraphy, the only means to participate in tradition is by copying faithfully the master works of the great calligraphers in history.