杜甫：月兔捣药 Du Fu: The Moon Rabbit Pounds the Bitter Herbs

根据华人的生肖，2011年是兔年。听说把兔子和月亮联系起来带到中国，那时受到了印度佛教的影响。中国把月里的兔子与其它源于佛教的有关观念引进，叫它做‘玉兔’。据说它在神奇的桂树下制作长生不老之药。

实际上，月亮，酒与美女一向是中国诗人的热门题材。由于唐宋时代拜月之风很盛，千年之前的唐宋诗词不少就与这些题材有关。八世纪时的传奇诗人李白据说就是为了捞水里月亮的影子而死的。
另一个唐代诗人杜甫则以写传记式、历史性与记录战乱任何影响他的生活的诗而著名。就算是他不常见的提到玉兔的诗里，他也不忘记在西部沙漠里保卫国家的战士。

月(杜甫)

天上秋期近，人间月影清。
入河蟾不没，捣药兔长生。
只益丹心苦，能添白发明。
干戈知满地，休照国西营。
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According to the Chinese Zodiac, the year of 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. The rabbit's association with the moon is said to have been introduced to China with Indian Buddhist influence. Chinese adopted the rabbit in the moon along with many other concepts that originated in Buddhism: they called it the Jade Rabbit. It is said to stand under a magical cassia tree on the moon making pills of immortality.

As a matter of fact, the moon, along with fine wine and beautiful women, is a favourite topic for the Chinese poets. Since the worship of the moon was very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, you‘ll find quite a few of the poems are from the Tang and Song Dynasties, which date back more than one thousand years. In fact, a legendary Chinese poet from the 8th century, Li Bai is said to have died while trying to catch the image of the moon reflected in the waters of a lake.

Du Fu, another poet who lived during the Tang Dynasty, was famous for poems that are autobiographical and historical, recording the effects of war on his own life. Even in the rare occasion that jade rabbit was mentioned in his poem, he just could not forget the soldiers who fought for the countries in the western deserts.

Du Fu: The Autumn Moon

The Autumn constellations begin to rise.

The brilliant Moonlight shines on the crowds.

The moon toad swims in the river and does not drown.

The moon rabbit pounds the bitter herbs and has an eternal life.

His drug only makes my heart more bitter.

The silver brilliance only makes my hair more white.

I know that the country is overrun with war.

The moonlight means nothing to the soldiers camped in the western deserts.

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字如其人 Writing is Like the Person

从古到今，华人把自然与人类当作个由众多形式多样相互连接的部件所形成的有机体。当其中的一个部件错位或者机能受到干扰，整体的和谐就被破坏。传统中国哲学特别注重社会和谐，艺术本意就是要反映这一点。

华人美学关注调整自己成为一个自我调整的人，这个情况就在吸取丰富的传统并寻找应用之法的同时，平衡个体与全体。

所以，在华人美学里自我修养就是艺术的首要任务；而在儒学中，自我修养传统在中华艺术有很深的人文根底。它把身体礼仪化，以有节奏的身体动作与呼吸技巧来制作艺术，当成是恢复精神与身体活力的一种形式。

就书法而言，由于毛笔与墨汁容易受到力度、速度与气息的变化的影响，笔画本身就会透露了书写的举止。所以，在书写文字的活跃过程中，某个姿态就会转化成为一个形式，就如一个形式相同的也会转化成为一个姿态。这个过程有视于并反映了身体的操作，而身体的操作有被心所‘控制’。

汉朝（公元前206年 – 公元220年）的赵壹在《非草书》中就说得很清楚：

凡人个殊气血，异筋骨，心有疏密，手有巧拙，书之好丑，在心与手。可强为哉？

这就是所谓的‘字如其人’。
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毛泽东：字如其人 Mao Zedong's Calligraphy

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The traditional Chinese of all ages view the nature and human as an organism made up of multitudinous interconnected parts. When one of the parts falls its place or is disrupted in its functioning, the harmony of the whole is impaired. A premium in traditional Chinese philosophy is placed on social harmony, and art is meant to reflect that.

Chinese aesthetics is concerned with tuning the self to become self-balancing human being, and in this a case of striking a balance between part and whole by simultaneously drawing upon the richness of tradition and finding a way to appropriate it.

Self-cultivation is therefore the main role of art in Chinese aesthetics and the Confucian self-cultivation tradition in Chinese art has deep humanistic roots. They ritualise the human body, using rhythmic bodily movements and breathing techniques in doing art, as a form of mental and physical rejuvenation of the person.

In the case of calligraphy, since the brush and ink are readily influenced by variations in force, speed, and breath, the strokes themselves reveal much about the physical act of writing. Therefore, in the dynamic process of writing a character, a particular gesture is converted into a form, just as a particular form is equally converted into gesture. This process is contingent upon and reflects the work of the body which is ‘controlled’ by the mind, or a cultivated mind.

A text from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) makes this clear:

All men differ in their energy and blood, and vary in their sinew and bones; the heart-mind may be dispersed or dense; the hand may be skilled or clumsy. The beauty or ugliness of calligraphy is in the heart-mind and hand.

This culminates in the popular saying: ‘Writing is like the person.’