Friday, November 19, 2021

CALLIGRAPHY: THE 3 PERFECTIONS by RENE J. NAVARRO

 Calligraphy: The 3 Perfections

By Rene J. Navarro

 

Painting and calligraphy by Tak Wah Eng, master of Tiger Claw Kungfu

I have just received my certificate of completion for taking the online seminar on Chinese calligraphy as a Cultivation by Taoist priest Jeffrey Yuen. No, I haven’t really completed anything. The course presented in segments in less than one day seemed more like a beginning, an introduction to the basics. Learning calligraphy takes much, much more time, over years under the close supervision of a master. A day-long lesson does not make one a master.

 

To prepare for the lesson, we were asked to get, among others, paper (preferably xuan or rice paper), ink stone, brush and ink stand. Yuen Shifu demonstrated different ways of holding the brush, how to dissolve the ink in water and how to draw what is considered the first traditional character, Yong, that means forever or eternity. Yong contains the 8 basic strokes in calligraphy. When I studied calligraphy in Hangzhou 12 years ago, Yong was also the very first character I was introduced to. Jet-lagged, I drew 200-500 characters from a manual with a pen or pencil on a notebook into the night. Using brush and ink, I realized, was totally different from a pen. I wrote a poem about my first experiences with calligraphy (below).    

 

Calligraphy is considered a meditative and divine art. You have to honor the sacred, so before you even start, you have to spend a time in an attitude of worship or contemplation to prepare your heartmind and body for the work. ("Heartmind" is a translation of the Chinese word "Xin".*) It is one of the 3 Perfections along with painting and poetry. The concept of the 3 Perfections came about when Zhang Qian, a poet and painter, contemporary and drinking buddy of Du-Fu and Li Bai, gifted the emperor with his painting. The emperor was so moved that he drew the words “Zheng Xian san jue” – meaning Zhang Xian’s 3 perfections – on the canvas. Since then the 3 arts have been drawn together as related work and a painting is invariably paired with a poem written in calligraphy.**

 

I followed the lessons by drawing the different characters. Yuen shifu said that he did them while in a horse stance/ma bo. Well, I did them sitting down, with my back straight, feet flat on the floor  and chin down … in the manner of a meditation posture. 

 

There’s a long way to go!    

 

~~

 

Drawing the Characters: Ars Poetica 

 

2 am and I am writing more characters

in my notebook with a ballpoint pen.

There are verticals and horizontals

and diagonals … and drops and slides 

and strokes I do not know the Chinese names

for. I study the length of this line, it’s longer

than the one above it. This line starts

hanging from a vertical, that one ends

where one line begins. Another

begins at the eaves of a roof. I start over

again and feel  the pressure

on the pen and how it varies the shade

of the ink, a little darker here, little lighter

 there, thicker here, thinner there.

The proportion strikes me for the first

time, and balance, nothing weighted

down, nothing leaning this way

or that … I know I do not see 

the perspective of the whole 

character yet, not even each 

drop. I notice that I have to learn

what it means to be light,  to spread

the ink evenly like they show

in the manual I am following.

Repetitions, repetitions, as my teachers

used to tell me when I was training

in Shaolin and Tai chi: imitate and

follow, repeat the way they did

the movement and I did each

a hundred times, two hundred,

until my sweat dripped to the floor

of the old Buddhist Temple. 

Now each page of my sketchbook is covered 

with squiggles.  There are no erasures,
no corrections. I can only start all

over again. I know a lot 

more now. But I do not even have

an idea what ground I have yet to cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about the Qi that each line

should manifest? How about the Shen? 

How about the Life 

that breathes through each stroke?

How did the ancients

write with brush and ink?

 



 (Poem from Ascension and Return: Poetry of a Village Daoist by Rene J. Navarro (Tambuli Media)

 




__________________

Xin (or Hsin in Wade-Giles) refers not only to the heart but also to the mind.

The character is difficult to translate, although it is often translated as heart-mind. 

Like many Chinese words, like Yin and Yang, Qi, Ling and Gong, Xin should not be translated. 


** For an extended study, see Michael Sullivan’s “The Three Perfections: Chinese Painting, Poetry and Calligraphy” (George Braziller, Inc.: 1999). I’ve also heard of a tradition, I do not know how old it is, of the 5 Excellences: poetry, calligraphy, painting, Tai chi chuan and Chinese Medicine. I’ve studied four of them. Well, four out five ain’t bad. 

 

 

*****

 

Rene J. Navarro is an acupuncturist, herbalist, alchemist, martial artist, healer, published writer and poet. His training in Chinese arts started more than 50 years ago with Dragon-Tiger Shaolin Hong Kuen Kung-Fu as a closed-door disciple of Grandmaster Johnny Chiuten and the legendary Grandmaster Lao Kim of the Philippines. Although he has also studied Pa-Kua Chuan (in Binondo, Manila) and Hsing-I Chuan  (in China), two of the 3 Wudang systems, Arnis de Mano (in Cebu), and Shaolin Hong Kuen,  Rene has focused on the study of the curriculum of Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan, including Solo Fist Forms and weapons (Dao, Jian, Staff-Spear) under Masters Gin Soon Chu (second disciple of Yang Sau-Cheung) and Vincent Chu, lineage teachers of the system. 

 

Rene holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science (MLQU), a Bachelor of Law/JD (University of the Philippines), a diploma in acupuncture and a certificate in classical Chinese herbs (New England School of Acupuncture), and a certificate in TESOL-TESL (Oxford Seminars). In an earlier incarnation, he was a member of the NY bar and worked as a lawyer for indigent clients.  website: www.renenavarro.org

 

 

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