People who practice calligraphy know
that, "If their minds are straight, their characters will be
upright." Thus, in ancient China calligraphy was considered one
of the Six Arts (the six skills an educated person was required
to learn). The other five Arts were rites, music, archery,
chariot driving, and applied arts. (Some have interpreted this
sixth art as mathematics, but I think "applied arts" is more
apt. First of all, pure mathematics is academic knowledge and
cannot be considered a skill. Applied mathematics is included in
applied arts. Secondly, since the pre- Qin period, philosophers
have drawn analogies such as making carriage wheels, boats, and
ships; painting; and carpentry, indicating that scholars in
those days understood applied arts as well as academics. Thus,
they must have studied applied arts.) It is a pity that later
scholars began to focus purely on academics, valuing the Six
Classics but not the Six Arts. Now, only rites, music, and
calligraphy--the three less active Arts, are still valued. The
other three, which require hand-and-brain coordination, have
been scorned as physical activities. As a result, modern-day
scholars do nothing but study, get very little exercise, and
have no idea of how to live a balanced life. They are pictured
as effete intellectuals, "weaklings who can't truss a chicken,"
and "useless scholars." On the other hand, since calligraphy has
been regarded as a tool for cultivating one's moral character
and spirituality , and as art also involves a certain beauty, it
has had the fortune of surviving until the present.
As a tool for spiritual cultivation, the
art of calligraphy involves arranging the desk and chair;
setting out the paper, brush, ink slab, and ink; holding the
brush; and writing the characters. These guidelines are
described in the present verses.
The room must be kept neat and
tidy, the walls uncluttered and clean, the desk in good order,
and the writing utensils well arranged. When the environment is
well-prepared, the mind will be calm. With this foundation in
place, one then attends to posture: grinding the ink stick
evenly, holding the brush neither too tightly nor too loosely.
In this way, one's characters will be even and firm at the
least, if not beautiful. For calligraphy to be beautiful as art,
one must develop one's technique through continuous practice and
adjustment.
In general, the preparatory work should not be taken
lightly. Don't think that diligent practice suffices to produce
beautiful characters. If you neglect the daily preliminary work,
your characters will be frivolous rather than magnanimous. Their
artistic quality will be diminished, and you will suffer an
irreparable physical and psychological loss.
Modern parents make the mistake of having
lofty expectations that overlook the basics. They consider
children who do well in school and are talented to be
outstanding. They consider children who don't do drugs or party
a lot to be well-behaved. Thus, they slave away doing all the
household chores and cooking, but dare not ask their children to
help, lest it adversely affect their homework. They even tidy
their children's rooms or pre- tend not to notice the mess. As a
result, we have a bunch of un- grateful, frivolous young people.
They cannot survive on their own or weather emotional crises.
Unused to planning ahead and making decisions, they are neither
efficient nor careful in their work. Consequently, they cannot
persevere to the end.
As an old proverb says, "If you cannot
keep a room in order, how can you maintain order in the nation?"
Keeping one's room tidy may seem a trivial, personal affair
unrelated to important, public matters. Yet, if one cannot even
keep one's personal affairs in order, what energy could one have
to take care of public affairs? If one handles small matters
poorly, how can one handle large matters capably? Doing daily
household chores nurtures one's tenacity, perseverance, and
sense of responsibility .Efficient performance of household
chores fosters management acumen and organizational skills. With
such tenacity, perseverance, acumen, skills, and responsibility,
one will quite easily find a job to support oneself. When the
opportunity arises, one will be able to calmly plan strategies
to skillfully tackle national and international issues. How can
anyone say that tidying the room is a personal, trivial matter?
The Doctrine of the Meansays,
"The actions of the cultivated person serve as a path for the
world; his practices serve as laws for the world; his words
serve as regulations for the world." Such a cultivated person is
not one who merely "studies for ten years by the window in the
cold." His temperament, character, abilities were forged through
a long period of doing routine household chores from childhood
onwards. A person who does not understand how to learn and live
is truly poor; poverty has nothing to do with one's natural
talent or wealth. A person who learns how to keep his own living
space and belongings in order at a young age will be capable of
handling all matters in an organized fashion as an adult. He
will be able to surmount any difficulty and rise above any
situation.
As long as a family is happy, though they subsist on
plain fare, how can they be considered poor? Genuine poverty is
experienced by those who are psychologically starved or
confused, who err out of nervousness, and who cannot handle
anything well. Socrates, the great Greek philosopher hailed as
the Confucius of the West, insisted, "The ordered soul is the
only truly happy one, the only one capable of living the good
life." Since "Every man is his own ruler," why not teach our
children to be neat and organized, so they can take charge of
their own lives and be ordered souls?
