The art of calligraphy. Chinese short story
The art of calligraphy is a Chinese short story that teaches children that you should not brag about the skills one has if you continue to work on them to be better and better. Xian Zhi was the son of the famous calligrapher Yi Zhi. When his father worked in the studio, the little one used to contem
The art of calligraphy is a Chinese short story that teaches children that you should not brag about the skills one has if you continue to work on them to be better and better.
Xian Zhi was the son of the famous calligrapher Yi Zhi. When his father worked in the studio, the little one used to contemplate how he traced ideograms on rice paper. Little by little, the son also acquired the habit of writing. After a few months he progressed so much that friends and neighbors began to praise him incessantly. The little boy felt smug, believing himself to be a good calligrapher.
Chinese story: The art of calligraphy
One day he wrote a dozen characters and showed them to his father, expecting him to praise him. After examining it for a moment, the famous calligrapher, who had noticed his son's vanity, made no comment. He picked up the brush and added a small stroke on an ideogram, turning it into a different character, and said: Ens - Show it to your mother, let's see what it says. The little boy went to look for his mother awaiting an encouraging trial.Although the lady was not a calligrapher, she understood the technique of that art and used to issue some very correct opinions about it. After looking for a moment at the work of his son, he said:
-
You have progressed, but you have a lot to achieve the brio
and the perfection of your calligraphy. In this character that you have written, only this stroke is very similar to his style, and the rest has nothing to do, he said, putting his finger just in the line that the calligrapher had just added.
Ashamed, the boy went to his father and asked him: - After so many days of practice, why could not I still master the secret of your art? - It's very simple, son, do you see the jars in the yard? When I began to learn the calligraphy, they told me that the eighteen jars had to be filled with water. And the day that the water ran out making ink for the exercises, it would be a good calligrapher.
I did it, that's why I write better
.
Without saying another word, the boy understood perfectly. He ran to the patio and throughout the morning he was working to fill those huge jars with water. He started practicing day and night. Twenty years later, when he had used up the last drop of water, he reached such a level ofChinese calligraphy
that he was consecrated as the 'Saint of the Brushes'.
FIN
