Practising Chinese Calligraphy is a dear hobby of mine. I can say that it is a passion for me. My ultimate purpose of practising Chinese Calligraphy is not to become a champion nor a great artist, my intention is kind of … 無所為而為 (doing not for a special material purpose)
…I remember when I was in Beijing in early 2012 for a special course with two renowned calligraphy masters, I was asked by a taxi driver what was my purpose of stay in Beijing. When I told him that it was for a Chinese calligraphy training he was pretty shocked and asked why I was learning this old fashioned Chinese calligraphy. At that time I could not spell out specifically all the reasons why I like doing calligraphy and I just replied with these 5 Chinese words 無所為而為 (“doing for no specific material purpose”, as according to Lao Tze when doing something with a specific motivation there is a risk of “overdoing”, which may become too self centred. Without any eventual desired result, just responding to a natural flow, the act is more noble). That sounded a bit philosophical to the taxi driver…
Thereafter I did organise my thinking and have come up with more convincing reasons in practising Chinese calligraphy:
- for the serenity in preparing the ink and smell of the delicate fragrance of the ink
- for the beauty and the deep sense of the Chinese characters
- for the joy in dancing with the brush and ink
- for the challenge in playing around with emptiness and fullness
- for the journey in walking with the ancient scholars and poets appreciating their moral philosophy and romantic poems and sharing their emotions
- for the temporary escape from the material world
- for the pleasure to create and to share emotions
- for the desire to learn our limits and overcome them