“离离原上草，一岁一枯荣，野火烧不尽，春风吹又生。”草，是自然界最普遍的植物，凡是春风能吹拂到的地方，便有了草的蓬勃。草书是中国文字最为简约的书体，之所以称为草，除了其笔势草直率意，也暗含萌发时的那种张扬力。书法家徐洁擅长草书，纵恣潇洒，故常给人“阳刚大气”之印象。字体的宽博实则是胸怀之体现，而非只审美之“阳刚”。线条的飘逸亦正体现一种性情，所谓剑胆与琴心。

　　飞动点划跃蛟龙

　　徐洁生于江南一书香家庭，自幼酷爱书法，尤善草书。“我认为草书是博大精深的，是书法的最高境界。”在华侨城的工作室里，徐洁向记者介绍草书艺术。在深圳定居22年了，她一直坚持不懈地研习草书，并从事书法推广、教育工作。经过多年积累，博采历代草书名家之长，结合自身特点，融会贯通，徐洁已逐步形成自己独特的草书风格。

　　细细欣赏这位书法家的作品，字体如登高山，气势磅礴，如临大海，波澜壮阔，如长枪大戟，放纵舒展，尽显阳刚之美。在笔峰有转换处，在顿挫的替换间，在结体的倾斜处，都品味出了那力度递增点。徐洁说，她写草书是一气呵成的。初下笔时，纸上墨迹就像草的点点新绿一样，抑扬顿挫间渐渐便有了风骨。搁笔时，飞动的点划之间倾泻出阳刚之势，如从春潮中跃出的蛟龙一般，直上九霄。

　　由此看来，草书之趣，趣在细节间悄然滋长的生命力。

　　刚柔并济武术魂

　　访谈间，记者得知徐洁原来还是一位习武之人。自八岁起，徐洁进入家乡的浙江省武术队，苦练如刀枪棍棒等武艺。眼前举止大方潇洒的她，颇有几分武者的气质。回想起当年练功的艰辛，徐洁庆幸自己拥有这段经历，因为她从中领悟出“书道与武道是相通的”。

　　常说书画同源，徐洁觉得武术和书法亦然。这一观点倒是引起记者莫大的兴趣。徐洁认为，两者用力都讲究刚柔，一个硬邦邦的字不会好看。在源远流长的中国传统文化中，武术和书法无疑是其中最能彰显其精髓的两朵奇葩。书法讲神韵，武术也讲究精气神。

　　习武者不是技击家，不一定要靠身板，而是依靠一种内外兼修的气息，就像其他文化艺术一般。作为书法家的徐洁，写字时运用内力，辗转腾挪，出来的墨迹遒劲有力，很有武学气魄。

　　听徐洁讲解武术的精彩动作，可以想象她如何从淋漓尽致的武术艺中，体会其抑扬顿挫的韵律、节奏，从而悟到草书艺术创作的内在规律，触发了创造灵感。

 Xu Jie – The Cursive Script Accomplished with
the Courage of a Warrior and the Soul of a Musician  
                                       Han Xiaoyan

“No prairie fire can destroy the grass, it shoots up again when the spring breeze blows.”
“O, the lush, dense wild grasses of those ancient grasslands, wilting year by year, and flourishing once again, wild fire cannot destroy them, for once the spring wind blows they will grow anew throughout.” Grass is the most common plant in nature, and it will thrive wherever the spring wind blows. Cursive script is the simplest handwriting style of Chinese characters, and the reason why it is called “cursive” is the implication of that tension of sprouting in addition to the straightforwardness and willfulness of its handwriting momentum. Calligrapher Xu Jie is good at cursive script, and her calligraphy is willful, unrestrained, natural, and graceful, thus often gives people the impression of “masculinity and magnanimity”. The broadness and magnitude of characters really is an embodiment of one’s mind, and not only the “masculinity” in aesthetics. The gracefulness of lines also embodies a temperament, and it is just the so-called courage of a warrior and the soul of a musician.

The flying dots and strokes like a jumping flood dragon

     Xu Jie, born into a scholarly family south of the Yangtze River, has been ardently fond of calligraphy since her childhood, and is especially good at cursive script. “I think cursive script has an extensive and profound meaning, and is the highest domain of calligraphy.” In the studio at the Overseas Chinese Town, Xu Jie introduced the reporter to cursive script. Having dwelt in Shenzhen for 22 years, she has always persisted in studying cursive script unremittingly, and engaged in the promotion of calligraphy and educational work. Through many years of accumulation, she has widely adopted the fortes of cursive script masters of all the past dynasties based on her own characteristics, and achieved mastery through a comprehensive integration of them. Xu Jie has gradually formed her unique cursive script style already.
 
     Appreciate this calligrapher’s works carefully and you will find that her characters, like mounting a high mountain, have a grand, tremendous momentum, like facing the vast sea, surge forward magnificently, and like long spears and large halberds, are unrestrained and unfolding, fully displaying the beauty of masculinity. At the shifts of strokes, in the alternations of pauses and transitions, and at the substitutions of character structures, you can always feel the progressively increasing points of that force. Xu Jie says that she writes cursive script at a stretch. At the beginning of writing, ink marks on the paper are like fresh green dots of grass, and then the vigor of style is gradually formed in rises and falls as well as pauses and transitions. At the conclusion of writing, a masculine momentum pours out between dots and strokes, just like a flood dragon jumping out of the spring tide and soaring into the high firmament.

     So it can be seen that the interest in cursive script just lies in the vitality that develops quietly in details. 

The soul of wushu – the combination of hardness and softness

     In the interview, the reporter learned that Xu Jie was a wushan practitioner previously. Since her age of 8, Xu Jie joined the Zhejiang Province Wushu Team in her hometown, painstakingly practiced wushu skills such as sword, spear, cudgel, staff etc. She, comporting herself in a natural and graceful manner in front of my eyes, has quite a few qualities of a warrior. Recalling the arduousness of wushu exercises in those years, Xu Jie rejoices that she has this personal experience, because she comprehends thereof that “the art of calligraphy is identical to the art of wushu”. 

People often said that calligraphy and painting have the same origin, while Xu Jie feels that the case with wushu and calligraphy is the same. This view really arouses the reporter’s great interest. Xu Jie thinks that both pay great attention to the combination of hardness and softness, a rigid hard character will not look good. In the long-standing traditional Chinese culture, undoubtedly wushu and calligraphy are the two miracles therein which can best showcase its quintessence. Calligraphy emphasizes a mysterious charm, and wushu focuses on the “essence, vitality, and spirit” as well.

    A wushu practitioner, not a skilled fighter, does not necessarily rely on the body but relies on an animation cultivated internally and externally, just like other cultural arts. Xu Jie, as a calligrapher, applies her internal force to twist, turn, jump, and shift strokes and dots of characters when writings, and the ink marks thus formed appear powerful and energetic, quite rich in the spirit of martial arts. 

    Listening to Xu Jie’s exposition of wonderful wushun moves, I can imagine how she has learnt the rising and falling rhythm of wushu from its incisive and vivid moves, accordingly comprehended the inherent law of the artistic creation of cursive script, and triggered her creative inspirations.