亦侠亦柔亦温文

 

­——黄明书法印象记

在南京大学一次聚会上，我第一次见到黄明，得知他是科班出身且已经有相当影响的青年书法家，不免惊叹于他的年轻。

Impression on Huang Ming and His Calligraphy

I first met Huang Ming in a gathering party held in Nanjing University. I was surprised that such a young man should have won so many honors and respects in the calligraphy circle.

    翻开其赠送的线装手写体《电视电影三字经》，清秀的小楷、峻美的行书，目之所及，心之所赏。这是一本由著名电影人柳城先生历十年心血著成的宏文，汇集谢铁骊、张艺谋等四位著名导演评序，于2007年11月获得艺界最高荣誉——《联合国教科文组织特别艺术贡献奖》。谁曾想到，其书法竟出自刚刚而立之年的黄明之手。摘下眼镜我不禁将他细细打量。

But I realized why this could be possible when I opened The Three-Character Classic of TV and Movie that he gave me as a gift. The author and movie producer Liu Cheng had spent ten years on this book, which in November, 2007 won the author UNESCO Special Art Contribution Award, the highest honor of the arts circle. In this book, all the Chinese characters were written in small regular script and running script, a perfect job that was done by the young talent I mentioned above, Huang Ming. Attracted by the beautiful handwriting, I couldn’t help taking off my glasses to carefully enjoy it.

    黄明的家乡泰州，古称海陵，是一个钟灵毓秀之地。这里诞生过张怀瓘、王艮、高二适、梅兰芳等艺术大师，黄明常常以可敬的乡贤为骄傲，言谈中不禁流露出对家乡的依恋。

    Huang Ming was born Taizhou, or the ancient Hailing, a birthplace of many famous masters, such as Zhang Huaiguan, calligrapher and calligraphy theorist, Wang Gen, philosopher, Gao Ershi, another calligrapher and Mei Lanfang, Peking Opera singer. In them, Huang Ming always takes deep pride, just as his deep love for the land that has nurtured him.

     他说起少年时代，邻里有颇类隐君子陶征君的一位老人，老人家里藤萝满架，花木幽深，常在夏日里坐在竹椅上诵读诗文，“那是一个很有学问的老先生”，这给具有诗人气质的黄明留下了不可磨灭的印象。这让他每每领会到古人诗词里的意境时，总能想起故乡的那位老者及其居所。黄明对我说这些的时候，我总觉得很熟悉、很亲切，许多研习古典、热爱传统的人都曾经遇到过类似的机缘，有时想来甚至是有一点神秘的。

    When he was a teenager, an elderly neighbor left deep impression on him. Like a hermit, the old man lived in a house secluded in ivy, flowers and trees. In summer, he often sat in a bamboo chair under the shade, reciting ancient poems. “I think he must be a knowledgeable scholar.” Huang Ming said. Whenever he savors the imaginative realms produced by the ancient poets, the old man and his residence would come to his mind. His experience seems so familiar to me, because almost every artist who has a passion for classics and traditions has had such luck before, a mysterious coincidence indeed.

    黄明对逝去的文化和空间有一种眷恋。古人中，他喜欢李白、苏轼、陆游，喜欢他们的清旷自然，超脱尘表；今人他则喜欢戴望舒的空灵朦胧之美。当黄明即兴吟诵起他喜爱的诗词时，我会一下子接不上来。

    To the past culture and the past space, Huang Ming is sentimentally attached. He loves the ancient poets like Li Bai, Shu Shi, Lu You, loves their exceptionally easy and fresh style and loves their transcendence of vulgarity. When he makes impromptu recitation of his favorite poems, I often have to try hard to revive these lines in my memory.

     18岁时，黄明负笈金陵，这对塑造和发挥他的灵性、理性与悟性极为重要。南京是一个好地方，沉静、中庸、平和，有很好的文化艺术氛围，但也有缺憾。如果黄明久居南京或海陵，可能会是一个极其敏感的南方人。黄明敏感但不纤弱。他有着多年在北京皇城生活的经历，交游广阔，培养成他健全的性格，更练就了广阔的眼光和非凡的见识。一个南方人能有北方的生活经历是生命的一种赐予，是使生命厚重起来的捷径。这使得黄明既雅且质，文质彬彬，虽然并没有着长衫，却悦若现代都市的君子。

    At the age of 18, the young scholar went to Nanjing for further education. Nanjing’s culture atmosphere, calm, peaceful and mediocre, played an important role in developing his reason and wits. But southern cities like Nanjing and Taizhou are likely to turn a person into an over-sensitive one. Huang Ming is sensitive but not fragile, thanks in part to his life experience in Beijing, the Capital located in North China, for many years. The northern city cultivated him to be a man of sound personality, of broad vision and of extraordinary insight. It is a gift for a Southern native to have the life experience in North China, a shortcut to enrich his life. As a beneficiary, Huang Ming is elegant outside and substantial inside, like an ancient gentleman living a modern city.   

   黄明话语并不多，但有一次高兴起来，笑着说，我们可以一起去做一身长衫。我说，你穿一袭青衫比较合适，因为你身材好，气质雅，穿上去走起路来飘逸，像穿着长衫走在燕京大学里的诗人陈梦家，具有一种风度。黄明立刻笑着站起来，做手势说，那要在臀部安一个小电风扇，那时候我觉得其实黄明也是一个容易激动起来的人。我喜欢有血性的人。

    Huang Ming is a man of few words, but once in high spirit, he joked, “We may go to a tailor and have two long gowns made for us as the ancient scholars did.” I said, “And a light blue one may fit you perfect. With charm and good figure, you must be very graceful in it, just like the poet Cheng Mengjia, who used to walk in the Yenching University in his long gown. What a scene!” Laughing, Huang Ming stood up and made a gesture, “Then I have to set up a small fan on my butt so that my gown can fly in the wind.” From then on I knew that Huang Ming was also a man who could easily get excited, a man of guts. And I appreciate this type of person.

   与他的性格一样，黄明南北兼融，真、草、隶、篆各体皆擅。而楷书、行草书最能代表其风格，展卷在手，扑面而来的是王羲之的雅致蕴藉和颜鲁公三稿的率真情趣。因此，黄明书法给人的印象首先是耳目一新，但仔细回味之下又似与极为熟悉之老友晤面，这是其优入古人之处。黄明用功深细，他对形式感的追求，使人遗忘而知其受过学院派的严格训练，他对墨色的浓淡润燥的讲究，得之于其对笔墨的深层理解。他对意趣的寻求，则来自个人气质，他的书卷气，得自诗词的熏陶与幼年机缘。我最喜他的《青桐居拾得》，全为纸色古雅的手札体，拼合在一起，神采奕奕，是令人目眩神驰的佳作。他对宋人精神的理解，是我所仅见。黄明在南北方都学习、生活过，这养成了他阳刚而不失细腻的优良性格。但我要强调的是，细读黄明的创作，在其对书法形式感、节奏感的异乎寻常的强调之中，在对墨色的精妙计算之中，尤其能感觉到那一份南方人的聪明与细腻。

    As his tolerant personality, Huang Ming is good at all types of calligraphy scripts, among which regular script and running script best represent his style. Unfolding his works, you will have a feeling fresh and new, but after moments of savoring, you feel like seeing a long parted old friend, familiar and warm. His style, bold and distinctive, makes one forget he has accepted strict academic training before. He has a deep understanding of inks, knowing when they should be dense or thin, and when they should be more or less moist. The artistic world that he pursues matches his personal disposition and his love for ancient poetry, a world that have some mysterious links to his childhood experience. His understanding of the spirit of Song Dynasty poets is deeper than anyone I know, which is reflected in Tong Cheng Ju She De, one of his splendid calligraphy works that I like most. As one who has lived both in the South and North China, he has the delicate quality of a southerner and the toughness of a northerner, especially his former quality, which is brought into full play in his extreme stress on style and rhythm and his accurate manipulation of inks.

   我能想到他那样一个帅气的姿势，在台灯下读诗词，感受到了意境，就拿过纸来写几行。他的小楷尤其有这样的味道，似乎有着灯光的印记。但他的行草书，并不一味闲逸，有时是有一种抑郁不平之气的，那像是写给自己的信，那是一个人在孤独的时候，自然的流露，有一种真率之趣。

I can imagine that when he reads ancient poems by the desk, the lamp casts a warm light on his handsome figure. Whenever he is inspired by the artistic world of the poems, he will take a piece of paper and brush, writing down several lines. His small regular scripts can especially remind one of this scene, and it seems that the marks of light are staying on these characters. And his running script, not always idle and carefree, is sometimes like a letter written to himself when he is depressed and lonely, a letter that expresses his true feelings.

    一个书法家、画家的创作力可能要奠基于他的判断力。也就是古人说的“识”，黄明的“识”，以及表达“识”时的方式都给我很深的印象。在一起论书法，通常黄明是不争辩的，但你能看出他的不自然。有时需要朋友点题，那时候黄明才发表自己的意见。我们谈古人书法，也谈今人书法，我属于门外汉，所以敢讲的反而是我，往往首先挑起话题。他对碑、帖学的看法，对各时代、现当代名家的看法有时与我有共鸣，即使相左，其分析也让我受益良多。从黄明那里学到的东西，比我从书法文章、论著中学到的更多。因为，书法重研习之功，但更重悟性。

    The creativity of an artist often builds on his judgment, or what the ancients called “insight”. The “insight” of Huang Ming is very impressive. When we discuss calligraphy, ancient or modern, Huang Ming seldom involves in the debate, but his uneasiness will betray his disagreement. He will not speak his “insight” unless someone asks him. As a layman of calligraphy, I seem to be a more frequent speaker and a bold question-raiser. Fortunately, Huang Ming and I share many common points. More often, I am a beneficiary. On calligraphy, what I have learned from him is more than that from articles or books. After all, “insight” is more important here than mere reading.

   如果仅仅是追寻一种类似女性般的气质，那么南方书法可能并不值得过多赞美。在我们已经习惯了多元文化（pluralistic culture）之背景下，什么气质不是迷人的呢？但也许可以这样说，现代派致力于敲打人们安于常规的僵直的思维，而古典派则在于守护人们被剧烈的动荡撕烈的心肺。两者都处于边缘，一者居此端，一者处彼端，组成现代人灵魂的两极。而他们共同提出的是那个永恒的主题：我们是谁？“我们从哪里来？我们往哪里去？”

    In a time that is more tolerant of cultural diversity, two extreme schools have formed two poles of the soul of modern people. On one extreme are modernists, who mercilessly impact the rigid way of thinking; on the other extreme are classicists, who endeavor to protect the broken hearts of modern people by toil and turmoil. However different they are, they share an eternal theme: Who are we? Where are we from? Where will we go?

    在自然经济、农业文明向全球化经济、工业文明转型的时候，不应忘了我们的老祖母，我们的病痛、晕眩需要她宽大的手掌来抚慰。幽深宁静的小巷岁月，绵长的梅雨季里吱哑的纺棉声，庭院积水里的声声蛙鸣，芭蕉夜雨下的对烛苦读，西湖白堤上的拂面柳影，姑苏城外的不眠轻舟……我们是从那里走出来的，就需要时时回到那里去，只有把沉重的肉身放回到青砖粉墙里清润的菖蒲枕上，才能治愈我们习惯性失眠的神经。

     In a time when natural economy is transiting to global economy and agricultural civilization to industrialization, we shouldn’t forget our old grandma and her warm palms, which have that magic power to cure our pains and dizziness. We shouldn’t forget the old good times when we lived in the deep and quiet allies, when the spinning wheels squeaked in the long rainy season, the frogs croaked in the small ponds at the courtyard and when we studied by the candle light in the rainy night. And the willows along the banks of the West Lake, the sleepless small boat outside Suzhou…we shouldn’t forget. That is where we are from and where we should go time and again. Only when our heavy body goes back to the blue-bricked chamber and our head touches the calamus stuffed pillow, can we have a sound child-like sleep.

   “欲知湖上春多少，但看楼前柳浅深”，我跟朋友们说，如果想知道今日书法界坚持传统者的精神状态，不妨读一读黄明，了解一下这位有古君子之风的青年。

    A poem goes like this, “If you want to know how deep the spring of the lake area is, the color of willows in the court yard will tell.” Similarly, if you want to learn the mentality of the tradition advocates in today’s calligraphy circle, I strongly recommend you, as I often recommend my friends, to read works of Huang Ming, a young man of ancient gentle disposition.

南京大学历史系先秦思想史博士　笑文

2007年5月

Dr. Xiao Wen, Department of History, Nanjing University

May, 2007

作者：笑文