Probably the oldest calligraphy teacher on earth is in Hong Kong. The author recently came to visit Mr. Yu Jifu, who was taking a class at the "Hong Kong Calligraphy Lovers Association" in Shanghai Street, Mong Kok, on the recommendation of Vice Chairman Lian Sijie, Vice Chairman of the Tai Po County Association of Hong Kong Fellow Villagers. It was an old tenement building with no elevator, and at the age of one hundred, he walked up to the fourth floor without breathing.
Elder Yu is also leading more than 100 students in five calligraphy classes. Many students are in their seventies and eighties, and they have to walk four flights of stairs to "smooth the air" to keep up with the pace of the teacher.
"I was born in July 1921, a different day from the same month of the same year as the Communist Party of China," Mr. Yu humorously introduced himself. He taught calligraphy for forty spring and autumn, but he only started when he retired at the age of sixty, and he is still full of peach and plum doors. In August this year, students held a calligraphy exhibition of "Baishou Happy Full of Joy" for Yu Lao at the Hong Kong City Hall. The works of teachers and students are gathered together and are spectacular. Another big man in hong Kong's calligraphy circle, Shi Ziqing, a big man in the Fujian community, held the ceremony.
More than 100 years old, his hometown is Dapu County, Meizhou, he did not go to school at an early age and learned to write, he first learned Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan, and also learned the inscriptions of Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, Huang Gu, Mi Fu, and Wen Zhengming, especially liked to write grass and lishu", which shows his skill.
"Since childhood, I have loved calligraphy because of my father and brother." His father taught private school, which was commonly known as "Bu Bu Zhai" in the Hakka family, and was a scholar in the countryside. His elder brother, Yu Jimei, was five years older and was born in 1916. The brothers undertook the court training at an early age, studied diligently, and often wrote spring leagues for relatives and friends of the township and clan ancestral halls before they reached the weak crown.
Yu Jimei and Yu Jifu worked hard to finish college, which was a high degree in that era. The brother went to Sun Yat-sen University, and the younger brother went to Guangdong College of Arts and Sciences (now South China Normal University). The Yu brothers moved to Kowloon, Hong Kong in the middle of the last century, where they devoted their lives to education and lifelong study, a veritable "brother class". The Hong Kong Calligraphy Lovers Association was founded by the elder brother, who has persevered in teaching to this day.
Chongwen re-education was a fine Hakka tradition, but the early learning conditions were difficult. Elder Yu remembers "practicing writing on raw paper" in the mountains of eastern Guangdong when he was a child. Not many people in Hong Kong know about raw edge paper, which is a pale yellow paper made of bamboo fiber. According to historical records, "Bamboo paper was produced in Jiangxi at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the paper was delicate, thin and fluffy, pale yellow, and the ink absorption performance was good, which was suitable for writing and could be used for printing ancient books." Because the Ming Dynasty bibliophile Mao Jin was so fond of books that he was good at printing books on bamboo paper, he once went to Jiangxi to order a large number of slightly thicker bamboo paper, and stamped a seal with the word "Mao" on the edge of the paper. Over time, "raw paper" got its name and is still used today. But the countryside is poor, bamboo pulp mixed with a large amount of grass pulp, the price is low, but the paper quality has declined.
The plum blossom fragrance comes from the bitter cold. In the vicissitudes of nearly a century, Yu Jifu's only constant hobby is writing, absorbing the strengths of a hundred families, and finally forming his own style. His award-winning works are collected in the exhibition hall of the Po Lin Zi Temple of Heavenly Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, the Poetry Workshop of the Marquis of Kowloon City, and the Confucius Temple, Yandi Mausoleum and Nanxiong Zhujie Lane in Chinese mainland. Mo Bao has not only been selected for the inscriptions of famous mountains and rivers such as Henan Kaifeng China Hanyuan Stele Forest, Jiangxi Shangrao Sanqing Mountain, Gexian Mountain and other famous mountains and rivers, but also works in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia and other Confucian cultural circles. The biography is included in the Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Calligraphers and the Dictionary of Chinese Contemporary Calligraphers and Painters.
Although he is a master, Elder Yu is very humble to his relatives. Whenever a friend comes to the door to ask for words, he always earnestly completes the task, and finally stamps his zodiac stamp, an impressive scarlet sings the world white seal.
Vice Chairman Yang Zengyan of the Tai Po County Association of Fellow Villagers in Tai Po County, who also learns to write, told this writer that the circle of calligraphy and painting in Hong Kong is actually very small, and teachers at Chinese University can often be heard praising Mr. Yu for being "very enthusiastic and patient with students.". Another Fellow tai po in Meizhou told this writer a story, saying that Yu Jifu went to see a bruise because of a foot injury, and a shopkeeper next door to the medical center heard the news and came to "recognize the teacher", "Teacher Yu, I am your student... of students". Just as the so-called "peach and lee do not speak, the next is their own", perhaps walking in the streets of Hong Kong, Mr. Yu Lao always has a student or apprentice grandson in the "left near".
Hong Kong has been the world's longest life expectancy for many years, for many reasons, and the Baishou calligrapher Yu Jifu undoubtedly cultivated his temperament through calligraphy. Although I don't understand calligraphy, I know that calligraphy is known as "tai chi on paper". With a brush in hand, the rice paper suddenly surged, and the troubles in the rolling red dust were all left behind, which was really a health care trick.
Writing here, I am reminded of the Song Dynasty talented woman Zhu Shuzhen's aria, "I would rather hold the incense sticks and grow old than dance with the autumn wind with the yellow leaves." Yu Lao Baishou is still crane-haired and childlike, and the gods are brilliant. Virtue and art are both xinxin, and the mountains are uplifted. Life is like this, why ask for it!
Author: Lin Wenying