恬静（彩墨）
记得上高中的时候（花莲师范普师科），我们的美术老师赵善逵先生（外号岭南胡子，杭州艺专毕业，林风眠的学生）要我们买一本翻印的“芥子园画谱”（台南经纬书局出版，16开本，厚1000页），要我们读书里的文字，并临摹书里的画。有些同学偷懒没画，我倒是临了不少。
在那段临画的过程中，我就有一个想法──“学书要学古人，学画要学今人。”
今人写的书法，再怎么厉害超群，也比不过古人。古人天天用毛笔写字、写信、写邀请函、写契约、写奏章……一辈子与毛笔为伍，自小即练就深厚的毛笔字基础。今人有几个天天用毛笔的？早就没有那个环境了。今人的书法既没有古人那么专精也就难于创新，只能在前人的窠臼里爬行。
再就画画来说，古人资讯不发达，没有机会看到外国人的画，囿于有限的知识，也就如此这般因袭的传承下去。哪像今人见多识广，勇于吸纳外来的画风画种，参杂使用外来颜料，使绘画面目变得丰富而多彩多姿。就绘画方面来讲，今人超越古人太多了。
Serenity/ink and color painting
I remember that when I was in high school (in the general teaching section of Hualien Normal High School), our art teacher, Mr. Chao Shan-kuei (nicknamed “Lingnan Whiskers”; a graduate of Hangzhou College of Art and a student of Lin Fengmian), wanted us to buy the book “Collected Paintings of the Mustard Field” (published by Tainan Chingwei Bookstore, 16-size, 1,000 pages), read the text, and copy the paintings in it. Some of my classmates were too lazy to do the paintings, but I made copies of many of them.
During that period of copying, I came to the conclusion that one should learn calligraphy from ancient calligraphers, but should learn painting from modern painters.
The best calligraphy done by any modern people can’t be as good as that of people in ancient time. Every single day, people in ancient time used writing brushes to write words, letters, invitations, contracts, and memorials to the throne. They grew up with writing brushes and built up solid brush skills from a very early age. In contrast, how many people today use writing brushes on a daily basis? There is no environment for it any more. Because the calligraphy of people nowadays can’t equal that of the ancients, and people today also find it difficult to innovate, they can only try to imitate old examples.
As for painting, people in ancient times didn’t have much information about the world and seldom had chances to see paintings done by foreigners. Confined by their limited knowledge, artists merely passed on what they had learned to the following generation. They had no opportunities to see and learn as widely as people today. Nowadays we can absorb many different painting styles and forms, employ foreign pigments, and thereby produce much more varied and colorful paintings. So as for paintings, modern people far outshine people in ancient time. ＠
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责任编辑：昌英
