The first time I was interested in lines was when someone gave me a slender bottle containing a very valuable peony oil. But when I "bought it and returned it", I couldn't see the oil, so I was stunned by this bottle. Its design is very simple, and there are no common conventions such as bulging belly, thin waist, high feet, and bunched mouth. If the bottle cap is removed, there are two symmetrical arcs left and right. But the cleanness of this line makes you feel like the moonlight in front of the window, as clear as water; Or the song in the depths of the grassland, straight to the bottom of your heart. I was fascinated and kept playing and rubbing in my hands. When I put it on my desk at work, I often can't help looking up. The family said that you might as well go to bed with that oil bottle in your arms at night.



When you learn in junior high school, you know that there is a point in space first; A line is generated from its trajectory when it is moved. The so-called trackers are just our imagination, or the visual residence in our minds after an object is crossed. It turns out that the beauty of this line is between seeming and non seeming, which is something with a bit of illusory beauty. Subject and object blend, both fantasy and reality, sky light and cloud shadow, infinite imagination. It is because it comes without a trace, goes without a shadow, never stops, but never results, so you will never be disappointed. Lines, an unreal and endless beauty, can repose any of our ideals, emotions and aesthetics.



In the vast world, this line is always in a transition. When it lies on the paper, it is hidden, like the power of a spear or halberd, or like a girl's Xian; Once born in the sky, it is like the sound of dysprosium, and the stars cross the night sky. This line contains endless potential energy and kinetic energy. Therefore, the line drawing of Chinese painting does not need color, nor does it need the perspective, light and shadow of Western painting. It only needs a line to show the joys and sorrows of characters and the majestic and majestic landscape. The rise and fall, trend, weight, bending, etc. of that line can be divided into dozens of techniques to capture all kinds of beauty flexibly. Leaves fall in frost, flowers bloom in early spring, rivers dance wildly, and horses neigh. Indeed, in nature, from the outline of the mountains on the horizon to a leaf and a petal in front of us, they are all masterpieces of curves. No matter plane or three-dimensional art, a line can freeze a beautiful moment, and at the same time, it also contains the author's inner barrier. Cao Zhi's "Ode to the Lord of Luo": elegant as a startling goose, gentle as a dragon. It is like a light cloud covering the moon, and it is like a flowing wind returning to snow. It is easy to get rid of the fiber and shorten the fit. If the shoulder is cut, the waist is as plain as the covenant. It's a beautiful line drawing. Zhang Dai's famous article "watching snow in the pavilion in the middle of the lake" wrote about the scenery of the West Lake after the snow, "the sky and clouds and mountains and water are white. The shadow on the lake is only a mark on the long dike, a little in the pavilion in the middle of the lake, a mustard with Yu Zhou, and only twoorthree people in the boat." You see, a mark, a dot, a mustard, a grain, although it is a text, the author is as skilled as a painter in using the expression of dots and lines.



Since lines have such magic power, they are indispensable to all art, or they can be regarded as the mother of art. The most typical is the art of calligraphy, which is washed away, leaving only a black line on the white paper. The flying cursive script, leakage marks, flying white, hanging needles, hanging dew and so on, wishes to collect all the lines and patterns in the world, and then integrate them into the author's emotion, flying ink on the paper. Or like a thunderbolt in the clear sky, or like a whisper under the lamp. In this way, it leads people's nerves. For thousands of years, there are endless books, endless changes, insufficient words, and endless rewards. Another example is dance. The performance of a dancer is actually a graceful combination of countless curves in space, which constantly form a visual superposition in our minds. Just as there will never be two identical cursive scripts on the paper, there will never be two identical dances on the stage. How can you not keep your nerves excited by this endless magical change. As for music, it's the art of sound plus time. It's the wandering of different sound lines in different time periods, gently massaging our nerves and forming the residence of hearing. The so-called lingering sound lingers for three days. In fact, the beam is surrounded by colored lines of music scores.



The highest embodiment of the charm of lines lies in our human body. This is not only the object of the artist's research and creation, but also the general girls and even the dancing aunts in the square are also paying attention to the beauty of girth and figure. The most common thing in cosmetic surgery is to pull a double eyelid, which makes you radiant and confident. And it's just a slight mark on the top of the eye. On this "mark", draw a line to make the finishing point, and the fish leap over the dragon's gate. Perm is just to make straight hair curl, but this "song" makes you smile back. Almost all descriptions of beautiful women in Chinese classical novels are the display of lines. Static when angry drum powder cheeks, charming frown; When in motion, gently move the lotus steps, and the wind swings the willow waist. That is, when a woman can't help being jealous and scolding the other party for being a goblin and a fox, she still can't get rid of borrowing lines. The fox's body is full of jealousy, but she secretly recognizes its beauty. And the masculinity, greatness and handsome of men are all due to the bright and powerful lines.



Everything has its suitability. For example, the land can be cultivated, houses can be built, roads can be built, and forests can be planted. In addition to being the first element of productivity, man is also the noble aesthetic object in the world. Many girls stay up late to watch the World Cup football match. I said you don't play football. How can you care so much? They said, "you don't understand. We don't watch the ball, but people." Indeed, the flying jump, flying barb, close to the ground tackle, and a foot on the door are enough to arouse the hero worship in the hearts of girls. When a person is used to appreciate beauty, his appearance can make others produce wonderful pleasure, heartfelt joy or an uncontrollable lovesickness. This is all due to those lively flowing lines that never repeat. Maupassant said that the beauty of a woman is her origin. Yan is thin and fat, Zhao Jun is dignified, Diao Chan is charming, and the magic line of infinite personality on women is their ID card. When a man loves beautiful women with slender, elegant and graceful lines, he will also focus on cultivating his tiger backed, iron shoulder and copper arm lines. Guo Lanying sang, "girls are like flowers. How broad-minded guys are." Xi Xiulan sang, "the girls in Alishan are as beautiful as water, and the teenagers in Alishan are as strong as mountains." These are all about their feminine and beautiful or masculine lines.



Marx said, "the direct, natural and inevitable relationship between people is the relationship between men and women." Opposites attract, to a large extent, can be understood as the complementarity and recombination of different lines. The so-called blind date is to look at the proportion, direction and brightness of each other's lines at first glance. The heaven is full, and the underground Pavilion is round; Bright eyes and bright teeth, looking forward to bright. The so-called love at first sight is that once you fall into the net pocket woven by the other party with tangible and intangible lines, you can no longer earn and escape. In this way, human beings leave ape body and monkey appearance and move towards perfection and beauty through mutual screening from generation to generation on the grounds of love. Therefore, human body painting, photography and sculpture in the art field were specially produced; Dances, dramas, models on stage; Gymnastics, bodybuilding, acrobatics and so on in the arena. These are people's appreciation, development and utilization of their own body lines. You see, in order to highlight the lines of the body, they invented cheongsam, short skirt and swimsuit; Hate the line of the arm is not long, he invented the water sleeve, dancing lightly on the stage, waving in the world, good or bad.



The charm of line is not only specific people or things, but also often injected with subjective spirit, which can cover an era, represent a region, and become the symbol of a country or a period of history. Qin Zhuan, Han Li, Wei Bei, Tang Kai, as well as the golden inscriptions of the spring and Autumn period and the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty. The lines of each font are the labels pasted on the lintels of that dynasty. As both traditional buildings, Western Gothic churches use straight lines and broken lines to lead people to the kingdom of God; The magnificent and bright temples in the East mostly use arcs and cornices to awaken thousands of people, universalize all living beings, and show the salvation and compassion of the Buddha. At the beginning of the founding of new China, Lin Huiyin was appointed to participate in the design of the national emblem and the relief of the monument to the people's heroes. At that time, she was seriously ill. After studying the plan, she asked the students to draw sketches. When she handed in her homework a week later, she only glanced at it and shouted, "how can this work? This is Kang Qian line. Go to the Han and Tang Dynasties and find Huo Qubing's tomb." Many years ago, when I first read this information, I wondered whether it was Kangxi, Qianlong, the Great Han and the prosperous Tang Dynasty by using only a thin line drawn by a pencil on the white paper? With this doubt, I finally had a chance to visit Huo Qubing's tomb last year. The famous "Horse Treading on the Huns", as well as stone cattle, stone horses and other works, have simple, vigorous and desolate lines. Although 2000 years later, they still convey the brilliance, openness, non-uniformity and national prosperity of that era. During the Kangxi and Qianlong period, China's feudal society was at the end of its power, and the lines were cumbersome and luxurious. How could it show that new China was rising at the beginning of the day?



Beautiful! Broad and profound lines. (Liang Heng)