1. A Mini-calligraphy Master
By Yuan Lei
April 29th
The moment Wang Zhiwen picks up a three-hair homemade brush and writes
tiny characters on delicate ceramics, he is fully absorbed into his work. He could
hear the sound of his heartbeat, but forgets the flow of time.
50-year-old Wang is the first person in the world to write mini-calligraphy with
the naked eye on slippery ceramics. Having devoted 29 years to the art, Wang
still keeps a habit of working late at night for six hours on average.
At 11 pm on a recent day, Wang starts working onto a Han Guangci (汉光瓷), one
of the most delicate ceramics in the world. Before that, he made an one-hour
routine preparation: having a bath, closing the curtain of his studio, locking the
door, turning off his mobile phone, burning a plate of eaglewood(沉香), taking a
deep breath and excluding all the distracting thoughts.
“Few people would bother me at night, and it is very quiet both outside my
studio and inside my mind, ” said Wang.
The majority of his works are a combination of mini-calligraphy and traditional
Chinese landscape painting. After finishing painting on the ceramics, Wang fires
the ceramic for the first time in that the painting could be easily erased by
touching without firing. Then he writes mini-calligraphy and the second firing
comes after that. The third and last firing will be done after Wang colors his
painting.
The art of blood and fire is another name of writing mini-calligraphy on ceramics.
If there is any accident during the firings, all his endeavors would be in vain.
“Except for my good eyesight, persistence, patience, my achievement mainly
comes from my calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting skills that I have
accumulated since childhood, ” Wang said.
Wang’s literate father named him Zhiwen because he was very thin and small
when first born. Zhi is the first character of Zhima which is sesame in English and
is used to describe tiny things. Wen has a meaning of literacy.
Wang opened his eyes three days after he came into the world. His parents were
worried that there was something wrong with his eyes. Miraculously, Wang has a
great vision and has never had presbyopia in his life so far.
Wang developed an interest in calligraphy in his early life. When he was about 11
2. years old, the Spring Festival couplets of his neighbors were all written by him.
He also fell in deep love with ancient Chinese prose and literature, a reason why
the contents of Wang’s mini-calligraphy are all ancient Chinese classics.
His junior high school years happened to be the last few years of the Cultural
Revolution. He experienced a lifestyle that people had to do a lot of paperwork
and attend many meetings. Wang got bored with the endless meetings and tried
to have fun by writing tiny characters in his desk so that no one would notice
them.
“I am very proud of myself, so I wrote smaller and smaller characters, ” Wang
said.
That was the beginning of his mini-calligraphy career.
The Chinese have a long history of mini-calligraphy, dating back to the Tang
Dynasty, when people cheated on imperial examinations by taking silk scrolls
with tiny notes. After that, Chinese people have been creatively writing
mini-calligraphy on stones, snuff bottles, matchsticks and so forth.
Wang’s attachment to ceramics derived from his early years as an art teacher in
the Shantou Arts and Crafts School, where he was appointed director of the
affiliated ceramics factory. During the process of carefully studying the delicate
ceramics craft, a moment of inspiration hit him: why not combine his beloved
mini-calligraphy with ceramics? Since then, Wang has tasted hardship and
happiness mixed with his sweats, tears and laughter.
Wang’s awe-inspiring masterpiece San Guozhi (三国志), the historical book that
recording the history of three countries coexisted and fought against each other,
is honored by mentioning in the Guiness Book of World Records as the work of
mini-calligraphy on ceramics that has the most number of words in March 2006.
The respected work of art is a 33-inch- ceramic arrow container (陶瓷箭筒) with
352,963 Traditional Chinese characters of San Guozhi. The whole writing space is
about 7000 square centimeters with about 51 characters per square centimeters.
Wang said that when he was interviewed by a journalist of Guangdong Television
Station, the journalist came up with a brilliant idea to help the audience clearly
understand how tiny the characters are. The journalists picked up an ant outside
Wang’s studio at random and let it crawl on the masterpiece. He focused his
lenses close enough on the ant, stopped at one frame, and found out that the ant
covered eight Traditional Chinese characters.
Wang started started working on San Guozhi on January 8th, 1999 and
completed on January 18th, 2006.
3. “I don’t know whether I could go through if it was broken during the last burning.
I was gambling my youth on it, ” said Wang.
Wang Zhiwen could not fall asleep the day when he sent the San Guozhi to a
ceramic factory for the final firing.
The next day, his friend who did the firing told him that it was a failure. Wang
stood still and lost consciousness for a while. Then his friend told him that it was
a joke and the firing was very successful.
Wang said that he kissed and hugged San Guozhi after seeing it. It was a rainy day,
when Wang left the factory for home, he could not tell whether there were
raindrops or tears on his face.
Xu Zongling, Chairman of Shantou Municipal Committee of China Democratic
League, said that she was amazed when seeing the masterpiece during a visit to
Wang Zhiwen’s art gallery.
“I suppose Wang Zhiwen wrote mini-calligraphy using his feelings more than
eyes, ” Xu commented.
Wang said that he worked with his heart and soul. His feeling is much more acute
than his eyes now after decades of working.
Wang was designated one of Chinese Great Masters of Arts & Crafts by the State
Council. Some of his works are displayed at important locations in Beijing such
as the Palace Museum and the Great Hall of the People.
However, he never stops pursuing for better works. Wang has several works
planned to finish within 2012. Many of these works were requested from
governments, organizations and collectors.
Wang said that he wanted to keep a low profile so that he could have more time
spent on his work and enjoy artistic freedom. However, he is becoming
increasingly famous.
“I have to adapt myself to the increasing number of social activities I need to
attend. Man cannot live in isolation after all, ” Wang said.
Wang Zhiwen’s biggest worry is whether mini-calligraphy on ceramics – a
“Guangdong Cultural Heritage”- can be passed on to future generations.
Finding tradition bearers who are qualified for learning to write mini-calligraphy
4. on ceramics and fostering them to master the complex skill is not an easy thing to
do. For Wang, it is even more difficult than his initial attempt to combine
mini-calligraphy with ceramics.
王芝文：用心血浇筑“血与火的艺术”之花
这是今年四月的一天，晚上 11 点，精神抖擞的王芝文开始在汉光瓷上书写微书。
在这之前，他已经完成了长达一小时的固定流程：沐浴净身、拉上窗帘、锁上房
门、关掉手机、燃一盘沉香、沏一杯茶、深呼吸以剔除所有杂念。
王芝文是世界上第一个用裸眼在陶瓷上进行微书创作的人。与陶瓷微书结缘于
1983 年的他今年已迈入知天命之年，但依然能够保证平均每晚创作 6 个小时。
“很少有人会在晚上找我谈事情，工作室外面在晚上很安静，我的心也很平静。”
谈到他总是在晚上开工的原因时，王芝文这样说道。
他补充道，在陶瓷上进行微书创作时要做到心无旁骛和保持沉着镇定的心态。如
果有一点没有达到，往往他第二天再去看头一天晚上写的内容时总是不满意，只
能擦掉重写。
每当王芝文拿起他自己特制的、只有三根毫的毛笔在精致的陶瓷上书写微书时，
他会很快地进入到物我两忘的境界，眼前的陶瓷好似和他融为一体。他能够清晰
地听到自己的心跳声，却听不见外面轰轰隆隆的雷声。他在创作时总是无法察觉
时间的流动。当他终于对一晚的工作感到满意并拉开窗帘时，清洁工已经在清扫
工作室周围的街道。他抬手看看表，早上 7 点了。
陶瓷微书有“血与火的艺术”之称。陶瓷表面光滑，如果不经过烧制，写在上面的
微书只需轻轻一碰就会被抹掉。王芝文的大多数作品是微书与中国山水画的结合，
一件作品完工前，他要把陶瓷放在窑炉里烧制两到三次。
在陶瓷上画好山水画后王芝文进行第一次烧制，完成微书创作后第二次烧制，第
三次烧制是在他给山水画上色之后。因此，只要这三次烧制过程中有一点闪失，
他投入在这件作品上的心血就会付诸东流。
王芝文刚出生时又瘦又小，他的父亲希望自己的儿子能成为一个文化人，所以给
他起名为“芝文”。出生三天后才睁开眼睛的他令父母担心不已，没想到上天借了
一双慧眼给他。王芝文不借助放大镜就能在陶瓷上进行微书创作，而观赏作品的
观众却需要拿着放大镜才能勉强看清他写的微书。而且，当同龄人已经戴上老花
镜的时候，他的眼睛还没有丝毫老花的迹象。
王芝文自小就喜欢写书法，11 岁时就已经为包括自家在内的几户人家写春联。
除了书法，他还喜欢上了读古文，《古文观止》、《唐诗宋词》等他都爱拿来细细
品读，这也是他的微书作品的内容总是古文的原因之一。
读初中的时候，王芝文赶上了文革最后的疯狂，文山会海使他很不耐烦，但又不
