Time flies, and Gaopeng Calligraphy Club has quietly walked through three springs and autumns. Over these three years, we have used brush and ink as a bridge to converse with sages from more than two thousand years ago, and with The Analects as a mirror, we have come to understand the way of life and the principles of learning through every stroke. When the nib glides across the paper, what is left is not only neat handwriting, but also a reverence for the classics and a note on perseverance.
Image | Hard-pen calligraphy works by Gaopeng Calligraphy Club members
Hand-copying The Analects: Meeting the Sages in Ink
"Isn’t it a pleasure to learn and practise from time to time? Isn’t it a joy to have friends come from afar?" These are the opening words of The Analects, and they are also the original aspiration for the founding of Gaopeng Calligraphy Club. We believe that classics should not be shelved but should become part of daily life. When fingers take up the pen and you write stroke by stroke, "Reviewing the old and gaining new knowledge makes one a teacher," you begin to understand the true meaning of repeated study. While copying "Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you," you engrave this sense of empathy in your heart.
Image | Hard-pen calligraphy works by Gaopeng Calligraphy Club members
Every maxim in The Analects is like a patient teacher. Copying "Among three people walking together, there must be one who can be my teacher" teaches us humility. Setting down "A scholar must be broad-minded and resolute, for the road is long and the burden heavy" fills us with strength. Over these three years, members have progressed from clumsy strokes to fluent writing, from a vague grasp of words to a true understanding of their meaning. The progress in calligraphy is also a growth of the spirit. We copy by hand not to replicate, but to pay tribute in the most reverent way to the spiritual wealth left by Confucius and his disciples.
Image | Hard-pen calligraphy works by Gaopeng Calligraphy Club members
Three Years Together: Interpreting the True Meaning of "Constancy" with Persistence
"When building a mountain, if you stop before the last basket of earth, you stop. When levelling the ground, even if you have dumped only one basket, you are advancing." This teaching in The Analects about perseverance is precisely a portrayal of Gaopeng Calligraphy Club’s three-year journey.
Image | Hard-pen calligraphy works by Gaopeng Calligraphy Club members
I still remember at the very beginning, a few calligraphy enthusiasts sat together, driven by their love for The Analects and curiosity about hard-pen calligraphy, and started this journey with somewhat unpolished strokes. Some once thought of pausing because of busy work, but when they saw the unfinished line "Time flows away like this, never ceasing day or night" on their desks, they picked up the pen again. Some felt discouraged because their handwriting was not neat enough, but recalling "Do not blame Heaven, do not blame others," they calmed down and practised repeatedly.
Image | Hard-pen calligraphy works by Gaopeng Calligraphy Club members
We have proved with our day-to-day persistence that "constancy" is not a flash of passion, but the ability to do seemingly insignificant things carefully and for the long term. Just like copying The Analects, there is no need to seek overnight success; rather, in every straight horizontal and vertical stroke, we accumulate our understanding of the classics and settle the peace within our hearts.
Image | Hard-pen calligraphy works by Gaopeng Calligraphy Club members
The Road Ahead: Let Ink and Original Aspiration Continue Together
"To learn silently, to study without satiety, and to teach without weariness" is a self-encouragement from sages, and also our direction. Three years is only a starting point. In the future, Gaopeng Calligraphy Club will continue to walk with The Analects and use brush and ink as our medium, continuing to feel the warmth of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness" through copying, to share insights on calligraphy and life through exchange, and to help more people find their own peace and strength in a fast-paced life.
If you too yearn for a dialogue with the classics and wish to settle yourself through brush and ink, Gaopeng Calligraphy Club welcomes you at any time. Let us use persistence as the pen and original aspiration as the ink, and write our own path of cultivation in the wisdom of The Analects. Gaopeng Calligraphy Club: three years with you, and a future full of promise!
