Son-Seong Song

Today was my first day of Chinese brush calligraphy lessons. I’ve always been fascinated with writing, both in its practical and aesthetic forms. What better place to learn brush calligraphy than here? Chinese was used throughout Korea before King Sejong invented hangeul, the Korean alphabet, around 1441. Although today hangeul is almost universally used, there are still remnants of Chinese in the temples, on some signs, etc. It’s a beautiful system of writing.

My teacher is Mr. Song, Son-Seong Song. He’s an elderly man with a patient smile. And he speaks no English.

A Korean woman that works on the web team at school, Michelle (her English name, as she prefers to be called), took me to a couple of hogwans, or schools, for brush calligraphy yesterday. She acted as my interpretor, then recommended Mr. Song. She thought he was the best teacher. Good. She explained to me that I should come everyday for 2 hours. “Okay. When?” Whevever you want, Monday to Friday. “Okay.”

So I arrived a little before 10:30 this morning. There were 5 other men there. All retired. All in argyle. Is it a rule when you retire that you have to overhaul your wardrobe so that it includes all argyle? One of the other students was a retired English teacher, Mr. Lee. The hogwan has 3 rooms. A sitting room with a couch, a desk, and some chairs, and two art studios with large tables. I was sent to the room where there was only one other man. Mr. Nam. The retired director of Daegu Bank. I used two of my Korean phrases – I am very pleased to meet you. My name is Lori. Even though it was only two sentences, I felt like I was giving an address. He smiled. In broken English, he told me he had only been taking lessons for 3 months. But he was already writing beautiful Chinese characters!

Son-Seong Song showed me the paper used for calligraphy. Long, narrow sheets. With a smooth side and a rough side. We always write on the smooth side. And the brush. And the ink. And how to mix the ink and the water. And how to hold the brush. Then he showed me how to direct the brush. All the while speaking in Korean. I think I understood most of what he said. Not every word, but the meaning of what he was saying. First, we would practice lines. Starting at the left of the paper. Touching the tip of the brush to the paper, bending the bristles, then pussssshhhhhhhhhh across the paper. Pause. Circle, circle, circle with the tip of the brush. Then pussssshhhhhhhhhhh. And repeat.

This sounds easy. It’s not. The bristles of the brush separate. Somehow the line becomes different widths. The ink isn’t even. Son-Seong Song called Mr. Lee, the retired English teacher in. “Softly. Softly. Do not use power. Do not grip the brush.” Oh, it’s another chopsticks lesson. But he was right. I was trying to remember everything Son-Seong Song had told me about how to hold the brush, the angle of the brush to the paper, how wide to make the line, and I was tensing up. My right shoulder was aching. So in addition to everything else, I repeated the mantra, “Loose. Loose. Gentle. Pussshhhhhhhh. Gentle.” Several times during the morning each of the retired men would come in and oooh and ahhh at the lines I was making. “Very gooood.” “Wonderful.” For almost two hours I drew straight lines.

Then, like magic, at noon, they all stopped. Washed their brushes, cleaned up their areas. It was bizarre how synchronized this was. I continued to pussssssshhhhhhhh my brush across my paper. Mr. Lee came in. He explained it was lunch time. That normally I would wash my own brush, but today, they were ready to eat, so we would leave now. Oh. Okay. He also told me to come at 2:00 on Monday. 2:00? Okay. I’ll be here. Have a good weekend. Bye!