Most articles on Fu Lei's Family Correspondence, in my opinion, haven't hit the nail whether they criticised or appreciated Fu Lei's education on Fu Cong.
When you begin to read Fu Lei's Family Correspondence for his educational ideas and practices, you are making the biggest mistake in reading a book. And if you read it as a classical education book, you are without doubt making a fool of yourself!
You may be at a loss with my viewpoint because all the time the book has been regarded as a book about how a master successfully educated a master so it may enlighten and inspire the readers this way or that way! But anyone who holds this viewpoint about the book is wrong!
Listen carefully! I'll tell you why they are wrong! It's just because it's a book not on education but on art! It's completely a book on art! From the beginning to the end, Fu Lei says nothing more than repentance about his education on Fu Lei but art, artist and the appreciation on art and artists! It's more about art than education. Yeah, you may argue with me that Fu Lei was educating Fu Cong by the letters but I hope I can remind you that the writer himself says in his letter to Fu Cong that the reason why he wrote these letters just because he regarded Fu Cong as a partner, a mate, a bosom friend with whom he could converse about any topic on art!So you will feel disappointed when you want to dig a mine of education in the book but you will be joyful when you want to equip yourself with taste and edification on art! It's a guidebook to the appreciation on art!
I have ever recommended the book to one of my friends who practise calligraphy. Some days later when I met him, he said to me with apparent contempt: it's just a book of letters a father wrote to his son! The meaning implied in his mood is that the book is just so so! I knew instantly that he as well as other readers regarded the book as an educational book. ！So he felt that he couldn't benefit from the book. No wonder!
So stop criticising or exalting it and pick it up again and read for the penetrating ideas and insights about art and artists. It will lead you to the glittering world of art and artists!Forget the part about education and focus on the part about art and you will find it's an outstanding and wonderful book serving as an irreplaceable guidebook to art cultivation! It will help lay a good foundation for your art edification!
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