A fat person and a thin person standing together will naturally stand out.
In comparison, the thin person has their slender frame, and the fat person has their full figure; neither is necessarily superior. Whether thinness or plumpness is considered beautiful is simply a difference in aesthetic standards, nothing more. As the saying goes, "Yang Guifei's plumpness and Zhao Feiyan's slenderness" means that although women's figures differ, each has its own beauty.
In reality, thin people seem to be more favored; around us, there are always people who occasionally say, "I need to lose weight."
Not only do people differ in weight, but calligraphy also distinguishes between robust and slender strokes. The *Jin Shu* describes Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy as "sparse and slender, like a withered tree in the dead of winter," and the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu praised Li Chao's *Eight-Part Small Seal Script Song*, saying, "The monk Guanghe of Kuxian is slender and strong; calligraphy values slenderness and strength to reach the divine," clearly expressing his admiration for slenderness and strength. In response, Su Shi vehemently disagreed in his poem "Sun Xinlao Asks for a Poem on the Ink Pavilion": "Du Fu's evaluation of calligraphy values leanness and strength; I do not accept this argument because it is not fair. Short and long, fat and thin, each has its own style; who dares to dislike Yang Guifei and Zhao Feiyan?" Su Shi can be considered a great advocate for the obese, strongly proving that the obese find it difficult to be thin, and the thin find it difficult to be fat. 600 years later, Song Cao, a calligrapher of the early Qing Dynasty, further proposed the theory that fat is better than thin when discussing cursive script: "The madman prefers fat, the plain man prefers thin; lean strength is easy, fat strength is difficult."
The fatness and thinness in calligraphy are like the saltiness and umami in food; different cuisines have different requirements, but when used appropriately, it is always good. Huang Tingjian, in his postscript to the "Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion," said that the cursive script in the "Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion" is "not a single character or stroke is unsatisfactory." Later generations should carefully appreciate its subtleties when imitating it; in this way, even if they lose the fatness and thinness, they can still form their own style. Applying this to the description of people, those who clamor for plastic surgery or weight loss might give up their thoughts.
An excessive pursuit of beauty based on either thinness or plumpness is clearly biased. This applies to words as well as people. Whether plump or thin, moderation is key. An oval face, almond-shaped eyes, cherry lips, and willow-leaf eyebrows are beautiful, but concentrating all these features on one face might not be more attractive, but rather appear somewhat strange. In late
spring, willow catkins flutter in the air. As the seasons change from spring to summer, flowers gradually fall and are buried in the earth. Cicadas chirp everywhere, and trees provide ample shade. A gust of wind blows, a rain falls, and the green grows lusher while the red fades. Within these changes in plumpness and thinness lies the most authentic essence of nature.
As human beings, we should be like plants and trees; whether plump or thin, as long as we are healthy and happy, let nature take its course.
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