1. PHIL110045 Artistic Charms of Chinese Traditional Culture
CHEN, Jia
School of Philosophy

2. Week 9 Calligraphy： Unique Chinese Artistic Form
I. From Chinese Characters to Calligraphy II. The Beauty of Chinese Calligraphy—Flying Strokes III. Masters from Different Dynasties—the Two Wangs; Four Styles

3. Chinese characters—at least 5000 years of history; is the one of longevity in the history of world civilizations
In the World history, the earliest three types of characters are all pictographs
Sumerians and Babylonians—cuneiform writing
Ancient Egyptians—pictography
Both characters had already been replaced by alphabetic writing.
In contrast, the Chinese characters have been passed down and endured thousands of years

4. I. From Chinese Characters to Calligraphy
1. Origin of the Chinese characters—picture, pictograph
The Neolithic Age—carved signs on potteries—neatly placed in order, possessing the features of simple characters
Picture—promoted the appearance of Chinese characters
Pictograph—less realistic and less vivid, which ultimately became a symbol

6. 2. Magical Squares; Poetic Symbols
Mostly square in shapes, have endless variations and unique characteristics (not unsentimental symbols)
Each character shows a variety of aesthetic images, expressing the Chinese rich experience of the world.
Embodiment of the feeling, thought, and history
e.g. 旦、麗

9. 3. The birth of Calligraphy
Two contributing factors: Chinese characters & writing brushes
Chinese characters—square -shaped, pictographic
Originally developed from pictures portraying the natural objects and phenomena, they intrinsically contained the beauty of nature.
Its strokes, configurations, pronunciation and the meaning of each character are highly artistic.
Meanwhile, Chinese characters are highly moldable, creative and changeable.

10. Since its establishment, Chinese characters maintain basically a square outer profile
Each character consists of several strokes, which are harmoniously distributed but at the same time full of changes.
The shape of the character itself naturally implies a stylistic beauty.
The writing system of Chinese characters—large in number and stable in structures—on this basis calligraphy was gradually developed as an art revealing the beautiful shapes of the characters.

11. (2) Writing brushes—commonly made of wolf hair, sheep hair and rabbit hair, soft, elastic and highly ductile
The scholar’s four treasures of the Study:
Writing brush
Ink Stick
Paper
Ink slab

12. Chinese pen-brush is a soft writing instrument made of a round rod with a cluster of animal hairs at one end. When the brush has absorbed ink, it forms a point in the center. To use this sort of brush one should keep it at a good angle against the paper.

13. II. The Beauty of Chinese Calligraphy—Flying Strokes
Video Clip

14. 1. The evolvement of calligraphy styles Ancient Characters
oracle bone script (甲骨文）
bronze inscription (big seal script) 大篆
small seal script （小篆）
Ancient
Characters
clerical script (隶书)
regular script (楷书)
semi-cursive script (行书)
cursive script (草书)
Present Characters

15. (1) Ancient characters——the germination stage and the initial development period of calligraphy
Due to the restriction in the shape of characters as well as writing instruments (no paper), they had not yet achieved an independent art form.
However, the antique, unsophisticated feature and immatureness imply a special sense of beauty.

16. (A) Iconic Oracle Bone Script
—also called “oracle bones inscriptions”, or “characters in Shang’s ruins”
—early characters inscribed on animal bones and tortoise shells
Shang Dynasty (1600—1046 BCE)—belief in gods
Divination—a superstitious way to predict weal or woes by using tortoise shells, coins, bamboo stickers, or start images in astrology)
The contents of the divination and the fulfilled results were engraved on the shells and bones.

18. (B) Classic Bronze Inscription (金文/大篆) —the Western Zhou Period (1046—771 BCE） —epigraph carved on bronze ware The strokes usually are thicker and the whole impression of the character is more poised and dignified than oracle bone script The structure can be dense or spacing—more square, upright and neat than oracle bone script, and the distribution of the strokes is more symmetric and even.

19. Bronze inscripti-on characters on the Bell

20. （C）Neat Small Seal Script
Qin Shihuang—adopted new standard characters based on big seal script which was popular in Qin state. The new characters also learned from the desirable elements of the characters in the other six states.
Among ancient characters —small seal scripts are more abstract, systematic and standardized—show a strong sense of beauty in form
Regardless of the horizontal or vertical stroke, the straight or bent stroke, the strokes of small seal script are well balanced.
In the turning point, the stroke is round with force, full and smooth without showing the edge.
The shape of the character is rectangular and it is smooth and stretch.

21. Tiger Tally （Qin Dynasty）

22. Li change 200 BC (between the Qin and Han Dynasties)
The shape of Chinese characters has gone through a major breakthrough—li (Li Shu) change
li change—refers to the evolution process of Chinese characters from seal script (篆书) to clerical script (隶书)

23. A comprehensive and profound adjustment to the configuration of the Chinese characters.
Many of the bent strokes in small seal script were changed into straight ones, and circular arc strokes into bent ones.
the dots and strokes were diversified
The shapes of the characters were changed from lengthy to flat
Pictograph—was developed into
solely writing symbols

25. (2) Present characters
(A) Elegant Clerical Script (li shu)
—middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty (200 AD)—maturity and peak period
—engraving inscriptions on the tablet was prevailing: the characters on the tablets are rigorous and of various styles, which mark the peak of clerical script
In using the writing brush, there appeared in clerical script real square strokes which make the character more vivid.

26. Seal script: Rigorous and calm static beauty
Clerical script: the dynamic beauty of lightness and smoothness; free pliant movement of brushes; strokes vary in thickness and weight and angles are accentuated by the turn of the brush
Flat shapes: in order to write down more characters on the long and narrow bamboo tablet
Thus the space between characters is relatively wider than that between adjacent lines. Such formed the special style of clerical script.

27. Technique of “silkworm head and wild goose tail”(蚕头燕尾) in clerical script refers to the starting and closing pattern of horizontal stroke.

28. (B) Unrestrained Cursive Script (Cao Shu)
“Cao” in Cao Shu: hasty and draft
—the hasty and illegible writing form of Chinese characters
—usually refers to the corresponding fast writing form of clerical script and regular script
Based on the difference of times and posture of the character—can be divided into Zhang Cao, Jin Cao and Kuang Cao (wild scribbling)

29. Zhang Cao—developed and gained popularity in the Han Dynasty
“Zhang” means orderliness, law, rules;
Zhang Cao is the orderly but hasty writing form of clerical script
Still maintained the basic posture and writing brush using the clerical script method
The characters were about the same size. Each character was independent, and there was no joined-up stroke between two characters.
To the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Zhang Cao was gradually replaced by semi-cursive script and Jin Cao.

30. Jin Cao—the complementary faster writing form of regular script
has developed to full wing in the Wei and Jin dynasties
With the gradual replacement of clerical script by regular script, Jin Cao has been taken as the formal script until now
Kuang Cao—more illegible and wilder than Jin Cao; pursues the fantasy like dragon coming out of the sea and meteorite falling on earth;
It is of high artistic view.

32. (C) Standard Regular Script (Kai Shu)
The end of Han Dynasty (206 BCE—220 AD)—evolved from the clerical script
—dignified and neat
The most variable script
the size—divided into big/medium/small regular script
the style—Wei bei and Tang Kai
Personal style of the calligrapher—Four Styles: Ou style, Yan style, Liu style and Zhao style

33. The basic strokes of the regular script are richer than the clerical script and the way of using the writing brush is more variant
has formed eight basic strokes: dian (dot stroke), heng (horizontal stroke), shu (vertical stroke), pie (left-falling stroke), na (right-falling stroke), gou (hooked stroke), tiao (rising stroke) and zhe (angle stroke)
From Wei and Jin Dynasties (220—589 AD): regular script began to replace clerical script to be the standard script until now

34. Eight Principles of the Character “Yong”

35. From the overall poise, clerical script is flat, while regular script is rectangular
Although there is a little fluctuation of the horizontal stroke in clerical script, generally speaking, the stroke is horizontal and the whole structure is symmetric and stable.
The regular script—the horizontal stoke is uptrend because of the nature of writing with the right hand, which makes the character a little bit slanting

37. D) Vivid Running /Semi-cursive Script (Xing Shu)
The faster writing form of regular script, a script between regular script and cursive script
Broke the strictness and neatness of clerical script but is not too simplified like Zhang Cao
Because of its eligibility, convenience in writing, uniqueness in styles and flexibility in shapes, semi-cursive script is considered as the best combination of practicality and art.

39. 2. Beauty of Chinese Calligraphy
(1) The beauty of strokes and dots in writing brush using: rhythm of dance The master calligrapher of the cursive script Zhang Xu from the Tang Dynasty: inspired by a sword dance performance by Lady Gongsun, a famous dancer of the time Her supple body and flying robe mixed with the movements of the sword up and down and became perfectly integrated into the surroundings. Through this performance, Zhang Xu discovered the genuine beauty of calligraphy.

41. The Cloud Gate Dancing Troupe: dance named “running-cursive script”
The dancer on stage becomes a calligrapher wielding his brush and applying ink to paper, pausing one moment and writing in high sprits the next.
The shared factors between calligraphy and dance—internal vital energy: no form, but ubiquitous

42. Dance Video Clip http://baidu.ku6.com/watch/8711092682946775692.html

43. (2) Beauty of character posture
Ideal posture of each character in a work through certain technique and calligrapher’s aesthetic taste
A vivid metaphor of the energy in calligraphy: a frightened rabbit that is about to run away had the largest energy
Chinese calligraphy is exactly to express this intensive tension in the accumulate strength for a soon-to-come take-off

44. (3) Beauty of the overall composition
Overall design of a calligraphy work
both in macro and micro levels and from form to artistic conception
It includes the shaping of posture of individual characters, the arrangement of character group, the form of lines and the use of the seal
The first character has the role of commanding the whole work, so it is very important

45. The sense of direction became crucial
In character-writing, each stroke must be made in a definite direction. For instance, no strokes can be written from right to left horizontally or from bottom to top vertically.
Characters consist not of ordinary lines, but of stokes which have directions.

46. III. Masters from Different Dynasties
1. The Two Wangs
Wang Xizhi (303—361AD)—a great calligraphy master
—born in a notable family in Eastern Jin Dynasty
—Wang is specialized in regular script, semi-cursive script and cursive script
—Lanting Xu, the representative masterpiece of Wang Xizhi, known as the “best semi-cursive script in the world”: the writing is very smooth and the strokes as well as the shape of the characters are expressed thoroughly.

47. Lanting Xu by Wang Xizhi

48. Wang Xianzhi (344—386 AD)
—the seventh son of Wang Xizhi
—Good at various style of script;
most outstanding achievement is his creation of the style Po Ti (literally means broken style).
He changed his father’s technique and broke the bound further to strengthen the linked effects between strokes and highlight the rhythm changes.

49. Besides, Wang Xizhi promoted the smoothness of artistic conception in cursive script and created Yibi Shu, meaning, the highly joined-up cursive script.
The novel and new styles created by Wang Xianzhi expanded an excellent chapter in the history of Chinese calligraphy styles.
e.g. Yatou Wan Tie

50. Yatou Wan Tie by Wang Xianzhi

51. 2. The regular script: four styles
Ouyang Xun (557—641 AD）
An all-round calligrapher who is skilled in different scripts
His achievement in regular script is the most prominent one, and then is semi-cursive script.
His combination of the charm in the south and vigor in the north finally formed the rigorous, powerful and full calligraphy style.
e.g. Huadu Temple Tablet: writing brush using powerful and the shapes of characters long

52. Huadu Temple Tablet by Ouyang Xun

53. Yan Zhenqing (709—785 AD)
broke the situation of two Wangs being the model for calligraphy practicing
Skilled in regular script and semi-cursive script.
Yan style in regular script has novelty in boldness. The shape of the character is spacious interior and a little bit tight from outside.
The strokes are evenly and reasonably distributed within the characters

54. Being “hidden” is a requirement that a calligrapher must always bear in mind.
Based on this criterion of “being hidden”, Yan Zhenqing developed the Yan style.
“Being hidden” means that, the beginning and end of each stroke are smooth, without any trace of sharp and overpowering brushwork

55. The quality of calligraphy is an embodiment of moral quality
The quality of calligraphy is an embodiment of moral quality. Yan Zhenqing was an official in the imperial court and was honored Kaiguo Gong of Lujun. Yan was straightforward and righteous and died in the hands of crafty sycophant.
e.g. Duobao Tower Tablet: early piece of work of Yan Zhenqing. The characters are stable, dignified, meticulous, powerful, and beautiful.

56. Duobao Tower Tablet by Yan Zhenqing

57. Liu Gongquan (778—865): late Tang Dynasty
—the authority in Tang style regular script.
Highest achievement is his regular script. The writing brush using of Liu style is mainly square, and the turnings are clear.
A lot of attention has been paid to the bony feeling.
The strokes radiate from the dense center and the characters have vertical postures. The characters have dense upper part and loose lower part.

58. Mysterious Pagoda Stele by Liu Gongquan

59. Zhao Mengfu (1254—1322), Yuan Dynasty
He advocated restoration of ancient styles. He appreciated the “two Wangs” and was capable of writing at all scripts.
He also corrected the trend of belittling the calligraphy rules since the Southern Song Dynasty and built up the authority position of classic calligraphy.
Among all the scripts, his highest achievements are regular script and Xing Cao.
Zhao style was especially popular in the Kang Xi and Qian Long periods in the Qing Dynasty.

60. Danba Stele by Zhao Mengfu

61. Thanks！
And to be continued…