书法介绍英文版CalligraphyIntroduction完整版

书法介绍英文版CalligraphyIntroduction

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Calligraphy

Calligraphy is understood in China as the art of writing a good hand with the brush or the

study of the rules and techniques of this art. As such it is peculiar to China and the few

countries influenced by ancient Chinese culture.

In the history of Chinese art, calligraphy has always been held in

equal importance to painting. Great attention is also paid today to

its development by holding exhibitions of ancient and contemporary

works and by organizing competitions among youngsters and people from

various walks of life. Sharing of experience in this field often

makes a feature in Sino-Japanese cultural exchange.

Chinese calligraphy, like the script itself, began with the hieroglyphs and, over the long ages

of evolution, has developed various styles and schools, constituting an important part of the

heritage of national culture.

Classification

Chinese scripts are generally divided into five categories:

The seal character (zhuan), the official or clerical script (li), the

regular script (kai), the running hand (xing) and the cursive hand

(cao).

1) The zhuan script or seal character was the earliest form of writing

after the oracle inscriptions, which must have caused great

inconvenience because they lacked uniformity and many characters were

written in variant forms. The first effort for the unification of

writing, it is said, took place during the reign of King Xuan (827-782

B. C.) of the Western Zhou Dynasty, when his taishi (grand historian)

Shi Zhou compiled a lexicon of 15 chapters, standardizing Chinese

writing under script called zhuan. It is also known as zhouwen after

the name of the author. This script, often used in seals, is translated into English as the

seal character, or as the "curly script" after the shape of its strokes.

Shi Zhou's lexicon (which some thought was written by a later author of the state of Qin) had

long been lost, yet it is generally agreed that the inscriptions on the drum-shaped Qin stone

blocks were basically of the same style as the old zhuan script.

When, in 221 B. C., Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the whole of China under one central

government, he ordered his Prime Minister Li Si to collect and sort out all the different

systems of writing hitherto prevalent in different parts of the country in a great effort to

unify the written language under one system. What Li did, in effect, was to simplify the

ancient zhuan (small seal) script.

Today we have a most valuable relic of this ancient writing in the creator Li Si's own hand

engraved on a stele standing in the Temple to the God of Taishan Mountain in Shandong Province.

The 2,200-year-old stele, worn by age and weather, has only nine and a half characters left on

it.

2) The lishu (official script) came in the wake of the xiaozhuan in the same short-lived Qin

Dynasty (221 - 207 B. C.). This was because the xiaozhuan, though a simplified form of script,

was still too complicated for the scribes in the various government offices who had to copy an

increasing amount of documents. Cheng Miao, a prison warden, made a further simplification of

the xiaozhuan, changing the curly strokes into straight and angular ones and thus making

writing much easier. A further step away from the pictographs, it was named lishu because li in

classical Chinese meant "clerk" or "scribe". Another version says that Cheng Miao, because of

certain offence, became a prisoner and slave himself; as the ancients also called bound slaves

"li", so the script was named lishu or the "script of a slave".

3) The lishu was already very close to, and led to the adoption of, kaishu, regular script. The

oldest existing example of this dates from the Wei (220-265), and the script developed under

the Jin (265-420). The standard writing today is square in form, non-cursive and architectural

in style. The characters are composed of a number of strokes out of a total of eight kinds-the

dot, the horizontal, the vertical, the hook, the rising, the left-falling (short and long) and

the right-falling strokes. Any aspirant for the status of calligrapher must start by learning

to write a good hand in kaishu.

4) On the basis of lishu also evolved caoshu (grass writing or cursive hand), which is rapid

and used for making quick but rough copies. This style is subdivided into two schools: zhangcao

and jincao.

The first of these emerged at the time the Qin was replaced by the Han Dynasty between the 3rd

and 2nd centuries B. C. The characters, though written rapidly, still stand separate one from

another and the dots are not linked up with other strokes.

Jincao or the modern cursive hand is said to have been developed by Zhang Zhi (?-c. 192 A. D.)

of the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Jin and Tang dynasties and is still widely

popular today.

It is the essence of the caoshu, especially jincao, that the characters are executed swiftly

with the strokes running together. The characters are often joined up, with the last stroke of

the first merging into the initial stroke of the next. They also vary in size in the same piece

of writing, all seemingly dictated by the whims of the writer.

A great master at caoshu was Zhang Xu (early 8th century) of the Tang Dynasty, noted for the

complete abandon with which he applied the brush. It is said that he would not set about

writing until he had got drunk. This he did, allowing the brush to "gallop" across the paper,

curling, twisting or meandering in one unbroken stroke, thus creating an original style. Today

one may still see fragments of a stele carved with characters in his handwriting, kept in the

Provincial Museum of Shaanxi.

The best example and model for xingshu, all Chinese calligraphers will agree, is the

Inscription on Lanting Pavilion in the hand of Wang Xizhi (321-379) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

To learn to write a nice hand in Chinese calligraphy, assiduous and persevering practice is

necessary. This has been borne out by the many great masters China has produced. Wang Xizhi,

the great artist just mentioned, who has exerted a profound influence on, and has been held in

high esteem by, calligraphers and scholars throughout history, is said to have blackened in his

childhood all the water of a pond in front of his house by washing the writing implements in it

after his daily exercises. Another master, Monk Zhiyong of the Sui Dynasty (581-618) was so

industrious in learning calligraphy that he filled many jars with worn-out writing brushes,

which he buried in a "tomb of brushes".

Renewed interest in brush-writing has been kindled today among the pupils in China, some of

whom already show promises as worthy successors to the ancient masters.

Four Treasures of the Study

To produce Chinese characters one will need a brush, paper, ink

stick and ink stone, commonly referred to as the "Four Treasures

of the Study". To learn calligraphy, it is necessary to learn

about these tools.

While brushes are varied, white-goat-hair, black-rabbit-hair and yellow-weasel-hair brushes are

the main ones. On the basis of function, brushes are classified into three groups: hard, soft

and both. Brush handles are usually made of bamboo, wood, lacquer or porcelain; ivory or jade

handles are rare and precious.

The ink stick is a unique pigment used for Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy. The

most famous ink stick ishui mo(Anhui ink stick), made of pines that grow on Huangshan Mountain

in Anhui Province. Clean water is needed to grind the ink stick, which must be balanced in the

hand during the grinding or rubbing process. Press hard and rub lightly, slowly and evenly

against the ink slab until a thick, liquid-ink forms.

Paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). While paper comes in many

varieties, Xuan paper, produced in the Jing Prefecture of Xuanzhou (today's Anhui Province), is

considered the best for Chinese calligraphy. The paper is soft and fine textured, suitable for

conveying the artistic expression of both Chinese calligraphy and painting. With a good tensile

strength and mothproof quality, the paper can be preserved for a long time.

Ink stones or ink slabs have been classified into three categories:Duan,SheandTao. Features

common to all three ink slabs are the stone's hardness and fineness. Although the stone is hard

and fine, it is not dry or slippery. Using a hard, smooth stone, liquid ink can be produced

easily by rubbing the ink stick against the stone.

By controlling the flexibility of the brush, the concentration of the ink and the absorbency of

the paper, the artist can produce an infinite variety of calligraphic styles and forms.

Calligraphy: Leader of All Art Forms

Few nations in the world have calligraphy as a form of art. In China, calligraphy has

maintained a close rapport with the country's cultural development.

Calligraphy is an expressive art. According to an old Chinese saying, "the way characters are

written is a portrait of the person who writes them." Expressing the abstract beauty of lines

and rhythms, calligraphy is a reflection of a person's emotions, moral integrity, character,

educational level, accomplishments in self-cultivation, intellectual tastes and approach to

life. Chinese characters, which convey ideas, are regarded as the most abstract and sublime art

form.

Calligraphy is also a practical fine art. Exotic calligraphic inscriptions written on paper,

wooden plaques or stone tablets serve as decorations of a deep artistic value.

Calligraphy manifests the basic characteristics of all Chinese arts. Closely associated with

paintings -- the two leaders of Chinese art forms -- calligraphy takes precedence over painting

since it greatly inspired the art of painting. Moreover, calligraphy has influenced other

typically Chinese art forms like classical poetry, seal-cutting, sculpture, traditional music

and dance, architecture and handicrafts.

Calligraphy is a mental exercise that coordinates the mind and body. It is a most relaxing yet

highly disciplined exercise for physical and spiritual well-being. Historically, many

calligraphic artists lived to a ripe, old age.

An Art of the Orient

Chinese calligraphy is an Oriental art. Like chopsticks, calligraphy was once entirely Chinese,

but as Chinese culture spread to Korea, Japan, and Singapore, calligraphy became a unique

feature of the Oriental art.

Calligraphy is even wildly accepted by the West; as once Picasso said, "Had I been born

Chinese, I would have been a calligrapher, not a painter." Many calligraphic elements are being

adopted by modern western art.