Four-Treasures-of-Study

Handwriting is as personal and unique as a person's fingerprint. Once you look at someone's handwriting, you will develop an impression (right or wrong) of his character and personality. It's really too bad in this day and age of an electronic society, that this personal writing method is disappearing. When was the last time that you received a hand written note or letter? Now everything is electronic, about the most personal reflection is someone using the Comic Sans typeface instead of Helvetica or Courier to send you a text or email.

Calligraphy especially in writing Chinese was always an art form, since there is no alphabet in Chinese writing, each word is an individual character. Many poems and ancient famous historical accounts are preserved works of art. Some are very fragile if originally on paper but many are carved in stone and well preserved. The oldest forms are on the bones or turtle shells, referred to as Oracle Bones甲骨文 JiaGu Wen, which were written around 2000BC.

Different Styles

There are many different styles of Chinese script, think of it as different fonts of different writing styles just as we choose different fonts for writing our computer messages. It starts with Seal Script篆书ZhuanShu, which developed from Chinese characters carved onto stone and used as a seal. In 220BC, the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang unified China and introduced the common writing style referred to as Clerical Script隶书 LiShu. Then there are the two cursive styles, which is almost like a short hand and probably not recognized by the average person, they are called Semi Cursive行书 XingShu and Cursive草书CaoShu. If you have ever seen a doctor write out a prescription, you will understand how a cursive script is so hard to recognize. Finally, there is Regular or Standard Script楷书 KaiShu.

There are many variations in between these five main styles. These classifications are also recognized in Japan and Korea because remember that they were dominated by the Chinese culture in ancient times. Japan still uses many Chinese characters in their present day language called Kanji.

Most Chinese calligraphy is in Traditional writing as opposed to Simplified, which was only introduced in 1952. However all characters have a recognized stroke order in writing the calligraphy. There are eight different basic strokes and they are represented in the character Yong "永" that has the literal meaning, forever or permanence.

It is said that there are about 40,000 different Chinese characters but if one learns 3,000, you would be fairly literate and able to read a newspaper. However, reading and writing are two different matters, recognizing a character is one thing but being able to write it requires a higher skill and writing it properly is important.

Writing-Chinese-calligraphy

Tools of the Trade

The brush is the traditional writing implement in Chinese calligraphy. The body of the brush can be made from either bamboo, or rare materials such as red sandalwood, glass, silver or gold. The head of the brush can be made from the hair (or feathers) of a wide variety of animals. There is also a tradition in both China and Japan of making a brush using the hair of a newborn, as an once-in-a-lifetime souvenir for the child. This practice is associated with the legend of an ancient Chinese scholar who scored first in the imperial examinations by using such a personalized brush. Calligraphy brushes are widely considered an extension of the calligrapher's arm. Today, calligraphy may also be done using a pen.

Paper nowadays is frequently sold together with a paperweight and desk pad. Special types of paper are used in Chinese calligraphy. In China, Xuanzhi 宣紙, or rice paper is traditionally made in Anhui province, is the preferred type of paper.

Paperweights are used to hold down paper. A paperweight is often placed at the top of all but the largest pages to prevent slipping; for smaller pieces the left hand is also placed at the bottom of the page for support. Paperweights come in several types: some are oblong wooden blocks carved with calligraphic or pictorial designs; others are essentially small sculptures of people or animals. Like inkstones, paperweights are collectible works of art on their own right.

The desk pad 画毡, huàzhān; is a pad made of felt. Some are printed with grids on both sides, so that when it is placed under the translucent paper, it can be used as a guide to ensure correct placement and size of characters. However, only students use these printed pads. Both desk pads and the printed grids come in a variety of sizes.

Ink and inkstick, is made from lampblack (soot), and comes in inksticks that must be rubbed with water on an inkstone until the right consistency is achieved. Much cheaper, pre-mixed bottled inks are now available, but these are used primarily for practice as stick inks are considered higher quality and chemical inks are more prone to bleeding over time, making them less suitable for use in hanging scrolls. Learning to rub the ink is an essential part of calligraphy study. Traditionally, Chinese calligraphy is written only in black ink, but modern calligraphers sometimes use other colors. Calligraphy teachers use bright orange or red ink with which they write practice characters on which students trace, or to correct students' work.

Inkstones are made from stone, ceramic, or clay from the banks of the Yellow River, inkstone is used to grind the solid inkstick into liquid ink and to contain the ink once it is liquid. Chinese inkstones are highly prized as art objects and an extensive bibliography is dedicated to their history and appreciation. A water dropper水滴shuǐdī is used to drop the water into the inkstone, by using this; you can control the amount of water carefully to achieve the right consistency.

Appreciating Calligraphy

Even if you are not literate in Chinese, you can still appreciate the artistry of fine calligraphy. Much of the appreciation will depend upon personal preference but there are some traditional rules or standards that make a good calligraphy.

First, obviously the words must be written correcting, if the calligraphy is a work of art but one of the words is misspelt, the whole piece would be discredited. The characters must be legible, even if cursive style is used, they must conform to a certain format and not just scribble. The characters must be concise and uniform. The words must be in the right context, this will be difficult for most foreigners to grasp, as it requires not just literacy but cultural understanding. Finally, the work must be aesthetically pleasing.

Conclusion

Water or Ground Calligraphy can be seen in many parks where you see a person; usually an older man with huge water brush writing on the ground a series of Chinese calligraphy on the cement or stone. It seems like a waste of time, because in a few minutes his work will dry up and disappear. But next time, you see this, take some time and watch as he writes fluidly, never retracing his strokes and how it seems so effortless. Try to picture the whole piece of his writing and how it is uniform and really a work of art.