Chinese Calligraphy

Name: Ali Sarmad

ID No: 51174501001

Dept: Computer Science & Software Engineering

Coursename: Chinese Civilization an Introduction

Chinese Calligraphy

The word “calligraphy,” is derived from the Greek kalligraphía (beautiful writing), is something of a mistranslation of the Chinese term shufa (書法), which means “model writing,” Calligraphy, literally "beautiful writing," has been appreciated as an art form in many different cultures throughout the world, but the stature of calligraphy in Chinese culture is unmatched. In China, from a very early period, calligraphy was considered not just a form of decorative art; rather, it was viewed as the supreme visual art form, was more valued than painting and sculpture, and ranked alongside poetry as a means of self-expression and cultivation. How one wrote, in fact, was as important as what one wrote. To understand how calligraphy came to occupy such a prominent position, it is necessary to consider a variety of factors, such as the materials used in calligraphy and the nature of the Chinese written script as well as the esteem in which writing and literacy are held in traditional China.

The precise moment Chinese characters were born is unknown, but a fully developed system was in use by c. 1200 BCE. The earliest extant examples of Chinese writing are the inscriptions that appear on so-called oracle bones (animal bones and turtle shells) and on bronze vessels. These early inscriptions were made on the surface of an oracle bone or a bronze mold with a sharp, pointed instrument. The oldest of which date back to the Shang dynasty (ca.1600-ca.1100 B.C).

Shang kings used these objects in important divination rituals, and some scholars have argued that this early association of writing with ritual and political authority helps to account for the special status conferred upon those who could read and write.

As a result of this process, the characters (or "graphs" as they are also called) generally lack the kinds of linear variation and other attributes considered prerequisites of true calligraphy. Those qualities began to emerge very clearly during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.).

Five basic scripts have emerged over 2000 years. Calligraphers design each character to fit into an imaginary square–whether it is composed of one or sixty-four strokes. Writers must create each stroke of a character in a particular order, essentially from left to right and from top to bottom. The basic scripts are mentioned below.

Seal script (Chinese: zhuanshu): These careful, straight lines are related to the earliest forms of Chinese writing.

Clerical script (lishu): More angled strokes allowed clerks to write official documents more easily and quickly.

Cursive script (caoshu; “grass script”): In this free and spontaneous script, artists may get away with abbreviating and abstracting the characters. Characters may run together.

Semi-cursive script (xingshu; “running script”): Strokes tend to run together within each character, but the artist usually lifts the brush between each character.

Standard or regular script (kaishu): This clear and easy to read script is commonly used in printed books and signs today.[pic 1]

The evolution of the Chinese character dragon (long) in various script types are shown below.

The Beginnings of Writing to the Tang Dynasty (618-907)

Written Chinese evolved through five basic script types: seal script, the earliest historical script form, which appeared in the Shang dynasty (16th c.-ca. 1050 B.C.); clerical script, a standardized scribal form of writing with a brush that evolved under the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220); running script and cursive script, both representing increasingly abbreviated forms of the standard character forms; and standard script, the modern form of Chinese writing that achieved its first fully realized form in the seventh century. All of these scripts continue to be practiced today.

According to Chinese tradition, the key figure in the transformation of writing into art was Wang Xizhi (303-361). It is likely that not a single autograph work by Wang survives today; instead, his style is preserved in a wide variety of later copies. The Elliott collection boasts an exceedingly rare tracing copy of a letter by Wang, known as Ritual to Pray for Good Harvest, that probably dates to the seventh century, when the Tang dynasty emperor Taizong (r. 626-49) declared Wang's style to be the orthodox paradigm. Later dynasties, following this precedent, used official patronage of Wang's style as a means of political legitimation by identifying the court with scholarly orthodoxy. In the exhibition, this point is illustrated by a group of rubbings of Wang Xizhi's writings. The earliest and rarest examples, on loan from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection, come from an imperially commissioned compendium of model calligraphies engraved in 992 at the outset of the Song dynasty (960-1279).

The Song Dynasty (960-1279)

During the Song dynasty, a new meritocracy of scholar-officials emerged as a potent cultural force, as a result of civil service examinations that placed a premium on the command of literature, history, and calligraphy. Wary of the court's attempt to codify writing styles and critical of the declining standards in calligraphy due to the proliferation of inferior copies of model texts, a small circle of leading scholars championed spontaneity and self-expression through highly personal brush styles that captured "a picture of the mind." One of the most innovative calligraphers in this circle was the noted poet Huang Tingjian (1045-1105), and two of his masterpieces are featured in the exhibition. Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru, from the Crawford Collection, was written about 1095, shortly after Huang was exiled to Sichuan, and is one of the artist's two surviving masterworks of "wild cursive" writing. The handscroll, which measures nearly sixty feet in length and contains some 1700 characters, transcribes a first-century B.C. account of the rivalry of two court officials; it may well reflect Huang's feeling that his banishment was the result of someone's personal malice. Huang was still living in exile in 1100 when he wrote Scroll for Zhang Datong for his nephew. Now in the Elliott Collection, the scroll preserves one of the most powerful examples of Huang's large-scale running script, in which daringly asymmetrical characters pulse with energy from Huang's tightly grasped brush.