Chinese calligraphy, Chinese writing and Chinese art

Chinese calligraphy is the art of writing a good hand with a brush and it is peculiar to the Chinese culture.

Historically, Chinese writing has held an equal importance as painting. Exhibitions and competitions are held locally and overseas. Through evolution, different schools of calligraphy have been developed and become part of our cultural heritage.

Chinese scripts are divided into five categories: the seal character (zhuan), the official script (lishu), the regular script (kaishu), the running hand (xingshu), and the cursive hand (caoshu).

Zhuan script by Deng Shi Ru - (1743 - 1805 Qing Dynasty)

The zhuan script was the earliest form of writing after the oracle inscriptions. This first effort for the unification of writing, which is also known as Zhouwen, is said to have taken place in 827-782B.C. of the Western Zhou Dynasty when a lexicon of 15 chapters was compiled.

In 221 B.C., Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the whole of China. The prime minister Li Si sorted out all the different systems all over the country. What he did was basically to simplify the ancient zhuan script.

Today, we can still see some of the relic written by Li Si on a steel standing in the Temple of the God of Taishan Mountain in Shandong Province. Though worn by age and weather, you may still be amazed by the nine and a half characters left on it.

Lishu by Yi Bing Shou

Lishu came into being in the Qin Dynasty (221-207B.C.). Since zhuan script was still considered complicated, this simplified form of writing was created. Cheng Miao, a prison warden, made the simplification by changing the curly strokes into straignt and angular ones and thus making writing easier.

Kaishu by Wang Xianzhi

The oldest existing example of Kaishu dates back 220-265 B.C. The standard writing today is square in form, non-cursive and architectural in style. The characters are composed of a number of strokes of a total of eight kinds - the dot, the horizontal, the vertical, the hook, the rising, the left-falling, and the right-falling strokes. Kaishu is also a must for all calligraphy starter.

Caoshu by Zhang Xu

On the basis of lishu also evolved Caoshu. The essence of Caoshu was characters are executed swiftly with strokes running together and the last stroke of the first character merge into the initial stroke of the next. This style is subdivided into two schools: zhangcao, of which characters stand separate from one another and jincao, of which is still widely used today.

One great master was Zhang Xu of the Tang Dynasty. People can still see fragments of a stele carved with character in his handwriting in the Provincial Museum of Shaanxi.

Xingshu by Wang Xizhi - (303-361 B.C. Jin Dynasty)

The Xingshu is something between the regular and the cursive scripts.

The best example for Xingshu is the Inscription on Lanting Pavilion in the hand of Wang Xizhi (321-379 B.C.) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Wang Xizhi, the great artist, has been exerted a profound influence on, and has been held in high esteem by, calligraphers and scholars throughout history, is said to have in his childhood blackened all the water of a pond in front of his house by washing the writing implements in it after his daily exervises.

Renewed interest in brush-writing has been kindled today among the pupils in China, some of whom show promises as worthy successors to the ancient masters.

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