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chinese writing and calligraphy

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we ndan li chinese writing and calligraphy a latitude 20 book university of hawai`i press honolulu

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© 2009 university of hawai`i press all rights reserved 14 13 12 11 10 09 6 5 4 3 2 1 library of congress cataloging-in-publication data li wendan chinese writing and calligraphy wendan li p cm a latitude 20 book includes bibliographical references and index isbn-13 978-0-8248-3364-0 pbk alk paper isbn-10 0-8248-3364-3 pbk alk paper 1 calligraphy chinese 2 chinese characters 3 calligraphy chinese technique i title nk3634.a2l4975 2010 745.6 19951 dc22 2009047054 university of hawai`i press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the council on library resources designed by julie matsuo-chun printed by sheridan books inc.

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contents ix 1 p r e fa cechapter 1 introduction 2 3 5 16 18 19 19 this book the chapters writing and calligraphy in chinese society the artistic qualities of chinese writing abilities that can be acquired by practicing calligraphy to learners with no background in the chinese language discussion questions 20 chapter 2 writing instruments and training procedures 20 27 32 36 37 the four treasures in a chinese study the training process getting ready to write moisture pressure and speed discussion questions and writing practice 38 chapter 3 brush techniques and basic strokes i 38 40 42 45 46 47 48 brush techniques 1 pressing down the brush and bringing it up an overview of the major stroke types stroke type 1 the dot stroke type 2 the horizontal line stroke type 3 the vertical line tracing discussion questions and writing practice 50 chapter 4 brush techniques and basic strokes ii 50 51 52 54 55 56 60 brush techniques 2 center tip versus side tip brush techniques 3 revealed tip versus concealed tip stroke type 4 the down-left slant stroke type 5 the down-right slant stroke type 6 the right-up tick chinese culture 1 chinese names discussion questions and writing practice

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c ont ent s 61 chap t e r 5 basic strokes iii and stroke order 61 62 65 66 67 71 stroke type 7 the turn stroke type 8 the hook summary of major stroke types suggestions for beginners to avoid common pitfalls stroke order discussion questions and writing practice 73 chap t e r 6 the formation of chinese characters 73 75 80 81 83 the nature of chinese written signs categories of characters the complexity and developmental sequence of the categories chinese culture 2 dates in chinese according to the western calendar discussion questions and writing practice 84 chap t e r 7 the internal structure of characters and the aesthetics of writing 84 89 96 98 the structure of characters aesthetic principles chinese culture 3 what is written in chinese calligraphy discussion questions and writing practice 100 chap t e r 8 the development of chinese calligraphy i the seal scripts 100 102 109 114 an overview of scripts and styles the great seal scripts the small seal script discussion questions and writing practice 115 chap t e r 9 the development of chinese calligraphy ii the clerical script 115 119 123 128 the clerical script writing the clerical script chinese culture 4 the chinese traditional dating method discussion questions and writing practice 129 chap t e r 1 0 the development of chinese calligraphy iii the regular script 129 130 131 138 the regular script the regular and clerical scripts compared masters of the regular script discussion questions and writing practice vi

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c ont ent s 140 chap t e r 1 1 the development of chinese calligraphy iv the running and cursive styles 141 147 152 153 154 the running style the cursive style writing the running and cursive styles concluding remarks on the development of chinese calligraphy discussion questions and writing practice 155 chap t e r 1 2 the art of composition 157 166 173 components of a calligraphy piece chinese culture 5 chinese seals discussion questions and writing practice 175 chap t e r 1 3 the yin and yang of chinese calligraphy 175 178 180 183 185 diversity in harmony dialectics in the art of calligraphy appreciation of calligraphy chinese calligraphy and health discussion questions and writing practice 185 chap t e r 1 4 by wa5y of conclusion chinese calligraphy in the modern era 186 192 195 197 modern developments in chinese calligraphy chinese calligraphy in the west what is chinese calligraphy discussion questions and writing practice 199 243 247 251 255 259 263 265 appe ndix 1 brushwritingexercises appe ndix 2 pinyinpronunci at ionguide appe ndix 3 chinesedynastictimeline note s glos s a ry english ­ chinese ­ pinyin refe rences book sinenglishforfurtherstudy inde x vii

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preface this book is a collection of teaching materials i accumulated over the past ten years during which i taught the course chinese culture through calligraphy at the university of north carolina at chapel hill the materials and the order of topics were tested and revised throughout these years they reflect special concerns in teaching chinese calligraphy to college students in the west who may not have any background in chinese culture and the chinese language for these students the instructor needs to be meticulous not only in demonstrating the details of the techniques but also in explaining cultural manifestations significance and differences the goal is to make the traditional chinese art reverberate on the harp of the american brain which has been tuned to the scales of western culture i had rich resources to draw from when writing this book the long history of chinese culture language and calligraphy and the numerous scholars who studied and wrote about chinese calligraphy or simply practiced the art were a joy to read about and to reflect on i learned a great deal from the works of many other scholars who are pioneers in introducing chinese culture to western readers and who wrote extensively about chinese art and calligraphy in english notable among them are yee chiang yuho tseng and da-wei kwo i am deeply grateful to the late tsung ix

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p re f ace chin professor at the university of maryland it was through working with him on a collection of papers following the first international conference on east asian calligraphy education in 1998 and also through our personal conversations that my idea of offering a chinese calligraphy course started to take shape i wish to express my gratitude to the grier/woods presbyterian china initiative and to the freeman foundation for fellowships and travel awards i received through the university of north carolina at chapel hill that allowed me to work on this project to the boardman family foundation for their support in my teaching and research and to the department of asian studies of the university of north carolina at chapel hill for its support in furnishing optimal teaching facilities for the chinese calligraphy course i teach i have also benefited from presenting parts of the materials in this book and discussions of course design at conferences including the international conferences of east asian calligraphy education 2004 in columbia south carolina and 2006 in hiroshima japan and annual conferences of the chinese language teachers association i owe a special debt of gratitude to dwight st john kay robin alexander carl robertson and two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of earlier drafts of the manuscript and their invaluable advice and suggestions for revision my sincere thanks also go to susan stone for excellent copy editing and to keith leber of the university of hawai`i press for his assistance throughout the publication process i would like to thank calligraphers xu bing harrison xinshi tu ren ping mao rong and wang chunjie for permission to use their artwork in this book thanks also go to the national palace museum taiwan for their permission to use images from their collection as illustrations sources of other illustrations for which i am also grateful are mentioned in the captions of specific figures to the students at the university of north carolina at chapel hill who took the chinese calligraphy course with me over the past years i say thank you your learning experience and feedback on the course played an important role in shaping this book x

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c h a pt e r one introduction chinese calligraphy sh fa in chinese has been considered the quintessence of chinese culture because it is an art that encompasses chinese language history philosophy and aesthetics the term s literal translation the way of writing sh writing and fa way or standard identifies the core of the art which has close bonds with chinese written signs on the one hand and painting on the other in china adeptness in brush calligraphy is among the four traditional skills that cultivate the minds of the literati along with the ability to play qín a stringed musical instrument skill at qí a strategic board game known as go in the west and ability to produce huà paintings in the modern age sh fa is known world wide as a unique type of art representing one of the most distinctive features of chinese civilization to people in the west chinese calligraphy symbolizes a complex distinct remote and mysterious cultural heritage these perceptions stem in part from differences between eastern and western worldviews but the written signs themselves also present a seemingly insurmountable barrier however chinese calligraphy is also fascinating and attractive in western eyes recent advances in communication between china and the rest of the globe have piqued interest in china s culture language 1

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c h i ne sewriti ng a nd ca llig ra phy worldview and way of life both within china and elsewhere knowledge of chinese calligraphy is seen a mark of education creativity and cultural sophistication this book this book introduces chinese calligraphy and its techniques to anyone with an interest in chinese brush writing it does not presuppose any previous knowledge of the chinese language or writing system the chapters are designed with the following objectives 1 to describe in detail the techniques of chinese brush writing at the beginning level 2 to provide high-quality models with practical and interesting characters for writing practice and 3 to introduce linguistic cultural historical and philosophical aspects of chinese calligraphy in the discussion comparisons are made with western culture and characteristics of the english language and calligraphy the book consists of fourteen chapters of text supplemented in an appendix with models for brush-writing practice detailed instruction in brush-writing techniques form the heart of the book a standard training procedure is outlined first followed by a detailed examination of three fundamental elements of chinese calligraphy stroke techniques the structure of chinese characters and the art of composition training in brush writing begins with brush strokes in the regular script according to the traditional chinese training method domestic calligraphy students always spend a substantial amount of time mastering the regular script before moving on to other styles learners in the west however generally prefer to have the opportunity to learn about and practice writing various scripts therefore this book focuses on basic brush writing skills in the regular script in the first half and then introduces small seal script clerical script and running/cursive styles in the second half learners are exposed to a diversity of script styles they are not expected to master them by the end of this book although some students with repeated practice may be able to write some characters in a particular script quite well some learners or instructors may prefer not to practice all the scripts introduced in this book instructors or individual learners can decide the number of additional script types to be included in the course of study whether hands-on writing practice is done for all of them and the amount of time to be devoted to each script serious students will no doubt need further training and practice in order to gain competence in artistic and creative production for this purpose the reading list at the end of this book provides some resources for further study in english the book also describes in detail the formation of chinese characters their stroke types stroke order components and major layout patterns many of the explanations given here are not found in other calligraphy books the book title chinese writing and calligraphy well reflects this special feature the history of the chinese calligraphic art is presented through a review of early chinese writing the 2

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i nt rod uct i on development of different writing styles the ways in which calligraphy is adapting to the modern age and the ongoing debate on the future of the time-honored traditional art cultural aspects discussed in the book include writing instruments their history manufacture and features chinese names and seals the chinese worldview for example the cyclic view of time and the daoist concept of yin and yang as a fundamental philosophical principle in chinese calligraphy model sheets for brush-writing practice are designed to accompany the discussion in the chapters and to provide opportunities for hands-on writing practice learners are guided from tracing to copying and then to freehand writing single strokes are practiced before characters which are followed by the composition of calligraphy pieces writing skills are developed in the regular script first then opportunities are provided for learners to write characters in small seal clerical and cursive styles so that they can explore and identify their personal preferences the selection and arrangement of model characters reflect a number of considerations preference is given to characters that serve practical teaching and learning goals or characters that frequently appear in calligraphy pieces repetition of characters either in the same or different scripts also serves specific pedagogical functions since no two calligraphy courses are the same instructors or individual learners may decide to repeat or to skip certain pages depending on their specific goals on the model sheets for brush-writing practice each character is marked with its meaning in english and the stroke order in regular script the model characters are also sequenced by level of difficulty after individual characters well-known phrases are also practiced the brush-writing models in the four script types are all based on works of wang xizhi 303­361 ce the calligraphy sage of the jin dynasty whose writing represents the peak of the art as is traditional and to avoid confusion chinese personal names throughout the book are presented with the family name first followed by the given name the chinese characters presented in this book are in their full traditional form the romanization of chinese terms is in pinyin as will be discussed in chapter 2 chinese calligraphy is written on absorbent paper following that tradition the learner is advised to use absorbent paper ideally rice paper for writing practice nowadays such paper even with a printed grid specifically for chinese calligraphy practice can be purchased online or in art stores rice paper which is quite transparent can be laid on top of the model characters provided in this book for tracing the chapters chapter 2 first describes the instruments used in chinese brush writing including their history manufacture features and maintenance elementary training issues are dealt with next including steps of the training procedure the management of 3

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c h i ne sewriti ng a nd ca llig ra phy pressure and the roles of moisture and speed in writing other rudimentary issues such as brush preparation and arrangement of writing space are also discussed chapters 3 4 and 5 expound upon the basic skills in writing individual strokes first the techniques of pressing down and lifting up of the brush are discussed and illustrated followed by an overview of the eight major stroke types step-by-step instructions on how to write each stroke type are then laid out and amply illustrated the discussion also includes variant forms of each stroke type techniques involved in writing stroke-order rules and common mistakes made by beginning learners models for writing practice are provided to prepare learners for producing calligraphic pieces and one s signature cultural topics related to calligraphy are also discussed chapter 4 for example offers a discussion of chinese names including how a chinese name is chosen for a person based on his or her original western name the next chapters proceed to the actual formation of chinese characters chapter 6 describes the nature of chinese written signs and categorizes characters in terms of their composition chapter 7 delineates the internal layout patterns of characters and some basic principles of writing the cultural topics for these two chapters are dating in chinese according to the western calendar and the themes and content of calligraphy pieces historical factors that molded chinese calligraphy are presented in chapters 8 through 11 since this evolution started more than three thousand years ago the discussion only summarizes the major line of development emphasizing the events and calligraphy masters with a profound influence on the art each of these chapters deals with one script type seal script clerical regular and running/cursive together these chapters seek to foster an understanding of the historical development of the calligraphic art to build a knowledge base for distinguishing and appreciating the various script styles and to provide opportunities to practice the major scripts discussion concentrates on how each script was developed how it differs from other styles its main characteristics and life stories of major calligraphers illustrations and model sheets are also provided for the regular script the personal styles of the three greatest masters wang xizhi yan zhenqing and liu gongquan are compared in chapter 10 so that learners have a chance to examine subtle differences within one major script type for a cultural topic chapter 9 describes the chinese traditional time-recording method commonly used to date calligraphy works composing a calligraphy piece is the topic of chapter 12 details of components and layout patterns are described followed by a discussion of the making and use of the chinese seal chapter 13 explores the daoist concept of yin and yang and its significance in chinese culture this chapter also discusses how to appreciate a calligraphy piece and the relation of calligraphy and health it will be shown that calligraphy practice is a healthy union of motion and tranquillity the motion of calligraphy writing not only corresponds to rhythms of the physical body such as breathing and 4

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