Calligraphy In China

Calligraphy is an important part of China. Translated, Calligraphy means "Good handwriting". The art of Calligraphy is around 4500 years old. It is considered to be a unique artistic style of the Chinese culture.

Categories

Chinese calligraphy falls into five categories. These are:

• Seal script: It is the calligraphy of Han Character and can be categorised into Small seal and large seal character. It is elegant in style and is preferred mostly by people today in the work of Calligraphy.

• Official Script: It was originated from East Ham Dynasty. The features of this script include Flat, neat and refined structure. The style of official script is of diverse nature and has high value of appreciation.

• Formal Script: This script is evolved from the Seal script. It is also known as Zhenshu script and is simpler and square in shape. The most important feature of this script is neatness and thus, it is widely used and preferred today.

• Running Script: It was originated from the Late Han dynasty.This script is a cursive form of formal script. It is less cursive than cursive hand and less compact than formal script.

• Cursive hand: This script has its own rules. It might look irregular but it has high artistic value and has concise structures with borrowed components.

Elements

There are certain things that are important and used in calligraphy. Here are these:

• Brushes and Papers: Brushes used for calligraphy are made up of animal hair such as Wolves, Deer and Rabbits which are attached to Bamboo reeds. The calligraphy is done on thin and absorbent rice paper.

• Ink: The ink is made up of Pinewood soot that is mixed with Gum resin. Ink stones are flat and hard and have to be mixed with water for use.

• Strokes: There are 7 types of strokes in the calligraphy form. These include: The horizontal line, Sweeping downward Stroke, Dot, sharp curve and two forms of downward strokes: one with Hook and other with 45° angle.

• Styles: There are 5 major styles in Calligraphy which includes Zuan, kai, Li, Hsin and Tsao.

Facts

• Calligraphy is different from other visual arts because the artists focus on motion and dynamic life.

• Because of Calligraphy, many other art forms also developed in China.

• In China, it is known as the most important part as it reflects the Chinese culture.

• Calligraphy takes years to learn. People appreciate this art due to the beautiful quality.