Calligraphy
The styles of Chinese characters are closely related not only with the historical advance of the written language which clearly reflects the law of development from complexity to simpleness and from diversity to uniformity but also with calligraphic art that has been developing for thousands of years with the styles as its centre and key link.
Throughout the history we have five basic writing styles in general.They are the seal, the clerical or official, the cursive, the regular and the running styles.
Chinese calligraphy, generally speaking, is the art of writing Chinese characters. It is a unique artistic form with a long history, for the Chinese people, not content with writing the characters correctly and legibly for the sole purpose of communication as most of the other languages in the world and urged by their love of beauty and creative impulse, make each character into an artistic unit through centuries of sustained and uninterrupted practice, and by putting many such units together, produce an artistic composition. Of course, the development of calligraphy into an art is dictated by at least two specific conditions. One is that the Chinese character is a graphic composition, the elements of which are structurally integrated with all the component parts maintaining an organic relationship with one another. It is a life unit consisting of bones and muscles, flesh and blood, which allows people to display their imagination and artistic ability freely; the other is the unique writing implements, especially the brush, one of the four treasures (namely, brush, ink. paper and ink slab) in a Chinese studio.
Throughout the history we have five basic writing styles in general.They are the seal, the clerical or official, the cursive, the regular and the running styles.
Chinese calligraphy, generally speaking, is the art of writing Chinese characters. It is a unique artistic form with a long history, for the Chinese people, not content with writing the characters correctly and legibly for the sole purpose of communication as most of the other languages in the world and urged by their love of beauty and creative impulse, make each character into an artistic unit through centuries of sustained and uninterrupted practice, and by putting many such units together, produce an artistic composition. Of course, the development of calligraphy into an art is dictated by at least two specific conditions. One is that the Chinese character is a graphic composition, the elements of which are structurally integrated with all the component parts maintaining an organic relationship with one another. It is a life unit consisting of bones and muscles, flesh and blood, which allows people to display their imagination and artistic ability freely; the other is the unique writing implements, especially the brush, one of the four treasures (namely, brush, ink. paper and ink slab) in a Chinese studio.
Painting
Chinese painting, with its majestic and continuous tradition of thousands of years, is one of the greatest schools of painting that the world has seen.
The character of Chinese painting is closely bound up with the nature of the medium. The basic material is ink, but Chinese ink is a wonderful substance, capable of an immense range and an extraordinary beauty of tone. The painter uses a pointed-tipped brush made of the hair of goat, deer, or wolf set in a shaft of bamboo. He paints on a length of silk or a sheet of paper, the surface of which is absorbent, allowing no erasure or correction. Color is sometimes added to make the effect more true to life. But the ink-drawing remains almost always the foundation of the design. Color is not a formal element in the design as in Western art.
Chinese paintings are usually in the form of hanging pictures or of horizontal scrolls, in both cases normally kept rolled up. The latter paintings, often of great length, are unrolled bit by bit and enjoyed as a reader enjoys reading a manuscript. A succession of pictures is presented, though the composition is continuous. Thus, in the case of landscape, for which this form has been used with most felicity, one seems to be actually passing through the country depicted.
Chinese technique admits of no correction, and the artist must therefore know beforehand what he intends to do. He closely observes and stores his observations in his memory. He conceives his design, and having completed the mental image of what he intends to paint, he transfers it swiftly and with sure strokes to the silk. It is said that in a master's work the idea is present even where the brush has not passed. This, however, demands confidence, speed, and a mastery of technique acquired only by long practice.
In early times, such as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Chinese paintings were made chiefly for sacrifices to Heaven and to the spirits of clan ancestors, who were believed to influence the living for good. Chinese society has always laid great stress on the need for man to understand the pattern of nature and to live in accordance with it. The world of nature was seen as the visible manifestation of the workings of the Great Ultimate through the generative interaction of the Yin-Ytihg dualism. As it developed, the purpose of Chinese painting turned from propitiation and sacrifice to the expression of man's understanding of these forces through the painting of landscape, bamboo, birds and flowers. This might be called the metaphysical, Taoist aspect of Chinese painting.
Chinese painting also had social and moral functions. The earliest paintings referred to in ancient texts depicted on the walls of palaces and ancestral halls benevolent emperors, sages, virtuous ministers, loyal generals, and their evil opposites as examples and warnings to the living. Portrait painting also had this moral function, depicting not the features of the subject so much as his character and his role in society. Therefore, it is said that painting had the same merits as each of The Six Classics. This was the ethical, Confucian function of painting. When we turn to the subject-matter of Chinese painting, we are struck by the early appearance of landscape and its actual predominance. Landscape is accounted the most important of subjects because it includes man and all living things; the whole is greater than the part. Flowers are quite as important as figures. In Europe they have Christian themes. In China we have Buddhist themes and the stories of Taoist legend and the fairy tale. Genre-painting is as common as in the West, though portraiture is perhaps less common. Among the typical themes of Chinese art there is no place for war, violence, the nude, death, or martyrdom. Nor is inanimate matter ever painted for its own sake: the very rocks and streams are felt to the alive, visible manifestations of the invisible forces of the universe. No theme would be accepted in Chinese painting that was not inspiring, noble, refreshing to the spirit, or at least charming. Nor is there any place in the Chinese artistic tradition for an art of pure form divorced from content, and the Chinese cannot conceive of a work of art of which the form is beautiful while the subject matter is unedifying. Hence we can justly conclude that Chinese painting is symbolic, for everything that is painted reflects some aspect of a totality of which the painter is intuitively aware. At the same time Chinese paintings are full of symbols of a more specific kind. Bamboo suggests the spirit of the scholar, which can be broken by circumstance but never bent, and jade symbolizes purity and indestructibility. The Dragon is the wholly benevolent symbol of the Emperor; the crane, of long life; paired mandarin ducks, of wedded fidelity. Popular among the many symbols drawn from the plant world are the orchid, like the lily to Christianity, a symbol of purity; the plum, which blossoms even in the snow and stands for constancy; and the pine tree, which represents the unconquerable spirit of old age.
Last but not least, Chinese painting is inseparably associat?ed with literature and other arts, such as poetry and calligraphy. The painter's carefully placed signature, inscription (often a poem) and seals are an integral part of the composition. Many of the painters were poets; some, like Wang Wei, equally distinguished in both arts. Consequently a painter means more to the Chinese than to the Westerners.
The character of Chinese painting is closely bound up with the nature of the medium. The basic material is ink, but Chinese ink is a wonderful substance, capable of an immense range and an extraordinary beauty of tone. The painter uses a pointed-tipped brush made of the hair of goat, deer, or wolf set in a shaft of bamboo. He paints on a length of silk or a sheet of paper, the surface of which is absorbent, allowing no erasure or correction. Color is sometimes added to make the effect more true to life. But the ink-drawing remains almost always the foundation of the design. Color is not a formal element in the design as in Western art.
Chinese paintings are usually in the form of hanging pictures or of horizontal scrolls, in both cases normally kept rolled up. The latter paintings, often of great length, are unrolled bit by bit and enjoyed as a reader enjoys reading a manuscript. A succession of pictures is presented, though the composition is continuous. Thus, in the case of landscape, for which this form has been used with most felicity, one seems to be actually passing through the country depicted.
Chinese technique admits of no correction, and the artist must therefore know beforehand what he intends to do. He closely observes and stores his observations in his memory. He conceives his design, and having completed the mental image of what he intends to paint, he transfers it swiftly and with sure strokes to the silk. It is said that in a master's work the idea is present even where the brush has not passed. This, however, demands confidence, speed, and a mastery of technique acquired only by long practice.
In early times, such as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Chinese paintings were made chiefly for sacrifices to Heaven and to the spirits of clan ancestors, who were believed to influence the living for good. Chinese society has always laid great stress on the need for man to understand the pattern of nature and to live in accordance with it. The world of nature was seen as the visible manifestation of the workings of the Great Ultimate through the generative interaction of the Yin-Ytihg dualism. As it developed, the purpose of Chinese painting turned from propitiation and sacrifice to the expression of man's understanding of these forces through the painting of landscape, bamboo, birds and flowers. This might be called the metaphysical, Taoist aspect of Chinese painting.
Chinese painting also had social and moral functions. The earliest paintings referred to in ancient texts depicted on the walls of palaces and ancestral halls benevolent emperors, sages, virtuous ministers, loyal generals, and their evil opposites as examples and warnings to the living. Portrait painting also had this moral function, depicting not the features of the subject so much as his character and his role in society. Therefore, it is said that painting had the same merits as each of The Six Classics. This was the ethical, Confucian function of painting. When we turn to the subject-matter of Chinese painting, we are struck by the early appearance of landscape and its actual predominance. Landscape is accounted the most important of subjects because it includes man and all living things; the whole is greater than the part. Flowers are quite as important as figures. In Europe they have Christian themes. In China we have Buddhist themes and the stories of Taoist legend and the fairy tale. Genre-painting is as common as in the West, though portraiture is perhaps less common. Among the typical themes of Chinese art there is no place for war, violence, the nude, death, or martyrdom. Nor is inanimate matter ever painted for its own sake: the very rocks and streams are felt to the alive, visible manifestations of the invisible forces of the universe. No theme would be accepted in Chinese painting that was not inspiring, noble, refreshing to the spirit, or at least charming. Nor is there any place in the Chinese artistic tradition for an art of pure form divorced from content, and the Chinese cannot conceive of a work of art of which the form is beautiful while the subject matter is unedifying. Hence we can justly conclude that Chinese painting is symbolic, for everything that is painted reflects some aspect of a totality of which the painter is intuitively aware. At the same time Chinese paintings are full of symbols of a more specific kind. Bamboo suggests the spirit of the scholar, which can be broken by circumstance but never bent, and jade symbolizes purity and indestructibility. The Dragon is the wholly benevolent symbol of the Emperor; the crane, of long life; paired mandarin ducks, of wedded fidelity. Popular among the many symbols drawn from the plant world are the orchid, like the lily to Christianity, a symbol of purity; the plum, which blossoms even in the snow and stands for constancy; and the pine tree, which represents the unconquerable spirit of old age.
Last but not least, Chinese painting is inseparably associat?ed with literature and other arts, such as poetry and calligraphy. The painter's carefully placed signature, inscription (often a poem) and seals are an integral part of the composition. Many of the painters were poets; some, like Wang Wei, equally distinguished in both arts. Consequently a painter means more to the Chinese than to the Westerners.
the clerical style
the regular style
the running style
the seal style
the cursive style
