Chinesecalligraphypainting.docVIP

Chinese calligraphy How do you understand Chinese calligraphy? Chinese calligraphy is also called the art of lines. Calligraphy’s purpose is to retain the beauty of nature and illuminate man’s spiritual beauty. It stresses the overall layout and harmony between words and lines. The Chinese saying “The handwriting reveals the person” (字如其人), is directly related to calligraphy. Strokes (笔画) of Chinese Characters There are 6 basic categories: dian—dot stroke heng—horizontal stroke shu—vertical stroke pie—curved stroke zhe—angular (角形的) stroke gou—hooked (钩形的) stroke Chinese Radicals Strokes form Chinese radicals (偏旁) A radical is the prefix of the word. Some basic character components are standalone characters (独立成字), like “土” and “山”, but most are just parts of them. The most complicated Chinese character ? The number of strokes within a single Chinese character ranges from a few to more than 30 strokes. Biang, 二声 (56 strokes ) 一点飞上天，黄河两边弯；八字大张口，言字往里走，左一扭，右一扭；西一长， 东一长，中间加个马大王；心字底，月字旁，留个勾搭挂麻糖；推了车车走咸阳。 Forms Jia Gu Wen (Shell and Bone [oracle] Script) Jin Wen (Metal (Bronze) Script) Zhuan Shu (Seal Script) Zhu Mu Jian (Bo shu) (Bamboo and Wood Script) Li Shu (Clerical Script) Cao Shu (Cursive Script) Xing Shu (Running Script) Kai Shu (Regular Script) Oracle甲骨文 Jin Wen (Metal (Bronze) Script) Similar but more mature writings are also found engraved雕刻 on bronze vessels, utensils, weapons etc. and they are called Jin Wen meaning Metal or Bronze Script Five categories of Chinese scripts the seal form (zhuan 篆书) the official form (li 隶书) the cursive（草写的）form (cao 草书) the regular form (kai 楷书) the running form (xing 行书) The Seal Form (篆书) Soft lines of strokes and upright rectangular shape keep the seal form characters more close to pictography (象形文字). Each of the characters has a balanced and symmetrical (对称的) pattern. Zhu Mu Jian (Bo shu) (Bamboo and Wood Script) Apart from formal documents, most written work was done with brush