Chinese Calligraphy

Calligraphy is the art of forming the written signs of a language. Chinese calligraphy is distinguished by the originality and richness of Chinese writing 汉字 hànzì. Chinese calligraphy thus allows for a very wide field of expression.

The most well-known Chinese calligraphy is that practiced with a brush. Chinese schoolchildren also learn to properly calligraph Chinese characters 汉字 hànzì with a ballpoint pen or a feather quill: this calligraphy is called quill pen calligraphy (not a very surprising name, it's true!). Those who are good at brush calligraphy generally do not have good quill pen calligraphy and vice versa, it's a matter of wrist flexibility.

In ancient times, Chinese characters 汉字 hànzì were carved on ox bones or turtle shells, then on bronzes. Later, books were made with bound bamboo slats. A bamboo pen and soot ink were certainly used for writing. The bamboo pen is sometimes still used.

Brush calligraphy is practiced on rice paper or silk (more fragile). A calligrapher's tools are called the Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio 文房四宝 wénfáng sìbǎo. These are the brush, paper, ink, and ink stone. The ink comes in the form of a stick that is rubbed on the ink stone with water to obtain fluid ink. Nowadays, ink is found in small bottles, much more practical and of good quality. But this latter method does not allow for all the desired densities.

Good calligraphy was traditionally a reflection of a scholar's level of culture. A good doctor had to be a good calligrapher 书法家 shūfǎjiā (yikes!) and the imperial examinations to become an official placed more emphasis on the candidate's calligraphy than on the content of the exam!

The history of Chinese writing 汉字 hànzì (over 3000 years!) has allowed for the development of many calligraphic styles. In addition, there are different forms of a character: on average 3 per character. The character for happiness 福 fú has, for example, more than a hundred different forms. The calligrapher thus already has a wide range of possibilities. They can also vary the thickness and thinness of strokes to express their emotions. They can calligraph certain characters in a text differently to reinforce or vary their meaning. In short, the message that Chinese calligraphy can convey is very vast. Some even go as far as complete abstraction.

To learn Chinese calligraphy, it is preferable to know the basics of Chinese writing 汉字 hànzì, otherwise, you will have to learn it on the fly. You start by studying the fundamental strokes, then move on to tracing characters in the regular script style 楷书 kǎishū. Next, you learn the running script style 行书 xíngshū, and finally, the very cursive grass script style 草书 cǎoshū. The Chinese say that the regular script is like standing, the running script is like walking, and the grass script is like running.