Writing as an art
In China, beautiful writing has long been counted among the highest arts. Calligraphy is not simply neat handwriting. It is a disciplined practice in which the line, the balance of each character and the rhythm of a whole sheet express the writer’s training and character. Because Chinese characters are built from strokes with distinct shapes and an established order, a writer can show skill and individuality in each stroke while still staying readable.
Calligraphy also has a close relationship with painting and poetry. A scroll may combine all three, and a painter was normally expected to be a competent calligrapher.
Brush, ink, paper and inkstone
The traditional set of tools is called the “four treasures of the study”: brush, ink, paper and inkstone. The brush is made of animal hair on a bamboo handle, and its tip can produce thick or thin lines depending on pressure and speed. Ink is traditionally made in solid sticks, which are ground on the inkstone with a little water to make liquid ink. Paper, and earlier materials such as silk, bamboo strips and wooden slips, provide the surface.
Control is key. The writer must decide how to start a stroke, how to move, and how to finish it, all in a single motion, since ink cannot be easily erased. Students traditionally learn by copying the work of earlier masters, stroke by stroke, and a good deal of the history of calligraphy is the history of models that later writers studied.
From early inscriptions to seal script
The earliest known Chinese writing appears in marks cut into bone and shell, discussed in our article on oracle bone script, and in inscriptions cast on bronze vessels. These early forms are quite pictorial and angular. Over the Zhou period, writing varied across regions. After the Qin unification under the First Emperor, there was an effort to standardize the script for use across the empire, and a style often called small seal script became the official form. Seal script has even, rounded strokes and a formal, balanced look. It is still used today for carved seals, which have their own tradition, as described in our overview of seal carving.
Clerical script and the Han dynasty
During the Han dynasty, a faster and more practical style called clerical script became widespread. It flattened and squared the curved lines of seal script and is known for strokes that sweep out with a flourish at the end. Clerical script suited brush writing on bamboo slips and later on paper, and many stone inscriptions from this period survive. Much of the modern structure of characters can be traced to the move from seal to clerical forms.
Regular, running and cursive scripts
Over the following centuries, three other styles took shape.
- Regular script is the standard, clear form in which each stroke is written separately. It matured in the centuries after the Han and became the main model for printing and formal writing. Many learners start here.
- Running script is a semi-cursive style in which strokes flow together. It is quicker and more personal and is often used for letters and drafts.
- Cursive script simplifies and links strokes so heavily that it can be hard for untrained readers to follow. It is valued for its energy and freedom.
The writer Wang Xizhi, who lived in the Jin dynasty, is traditionally honored as a leading master of the running and regular hands, and his work was long treated as a model. The original works are generally lost, and what people study are copies and rubbings, so appreciation often involves a lineage of copies. By the Tang dynasty, regular script had reached a polished form, and various Tang writers established styles that students still imitate.
Later dynasties
In the Song dynasty, scholar-officials stressed personal expression, and calligraphy became an important way of showing character and taste. The invention and spread of printing influenced the look of printed type, which was distinct from handwriting. In later dynasties, some writers revived ancient scripts, studied inscriptions on old stone and bronze, and developed new styles inspired by them. Collecting rubbings and studying old inscriptions became a scholarly pursuit.
Calligraphy in the present
Today, calligraphy continues in many forms. Students practice it in school or as a hobby, artists create it as a modern art, and it appears on signs, couplets hung at festivals and decorative scrolls. Traditional customs such as writing New Year couplets keep the practice in everyday life. For those curious about the art, a useful approach is to learn a few basic strokes and the order in which they are written, since this reveals how Chinese characters are built from simple parts, a topic explored in our article on character radicals. The art also reflects values that appear elsewhere in Chinese culture: discipline, respect for earlier teachers, and the idea that skill expresses the whole person.