The Evolution of China's Calligraphy

1. Calligraphy art came into being in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the middle and late Shang Dynasty. The strokes are all single lines, thin and powerful. The layout is mostly vertical, the lines are scattered, the size changes, and the density is good. These earliest remains of Chinese characters have three elements of calligraphy: brushwork, composition and structure.

2. Bronze inscriptions or "Zhong Dingwen" appeared in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, with neat and thick strokes, which are more round than Oracle Bone Inscriptions's starting, receiving and traveling, and rich in straightness changes. Mature bronze inscriptions are long in shape, symmetrical in size, and each department pays attention to coordination. Mao and Pan is his masterpiece. Judging from the bronze inscriptions left behind, the artistry of calligraphy is gradually enriched.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the country was divided and the society was in turmoil. Under different artistic pursuits, various vassal States developed towards their own aesthetic trends, forming a colorful situation of calligraphy art. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, brush began to be widely used in calligraphy. The expressive force of the brush is rich, especially the inherent brushwork, which constitutes an important element of China's calligraphy in the future ── calligrapher's emotion, aesthetic taste and brushwork.

After the unification of Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang ordered that "cars should be on the same track and books should be in the same language". Li Si, the prime minister, popularized Xiao Zhuan, which became an official script. The unity of characters laid the foundation for the maturity of calligraphy art. As can be seen from Li Si's Taishan Stone Carving, Xiao Zhuan has the characteristics of flat shape, eccentric strokes and complex structure, which makes it difficult to sketch as a text. As a result, Li Shu came into being with simple structure, rounded square and convenient for fast writing.

5. In the Han Dynasty, official script gradually occupied the dominant position, became the official standard font, and entered the finalization period. The strokes of the official script in Han Dynasty are relatively straight, with simple structure and obvious twists and turns, especially the inscriptions, which are exquisite. At the same time, in order to make the characters neat and easy to write, Lishu stipulates the special forms of words used as radicals.

6. When people use words, they always want them to be easier to recognize and write, especially when things are urgent and busy. At the same time, in the evolution from seal script to official script, cursive script came into being due to the rapid writing of brush and the development of brushwork. That is to say, after the disintegration of the official law, what is written more accurately becomes a real book (regular script), what is written more closely becomes a cursive script, and what is between the real grass is a running script. At this point, several writing forms of Chinese characters have emerged. Writing is not only practical, but also aesthetic feeling and enjoyment have become the driving force for development, and calligraphy art has entered a mature stage.

7. The Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties is an important period in the history of China's calligraphy. In the process of development, grass, seal characters and lines have fully matured, and the technical system of China calligraphy has basically taken shape. Calligraphy goes to the stage of full consciousness, and calligraphy has generally become the conscious appreciation object of all walks of life. Thirdly, literati consciously pursue the beauty of calligraphy, regard calligraphy as an artistic practice, and pursue it diligently in skills and aesthetic style.

8. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's feudal society. At that time, the unprecedented prosperity of social economy provided material conditions for the development of literature and art, and the vigorous mind and mentality of the Tang people formed by the vast weather in the Tang Dynasty were embodied in the art of calligraphy as free and easy, grand and broad momentum.

9. After the Song Dynasty, there was no great achievement or breakthrough in fonts, but only their own style was incorporated on the original basis, focusing on individuality. In the Song Dynasty, due to the relatively relaxed political environment and the rulers' emphasis on literature over martial arts, calligraphy became an art that scholars generally liked, especially prose.

10 Several emperors in the early Ming Dynasty, such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Judy, all loved calligraphy. There is a China calligraphy department in this state. Anyone who can write a book will be given official calligraphy and documents will be filed in the cabinet. However, the calligraphy of the Ming Dynasty is basically a continuation of the calligraphy of the Yuan Dynasty, and there is no big breakthrough.

1 1. The Qing Dynasty was an important turning point in the history of China's calligraphy. Calligraphy gradually formed a situation of "sticking to learning" and "inscription and postscript", and calligraphy schools showed unprecedented differentiation. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the four masters, He Chao, Chen and Jiang were famous for their calligraphy, which had a great influence on the literati at that time, including many court calligraphers.

Extended data:

China s Calligraphy Aesthetics;

1, beautiful overall shape

The basic shape of Chinese characters is square, but through the expansion and contraction of stippling and the torsion of axis, various moving shapes can also be formed, thus combining into beautiful calligraphy works. The form of the knot is mainly influenced by two factors: one is the need to express the interest of calligraphy; The second is the formal factors of calligraphy performance.

2. The stippling structure is beautiful.

There are two main ways to construct the structural beauty of stippling. One is that all kinds of stippling colors are directly combined into various beautiful single characters and radicals according to a certain combination method. The second is to combine various radicals into various glyphs in a certain way. The radical combinations of Chinese characters are nothing more than left-right type, left-middle-right type, up-down type, upper-middle-lower type, enclosing type and semi-enclosing type.

3, the ink color combination is beautiful

The artistry of ink color combination mainly refers to the order of its combination. Calligraphy, as an art, its various colors can no longer be chaotic, but should be very orderly. There are also some aesthetic principles that writers need to abide by. Such as emphasis, gradual change and balance.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-calligraphy