What is Calligraphy in China

Chinese calligraphy is China's unique traditional art of writing Chinese characters or writing methods, the emphasis here is on Chinese characters, if you leave the Chinese characters, it is not called Chinese calligraphy, Arabic, Latin, English and other scripts are also called calligraphy, the unique tradition refers to the Chinese traditional four treasures of the four treasures of the literati: pen, ink, paper, inkstone, and other tools, away from these traditional ink, paper, ink and inkstone calligraphy, such as writing with a knife, chopsticks, hair, spoons and other tools, I do not deny that it is also a complement to writing Chinese characters, let's call it writing. Writing and calligraphy are two different concepts, and some people think that "writing is calligraphy". In fact, writing and calligraphy are not the same thing at all. Simply put, writing is mainly practical, calligraphy is an art for people to appreciate, it maintains a certain practical value in addition to the more artistic form, relying on a certain object, or delicate, or dignified, or majestic, or elegant, or elegant, or elegant personality traits. Of course, writing and calligraphy both to reflect the sense of beauty, but the realm of beauty is different, one is toward the development of practical beauty, one is toward the trend of artistic beauty and expression, and through the dynamics of feelings and relaxation of thought and creation, breaking through the "law" and get the "idea", in order to express their feelings, to express their own feelings, to rely on certain objects. In order to express their feelings, so that the word of the momentum of the charm of the performance of the beauty and charm of art, to give people inculcation. On the other hand, the practical side, although it is also necessary to express the beauty, what is sought is not jumping, flying, divine, but practicality, universality, specialization, that is to say, it is necessary to write the Chinese characters in a way that the top and bottom of the square, the front and back of the flush, the left and right balanced can be.

The reason for the endless charm of Chinese calligraphy is that, in addition to the Chinese characters, there are also special writing tools unique to China, such as brushes made of animal hair, ink made of special materials such as pine oil and smoke, Xuan paper made of traditional craftsmanship, and inkstones made of special stone. For the same Chinese characters, the art of Chinese calligraphy includes seal script, official script, regular script, running script, and cursive script, all of which have the same method of using the brush and the same aesthetic principles, but have very different structures, chapters, and strokes, resulting in different artistic variability. Coupled with the art of Chinese calligraphy is unique to the brush made of animal hair, its softness and elasticity and writing uncertainty, as well as how much ink dipped to show the thickness of the dry and wet wither, writing up the vagaries of the hands of different writers on the "thousands of strange births".

So how to appreciate Chinese calligraphy? Judge calligraphy is good or bad, there are several basic elements: one is the penmanship, that is, the method of using the pen, it has a center, side, offset, exposed, hidden, and other methods, the process of writing there are fast, slow, slow, urgent, stop, have a pause; the second is the junction, like building a house needs to build a frame, high, short, fat, skinny, long, short, round, square with you to create; three is the chapter, like art composition, sparse, dense, imaginary, solid, and the way to make a good calligraphy. Three is the chapter method, like art composition, sparse, dense, false, solid should have; four is the ink method, ink in five colors: dry, wet, thick, light, withered. When you use these methods correctly, you may become a Chinese calligrapher.