Is calligraphy one of the quintessence of Chinese culture?

Calligraphy is one of the most traditional arts with China characteristics, and is recognized as the quintessence of China.

Calligraphy can only be an art form of writing Chinese characters in a narrow sense. Calligraphy art runs through the 5,000-year history of civilization in China. Before Japanese pseudonyms came into being, China's calligraphy had experienced changes from seal script to official script, from official script to cursive script, running script and regular script, which formed numerous artistic peaks and produced many masters.

Among them, pen, paper, ink, inkstone and seal, as calligraphy tools, also contain rich and diverse artistic and scientific means. In the process of calligraphy development, a complete art theory including China's philosophy, life connotation and aesthetic taste has been formed, which is probably incomparable to other art forms at home and abroad.

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Compared with architecture, painting, sculpture, music, dance, literature, drama and movies, calligraphy can rival and surpass in the accumulation of creation and the completeness of theory. German scholar souriau divided art into seven basic elements, such as line, volume, color, light, movement, sound and music, and each element can constitute two different kinds of art, namely abstraction and imitation.

For example, color elements can constitute pure painting (abstract art) and reproducible painting (imitation art); Mass elements constitute architecture (abstraction) and sculpture (imitation); Line elements constitute decorative patterns (abstract) and sketches (imitation).

The line elements of China's calligraphy art have crossed the boundary between abstraction and imitation, which is a unique space plastic art form, similar to painting and purer. The color reverts to black and white, and the space follows the lines. Although there is no sound, there is a rhythm of music. Although it is static, it is flying-such a broad and profound art form can only be said to be China's calligraphy.