Background: During Ancient China, calligraphy was recognized not only as a way of writing text, but as an art. My artifact is an example of the calligraphy that would be on a bronze vessel seal from the Zhou Dynasty. Calligraphy was used to copy Chinese characters in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The earliest form of calligraphy was done by unknown artisans who would create the art for royal and feudal courts. However, they are no longer treated as true calligraphers. Later on, the calligraphers were well-educated people in China -- the literati. During the Six Dynasties, the most well-known and famous calligrapher was Wang Xizhi. He was commonly referred to as the “Sage of Calligraphy.” During the Shang Dynasty, calligraphy could be found on oracle bones which was for divination, a way of predicting the future by magical means. Calligraphy was also discovered to be …show more content…
During the Zhou Dynasty, calligraphy was written on animal bones (oracle bones) or bronze vessels. Also, calligraphy could be seen on the surface of jade. The first writing utensil used was hard wood or bone that was carved into a pen and it is known as the stylus. The crushes created in 300 BCE had hairs that were made from deer hair or rabbit fur. The brush needed to be soft, so it could have that fluid movement needed to be successful at calligraphy. Black ink’s original shape was solid stick, or cakes,. The sticks were then grounded in water on a stone, they would become a liquid consistency. In 100 BCE, paper was discovered and used to write calligraphy on. The Ancient Chinese people would pound vegetable materials like leaves mulberry bark, and bamboo shoots, and put it in a trough of water. Then, they would place the substance on a fine mesh screen. as the water drained, the fibers would form a criss-cross pattern and dry to form
The fall of the Shang dynasty ended the river valley society in China, and made way for the beginning of developed civilization in China. After the collapsed Shang dynasty came the Zhou dynasty, which began in 1029 BCE and flourished until 700 BCE, but it did not officially collapse until 403 BCE. Following that came the period of political disintegration and unease, known as the Era of the Warring States, from 402 BCE to 222 BCE. Finally, the Qin dynasty arose in 221 BCE and brought order back to China, however this did not last, and the dynasty fell in 207 BCE. Revolts over the Qin emperor’s death broke out, and it was the rise of the Han dynasty that restored China’s political
This invention was a change to the Chinese because paper was invented in China around 105 CE. So the Chinese have paper and now it allowed an easy way for people to communicate. It caused a change in their culture because with paper they can now pass down culture easier than before. Before its invention the writing surfaces that were used were, bones, tortoise shells, and bamboo slips. But as the Chinese civilization started to grow they proved to themselves that these writing surfaces won’t work because of the bulk and weight.
I learned about many significant artwork and artist in this class. This class provided me with a better understanding of the history of the world Art, but also helped me understand the development of art style. However, among all of these precious pieces of artwork, there are two special ones that caught my attention: The Chinese Qin Terracotta Warriors and The Haniwa. Each of them represents the artist’s stylistic characteristics and cultural context. Although they represented different art of rulers, historical values, and scenes, there were visible similarities.
Overall, putting the truth about Cranes above Kaifeng aside, this hand scroll containing a painting and a poetic inscription shows how Huizong with his control over art can dictate the meaning and message an art can convey. This will lead to a manifestation of certain belief to the people of Song dynasty, which in this case is a belief that it was a Mandate from Heaven.
Without writing, those sculpture will be inconspicuous, as time goes by this period of history will be faded away, fortunately, word on the stone have magic power which can make sculptures become meaningful. Second, the function of writing, words are a good media to let us leave traces, writing comes into being to retain information across time and across space, people in paleolithic age paint images in clay and on the cave wall. As we mentioned in class, writing has five forms. Pictographic, writing the picture with enough details. Ideographic, writing with general ideas, no detail exists. Logographic, writing the word, one symbol equal one word, take fish as an example, the word fish combine several triangles in different directions with two straight lines. Photographic, a writing linked with the syllable, and alphabetic, one symbol for one phoneme. These five forms reflect the progress of writing's development, the new civilization arising brought the alphabet to a high degree of perfection, and divergent routes led alphabets spread almost all over the world, expect Greece which doesn't need the alphabet to create literature. Third, the writing was entangled with speaking, sometimes the mixing of the visual and the auditory will create puzzles, to some extent, writing is a good way to stain human
China was without a doubt one of the most innovative countries by reason of their many advances made throughout the Shang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Numerous accomplishments were archived by this empire. Their form of government was based on Dynasties, which are series of rulers from the same family. Different dynasties brought out different successes, such as the famous Great wall, which was a 13,170 miles fortress built around around 206 A.C. by millions of people. This structure was ordered to build by China’s first emperor, Qin, in the interest of protecting the Empire from invaders. Another extraordinary Chinese invention was paper. This universal utensil was created in the 2nd century B.C. by Cai Lun. The creating of this material
Huizong was a literati artist, well trained in poetry and calligraphy often looking at paintings in terms of these two arts, adopting many of the aesthetic concepts set forth in Ershisi Shipin (The 24 aspects of Poetry). As a literati artist he believed in “depth and primitive simplicity” in his work, and that painting was an enjoyable activity intended to please one’s self and one’s friends (Barnhart, p.3). His development as an artist was oversaw by three friends, all of high social rank, but of different interests. Zhao Lingrang was a painter and assisted the Emperor in his continual search for scrolls to adorn his colle...
In the country in which we know today as Iraq was where the beginning of writing was created. In Mesopotamia, the ancient Sumerians developed the first writing system, cuneiform. The term cuneiform, which means “wedge-shaped writing” was coined by nineteenth- century scholars and the invention of cuneiform shaped the future for all civilizations. This paper will explore the history of cuneiform, the evolution of writing and never ending impact it had on history.
The most distinctive features of Chinese civilization were in the Song period. This was the scholar-official class certified through highly competitive civil service examinations. These elite were better educated than others in Chinese history. Aristocratic habits and prejudices largely disappeared when examination system was fully developed. This system came to be considered the normal ladder to success. The invention of printing should be given a little credit. The art of carving words and pictures into wooden blocks was developed by Tang craftsmen. They would ink the blocks then press paper onto them. An entire page of text and illustrations was held on each block. In the eleventh century movable type, on piece of type for each character, was invented. In China whole-block printing was cheaper. The spread of literacy was
While the medium of calligraphy has commonly been ink on paper, contemporary artists continuously stretch and challenge the boundaries this traditional art. Two artists in particular represent such efforts to provide new shape and life to calligraphy: Hassan Massoudy and Mattar bin Lahej. Transforming calligraphy from a static art, Iraqi artist Hassan Massoudy introduces theatrically-inspired form and movement to his letters, while Emirati artist Mattar bin Lahej transitions calligraphy to the third dimension by his sculptures. Despite the visual differences between these two artists’ works, both reflect to re-explore the expressive capacities of the word.
... and writings were in the form of symbols called hieroglyphics. Each hieroglyphic stand for a word or a sound or even a silent determinative. They can also stand for different words or phrases in different contexts. There are more than 2000 symbols that can be read in rows or columns. The hieroglyphics were mostly used in monuments and tombs, however, scribes used a different form of writing, which was faster and easier than writing in hieroglyphics, called cursive script and are written and read from right to left in a horizontal way.
This essay gives an overview of early civilization in China and the different periods within this era. Also, it includes political and cultural pursuits of the people within this time period and the struggles of the Asian peoples and their religious beliefs and community uniqueness and differences.
Chinese calligraphy is one of the creative processes of “the three perfections.” Since its history can be traced back to approximately five thousand years ago, it is considered the highest form of artistic expression in Chinese culture. As people may know that many Chinese characters today were derived from the characters founded on the oracle bones, pieces of turtle shells or bones that were used as a form of divination around the 14th – 11th century BCE. These writings are called the Oracle Bone Script (甲骨文). Although these Oracle Bone Scripts were only pictographic characters, it is the earliest form of Chinese calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy was regarded as the “art of handwriting”. It is often used as a means of self-expression for the scholars and artists. Chinese calligraphy consists of many different styles of scripts due to Chinese long and
We need to first have a general understanding of what Calligraphy is. Calligraphy is the most highly regarded and fundamental element of Islamic art. The book of God’s revelations was transmitted in Arabic and was written by a calligrapher. Calligraphy is a means of transmitting a text in a decorative form. Calligraphy in the terms of Arabic Script was an important factor pre-Islamic times because after the death of Muhammad the Qu’ran started to be transcribed into book form.( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-wolfe/calligraphy-islamic-art-of-arts_b_1647263.html) In order for it
It has not only the features of oriental art, but also reveals the temperament and philosophy and morals of Chinese people, for it has been nurtured by its traditional culture of thousands of years. It has close relationship with other art forms in development. With the development of science and technology, Chinese language is used as widely as other languages. Although traditional writing has been replaced by printing, its artistic features are not lost. On the contrary, it becomes perfect. The calligraphy works can be represented exactly by the photoengraving, signatures on books, newspapers, magazines by famous calligraphers are more popular. It proves that the unique features of Chinese characters will not be deserted due to the increase of advanced technology. And this will be a good reason for the prosperity of calligraphy together with the rapid growth of printing