Beauty Behind The Brushstrokes

Beauty Behind The Brushstrokes

Chinese calligraphy, the ancient Chinese art of writing, has been around for as long as the history of China. Through thousand of years of evolution, many styles and forms have been developed and established, namely the zhuan, li, kai, xing and cao styles (shu). Different styles express different personalities and are used for different purposes and at different times. But the underlying beauty of Chinese calligraphy, regardless of its style, lies in its expression of thoughts and feelings of the calligrapher and ultimately, the spontaneous response from the viewer's mind. However, these styles, with different degrees of variation in forms, possess varied levels of expressiveness.

The different level of expressiveness lies in the varaition of forms and the degree of variation. Zhuan shu and li shu are mainly for official writings and zhuan shu is the precedent of li shu. Li shu follows a certain strict prescription with minimal variations in the writings, and hence it is not very capable of expressing the thoughts and feelings of the calligrapher. However it is not until the materialization of li shu that this ancient form of writing can be considered as an art form with the capability of expressing ones feelings and thoughts, due to its flexibility and indefinite forms. Kai shu evolves from these two precedents and is the most commonly used style today due to its regular forms and legibility. However due to its slightly stricter prescription, it allows fewer variations and hence is less capable of exuding the calligraphers emotions and personalities. But with an injection of "motion" or flow in kai shu, the words become more fluid and indefinite. Such style is named xing shu, which is more ...

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...of thoughts and feelings, which are all merely preludes, lies the climax of the symphony of Chinese brushstrokes- the silent dialogue between human minds and their surroundings.

Works Cited

S.H Khoo and Nancy L. Penrose. Behind the Brushstrokes: Tales from Chines Calligraphy. Singapore: Graham Brash Pte Ltd, 1993.

Jean Francoise Billeter. The Chinese Art of Writing. New York: Rizzoli International Publication, Inc, 1990.

A.H Maslow. Towards a Psychology of Being. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1968.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. "Why Write?" In Critical Theory Since Plato ed. Hazard Adams. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1971.

Best, David. The Rationality of Feeling: Understanding the Arts in Education. London: The Falmer Press, 1992.

Abstracted Works of calligraphy

Chiang Yee. Chinese Calligraphy. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1938