Calligraphy in China is the art of writing with a chinese brush. It is unique to Chinese culture, and a few other countries influenced by ancient Chinese culture. In Chinese history, calligraphy has been held as much so in high regard as painting. Chinese Calligraphy through thousdands of years of evolution, has develop into many schools and styles. The five general Chinese scripts are:
- Zhuan - the seal character
- Li - Official, clerical
- Kai - Regular script
- Xing - The running hand
- Cao - The cursive hand
Chinese Calligraphy dates back over 4000 years. In Chinese culture, there are 4 activities held in high regard: "Qin, Qi, Shu, Hua". Qin is a Chinese musical instrument, Qi is chess, Shu is the art writing, and Hua is painting. Shu or Chinese calligraphy, is a rather popular public event that you're likely to see in many parks that has cemented roads.
Giant Chinese Calligraphy Writing - A Popular Pastime
Calligraphy in China is the art of writing with a chinese brush. It is unique to Chinese culture, and a few other countries influenced by ancient Chinese culture. In Chinese history, calligraphy has been held as much so in high regard as painting. Chinese Calligraphy through thousdands of years of evolution, has develop into many schools and styles. The five general Chinese scripts are:
- Zhuan - the seal character
- Li - Official, clerical
- Kai - Regular script
- Xing - The running hand
- Cao - The cursive hand
Chinese Calligraphy dates back over 4000 years. In Chinese culture, there are 4 activities held in high regard: "Qin, Qi, Shu, Hua". Qin is a Chinese musical instrument, Qi is chess, Shu is the art writing, and Hua is painting. Shu or Chinese calligraphy, is a rather popular public event that you're likely to see in many parks that has cemented roads.
Outdoor Chinese Calligraphy
There are many forms and schools of Chinese writing. I'm mainly refering to the recreational type that's common place outdoors! I'm not talking about scholars or famous Chinese calligraphers, but average, ordinary Chinese people who enjoy this activity. Wondering what I'm talking about? See this photo:
Outdoor Chinese Calligraphy at Temple of Heaven In Beijing
As you can see in the photo above, a man is holding a rather large brush, probably about a meter in length, and the brush head is quite large. He is taking part in a popular outdoor activity that involves writing Chinese Calligraphy. He dabs the brush in a bucket of water, and writes Chinese characters on the cement ground. They typcially write whatever comes to their mind - it could be a Chinese poem, some slang, or whatever they feel like writing. Often times, they use the tiles on the ground as the writing space.
At many of the parks and tourist destination you visit, the chances are good that you will see several people holding gigantic brushes writing Chinese Calligraphy. Usually, they will write one style of calligraphy, or multiple styles for variation. In one of my previous trips to Beijing, back in 2005, I had visited Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), and inside the park, there was a large crowd gathered around watching a dozen or so people writing these artistic calligraphy.
Not far from the person in the photo above, is another calligrapher enjoying his day writing Chinese calligraphy.
Not sure if you can see it clearly from the photo above, but as you can see, this style of writing is quite different from the first photo. It's really quite amazing to see the writing in action - the smooth flow of the brush, and the artistic character that's created with each brush stroke. Since water is used to write, it dries up after a few minutes, and disappears, and the calligrapher begins at the start again. |
