Calligraphy

In daily life, most people don’t focus on how they write. You’ll be shocked to learn there’s an ancient art in China which focuses on writing. Every person who goes to school in China knows how to write mandarin, but not everybody can write it well. 

Writing a pretty set of words is not easy. The first form of writing in China is called jia gu wen. Jia gu wen already existed in the Xia dynasty. It was carved into either the bones of animals, or into the shells of turtles. Then, during the Zhou dynasty, the bronze script appeared. During the Qin dynasty, the infamous Qin Shi Huang unified all the scripts into one, which was the xiao zhuan. Though xiao zhuan was a very elegant script, it required a lot of strokes and was hard to write. The citizens and officials decided it was best to use li shu as their unofficial form of writing. By the Han dynasty, kai shu and cao shu had replaced xiao zhuan and li shu became the main writing script. Over time, people shifted from kai shu to xing shu, which was a shared script between cao script and kai script. Cao shu was too hard to read, while kai shu was too formal and took a lot of time. Xing shu was more distinguishable than cao shu, but faster than kai shu, so it was a very popular form of writing. 

Calligraphy was used for many things including the bian e and ying lian. The bian e was basically the title board of a place. The more important the place, the better and more cultured the name. In fact, for some important places, the emperor himself wrote the bian e. The ying lian, also known as dui lian, is the two strips of paper hanging from the sides of the room or chair or door. Usually, the two phrases on the ying lian are connected. The ying lian can be for weddings, holidays, and more. 

Wang Xi Zhi is widely recognized as the best writer, or calligrapher, in ancient China. One of his most famous pieces of work is called “The Lan Ting Ji Xu”. he wrote the piece when he was drunk, so the way he wrote it originally could never be recreated. 

The four treasures of writing include paper, ink, brush, and an object called yan, which is used to make ink. 

For paper, you can get xuan zhi, which will spread the ink more, or shen zhi, which is better for detailed drawings. You can also get a mix of both. 

For ink, the color and liquidity can vary depending on the age of the ink, and the amount of water added. 

For brushes, the material and thickness of the brush can greatly affect how the writing looks. Before the Qin dynasty, the fur, or tip of the pen, was wrapped around the handle. Thanks to the great general Meng Tian, the tip of the pen was instead stuck inside of the handle. In the past, people tried many different types of materials for the tip of the brush. Some materials included sheep wool, rabbit fur, wolf fur, and even mouse whiskers.

With all the hard work people put into calligraphy, it is no surprise that calligraphy is considered a form of art.