CineseCalligraphy

1、lecture six: chinese calligraphy主講：國(guó)際學(xué)院 余惠芬等course objectives 1. to have a rough idea of chinese calligraphy and painting: history and features as a treasure of chinese traditional culture 2. to learn to express in english when introducing chinese calligraphy and painting is necessary.course content

2、 since time is limited, it is impossible to give a detailed discussion about the topic, the course will focus on a general picture of the subject or some particular aspects. this lecture will center on the brush calligraphy and painting only, and more emphasis is to be laid on calligraphy.chinese ca

3、lligraphy with a history of four to five thousand years, the art of calligraphy is rich and profound in content and has attracted the attention of artists the world over. what are four basic skills and disciplines of chinese literati文人文人, 文文學(xué)界學(xué)界? shu (calligraphy) hua (painting), qin (a string music

4、al instrument), and qi (a strategic boardgame) are the four basic skills and disciplines of the chinese literati. calligraphy: features and position & influence what is the purpose of chinese calligraphy? conveying thought, the abstract beauty of the line. rhythm, line, and structure are more pe

5、rfectly embodied in calligraphy than in painting or sculpture.revealing of ones personality chinese saying: zi ru qi ren zi zi zhu ji criterion for selection of executives to the imperial court ：strokes are permanent and incorrigible, demanding careful plan and confident execution, skills required f

6、or an administrator.an infinite variety of styles and forms. by controlling the concentration of ink, the thickness and adsorptivity of the paper, the flexibility of the brush, the artist is free to produce : an infinite variety of styles and forms example: ink blots, dry brush strokes as impromptu

7、rather than a faultwhile western calligraphy font-like uniformity, homogeneity of in one size is only a craft.書(shū)法 handwriting a most relaxing yet highly disciplined exercise indeed for ones physical and spiritual well being. eg. many calligraphy artist were known for their longevityinfluence japan &a

8、mp; korea : calligraphy as an important treasure of their heritage. japanese: contest of writing big characters at schools big gathering commemorating the lanting xu by wang xi zhi korean: government officials were required to excel in calligraphy. office of okinawa governor-decor in the west: picas

9、so and matisse馬蒂斯，亨利1869-1954法國(guó)藝術(shù)家、野獸派畫(huà)家先鋒 picasso： had i been born chinese, i would have been a calligrapher, not a painter henri matisse： traces of calligraphy strokes in the paintings jackson pollocks action paintings：the impact of cao shu (swift/grass style) by huai su. pollock, jackson (1912-56

10、). american painter, the commanding figure of the abstract expressionist movement. brice marden (american) and mark tobey american abstract expressionist painter, 1890-1976) ： two other contemporary artists who have actually studied chinese calligraphy and used its techniques in their paintings. mod

11、ern western art： especially in industrial art. in computer advertisements: calligraphy-type, free-form lettering in lieu of the mundane time roman and arial fonts. notably, the logo of lucent 美國(guó)朗訊科技公司, 原at&t實(shí)驗(yàn)室is a best example of application of chinese calligraphy - a red circle done with a chi

12、nese brush signifies the first bit of all computer language(zero). proliferation of digital computation and silicon chips, free form calligraphy prevail. a renaissance period for this ancient art. like chopsticks, as chinese culture spread to korea, japan, vietnam and singapore, calligraphy became a

13、 unique feature of oriental art.what is calligraphy? chinese calligraphy is an oriental art. but what makes it an art? the art of writing chinese characters. a unique artistic form with a long history not content with writing the characters correctly and legibly urged by their love of beauty and cre

14、ative impulse, make each character into an artistic unit through centuries of sustained and uninterrupted practice, and by putting many such units together, produce an artistic compositions. a graphic composition a life-unit consisting of bone and muscles, flesh and blood, which allows people to dis

15、play their imagination and artistic ability freely; the unique writing implements, especially the brush qualities of a painting use of chinese characters to communicate the spiritual world of the artist. different faces different handwriting through medium of form, way of handling the brush, present

16、ation, and style, calligraphy as a work of art conveys the moral integrity, character, emotions, esthetic feelings and culture of the artist to readers, affecting them by the power of appeal and the joy of beauty. not only a practical technique for writing chinese characters but also a unique orient

17、al art of expression and a branch of learning or discipline as well. rich in content, wide ranging and deep, forming an important part of chinese culture， including ： evolution of writing styles development and rules of technique history of calligraphy, calligraphers and their inheritance in art, ev

18、aluation of calligraphy as a work of art. in the eyes of knowledgeable western scholar: not mere symbol, but a lofty art every character is written like a beautiful flower. develop a keen interest in and love for chinese calligraphy. from the construction of the characters they seek to understand ca

19、lligraphy. from calligraphy they seek to learn about oriental culture abstract beauty of chinese calligraphic art.-the most ancient and most condensed of abstract arts. the beauty of image in painting, the beauty of dynamism in dance and the beauty of rhythm in music. an intimate relationship betwee

20、n abstract art-the ultramodern art of the west and the most ancient art-calligraphy-of the east. although calligraphys home is china, it does not belong exclusively to china. it does not belong exclusively to the east, either. its no exaggeration to say that calligraphy is a gem in the worlds art tr

21、easury.origin of calligraphy ancient chinese calligraphy history since the day when the shell-and-bone inscriptions appeared in the shang period no precise date is given in ancient chinese history. legend : yellow emperor -cang jie invented the chinese language-calligraphy came -4,600 years ago, but

22、 legendary and credible. archaeological discoveries -new china- have authenticated that 4,500 years ago language came into existence in china. it follows that calligraphy entered an embryonic stage then. the photo is an ancient sunrise painting. the painting was a design inscribed on a big-mouthed p

23、ottery jar-a sacrificial vessel to the sun by primitive chinese forebears in shandong during the period when the dawenkou culture thrived (4000-2000 bc).pottery discovered in the ruins of the ancient longshan culture in dinggong village, zouping county, shan-dong province, in january 1992. it may we

24、ll be described as the embryo of calligraphy in seal characters. it is 4,300 years old chinese calligraphy is at least four thousand years old, based on legendary tales and on textual criticism in archaeology.but: is it possible that something like a brush was used to write the calligraphy? in other

25、 words, calligraphy written by means of the brush also has a history of over four thousand years in china. the beginning up to the han dynasty -from the primitive to mature. more simplified, more convenient and more practical and as beautiful as possible. so it is reasonable that some scholars and c

26、ritics regard the han dynasty, or to be more exact, the late han as the beginning era when character-writing was purposely engaged in as an art.(206bc220ad)analysis of chinese characters ( calligraphy alphebet) calligraphy is the art of writing chinese characters. to understand calligraphy, one must

27、 first know something about chinese characters. the various nationalities in the world have created their own languages, but the chinese have created an independent calligraphic art. why? the reason is mainly related to the features of the language.two systems of languages languages fall into two sy

28、stems: sound and meaning. phonetic：語(yǔ)音 eg: the cuneiform 楔形的, 楔狀骨的, 楔形文字的 writing of the sumerian n.閃族人語(yǔ) the katakana in the japanese language english, french, russian, german and latinideographic 表意的, 表意字構(gòu)成的 the language of the sacred books of ancient egypt, the pictographic象形文字的language of crete 克利

29、特島(位于地中海東部,屬希臘), the chinese language the language of the dongba nationality. ideographic languages have for the most part become extinct. only one such language as, chinese, is still widely used today. a comparison of the two systems of language indicates that a phonetic language has an advantage o

30、ver an ideographic language. phonetic languages: few letters, easily learned and memorized, popularized more easily the pinyin form of chinese represents the direction of language development. ideographic languages:a great many symbols, difficult and cumbersome morphology, hard to learn and remember

31、, e a s i l y b e p o p u l a r i z e d . morphology n.生物形態(tài)學(xué)、形態(tài)論, 語(yǔ)法詞法、詞態(tài)學(xué) cumbersome adj.討厭的, 麻煩的, 笨重的 the inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells of the shang dynasty, three thousand years ago or so, had vocabularies of five thousand symbols. the recently published han yu da zi dian漢語(yǔ)大字典, a comp

32、rehensive chinese-language dictionary, has over 54,000 entries. every character can be written in regular script, grass script, official script, etc., and every script can be written differently, ranging from a few to as many as scores of styles. the largest runs to about one hundred. for example, b

33、ai shou tu 百壽圖 shows one hundred ways to write shou (longevity) in official script. the chinese language contains an enormous number of characters. difficult to novice n.新手, 初學(xué)者 everything in the world is said to have a dual character. for chinese : a huge stock of characters and the morphology vari

34、es greatly. writing words in many ways. opening up a huge vista （n.狹長(zhǎng)的景色, 街景, 展望, 回想） for chinese calligraphy to develop into an independent art. difficult to master but governed by rules. just like notes in music, characters are formed by changing the combination of elements. tens of thousands of w

35、ords in chinese can be broken down into several hundred component parts. take, for instance：中國(guó)eight basic strokes in chinese character dot, dash, perpendicular downstroke, downstroke to the left, wavelike stroke, hook, upstroke to the right and bend. the eight basic strokes, like notes in music, can

36、 be developed into many tunes and movements, or schools of chinese calligraphy.every chinese character contains a picturewhat chinese calligraphy supply do you need? brush, ink, paper ink stone (ink slab) calligraphy set- four treasures of the studybrush meng tian (?-210 b.c.) brush predated the wri

37、tten language itself. based on the decorative designs on painted pottery and visible stains or marks of a brush, the history of the chinese brush can be traced back a least six thousand years. brushin a large degree makes writing of chinese character an art. strokes can be light or heavy, thick or f

38、ine. the strokes flow naturally, entering an artistic world with an element of wonder. other materials may give you a handsome style, but they can hardly attain the level of achievement in calligraphic art executed by the brush.selecting brush the head of brush: made of the hair of the goat, wolf, r

39、at or rabbit the chinese brush point s h o u l d h a v e t h e following characteristics: roundness, pointedness, evenness and strength. “round like an awl, pressed like a chisel”kinds: by material: soft, stiff or combination of the two soft: made of goat hair yang hao stiff: made of wolf hair lang

40、hao combination:70 percent rabbit hair and 30 percent goat hair jian hao by size: small, medium size, big generally, a big, soft brush is used to write large characters and a small, stiff one to write small characters. ink stick legendkang yi 2800 years ago archaeologists: ink marks on the back of i

41、nscribed bones or tortoise shells of the shang dynasty,3200 years ago.three major categories of ink sticks fall into three major categories, according to the chief materials used in manufacture. the pine-soot ink stick: pine sootglue, medicinal material and spices. the oil-soot ink stick. tung oil,

42、sesame oil, rapeseed oil or petroleum is burned and the soot is mixed with gelatine, medicinal material and spices. the oil- and pine-soot ink stick. this is a mixture of the previous proportions vary, and the quality of the ink stick differs accordingly.choosing the ink stick by its color and sound

43、. glossy adj.平滑的, 有光澤的purple is best. black is second. glossy green is third. glossy white is last. if you strike the ink stick and it gives a light sound, this means it is a fine ink stick. if the sound is muffled, it is not a good one. if the sound is fine when you grind the ink stick on the slab,

44、 it means you have a good ink stick. if the sound is rough during grinding, it means the ink stick is none too good.how to grind the ink stick clean water for grinding. the best water contains a small amount of salt. next comes well water, then tap water, then distilled water. do not use tea or hot

45、water to grind an ink stick.the ink stick must be balancedpress hard and rub lightly. rub the ink stick slowly and evenly . at first use only a little water. when a thick liquid forms, add water and rub or grind again. the thickness or thinness of the ink depends on how much or how little you need t

46、o use. if the ink is too thick, it will be difficult to use the tip of the brush, which will glue up. if the ink is too thin, it will probably filter through the paper.paperlegend-cai lun 7-121)archaeological discoveries: early western han, a coarse paper appeared.xuan paper jing county paper was fi

47、rst shipped to xuanzhou, then transshipped to other ports. (the county was under the jurisdiction of xuanzhou prefecture), hence the name. soft and fine textured, suitable for conveying the artistic expression of both chinese calligraphy and painting. good tensile /tensail/ strength and not easily e

48、aten by moths, preserved for a long time. reputation of lasting a thousand years.kinds of xuan paper kinds of xuan paper: dan, jia, luowen, coral, tiger-skin and jade-plate. quality:unprocessed, processed or half-processed. its somewhat to your advantage to use coarse paper. if you practice handwrit

49、ing under less favorable conditions, you develop greater adaptability. do not think that you cannot produce good handwriting if you do not have good-quality paper to practice on.ink slab or ink stonewhen was ink slab invented? controversial question. attributed to the yellow emperor ，but appeared mu

50、ch earlier(six to seven thousand years ago) archaeologists: many ancient ink slabs discovered, such as a jade ink slab of the shang and zhou dynasties, a stone slab of the pre-qin dynasty, a painted slab and a painted slab mixed with sand belonging to the han dynasty, copper and silver slabs as well

51、 as iron slabs of the wei and jin dynasties, a blue porcelain slab of the six dynasties and a clay slab of the tang dynasty. what was ink stone made of? most ink slabs, modern or ancient, were made of stone. the earliest ink slab was made of stone and acquired the greatest popularity.how can ink sto

52、nes be classified? ink stones or ink slabs have been classified into three categories since the tang dynasty: duan she tao.duan ink slab produced in zhaoqing, guangdong province, it is made of duan stone, so named because the duanxi river runs at the foot of mount fuke, where the stone is found. sai

53、d to be the best stone for making ink slabs, duan stone was used to make ink slabs as early as the tang dynasty (618-907). duan ink slabs have earned a high reputation among chinese scholars ever since.she ink slab it is named after shezhou prefecture, anhui province, where it was first produced in

54、the tang dynasty. many counties under the jurisdiction of this prefecture produce she ink slabs, but the best come from mount longwei, wuyuan county, jiangxi province. sometimes she ink slabs are referred to as longwei ink slabs. tao ink slab this ink slab has been produced in taozhou since ancient

55、times. now it is produced mainly in taoyan village, zhuoni county, gansu province. tao ink slabs are made of stone found at the tao river; hence the name.use of ink stab one common feature ： hard and fine. hard but not dry. though fine, it is not slippery. it yields ink very quickly.in grinding the

56、ink stick against the ink slab: exert your force evenly, so as to keep the ink slab steady. grind only the ink you need for writing. after use, the slab must be washed clean. leave a bit of clean water in the center of the slab. this will keep the slab in good condition. take care not to stain the s

57、lab with oil or grease.changes in writing style different writing styles, or scripts zhenshu (regular script prevalent in the han dynasty) caoshu (cursive script), lishu (official script,clerical) and zhuan-shu (seal character script).development of stylesthree epochs: seal character script official

58、 script regular script. seal character period the seal character period ran from(the end of primitive society to the qin dynasty (221-206b.c). the period, lasting more than two thousand years, is divided into three phases: early seal character greater seal character lesser seal character. early seal

59、 characters written by primitive people the earliest form of writing on record. a mild style and varied postures. like a length of knotted rope. this form of writing was perhaps related to the use of rope by primitive people to record eventsgreater seal characters generally refer to ancient scripts

60、of pre-qin dynasty, such as inscriptions on bones, tortoise shells, bronze vessels and drum-shaped stone blocks and the ancient language of the six states. inscriptions engraved on bones and tortoise shells -mostly stiff and straight early inscriptions on bronze vessels -roundness, fullness and roundabout turn