Chinese writing: the beauty of calligraphy!

Nearly everyone has seen the beauty of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese writing. The graceful thin and delicate figures almost resemble dancing figures that dance all over the fragile rice paper expressing the artist’s ideas and thoughts in a few subtle brushstrokes. But what is Chinese Writing and how does one become a proponent of this art form? Let’s find out!

Chinese writing is one of the oldest forms of writing in history and over the years, it has withstood the test of time with very few changes. Over the 3500 years that it has been around, there have been only five major changes that have occurred and they are-

Oracle bone scripts- oracle bones were used by the ancient Chinese to divine the future. This was the earliest form of Chinese writing and several forms of these used oracle bones have still been found in archaeological excavations. The script of Chinese writing was used to write questions on the bone and then the bone was heated with thin rods. This created cracks on the surface on the bone which were then interpreted as answers. These bones were also used as records of the ancient emperors who used to rule china at the time and several oracle bones have proved the actual existence of ancient emperors who were considered as mythological heroes.

Dazhuan or Greater seal of Chinese writing- this form of Chinese writing was commonly used during the late Shang to the early Chou dynasties. This form of writing is commonly found inscribed on the bronze work that is symbolic of that era. Although the initial bone script and the Dazhuan script are almost the same, they look a little different due to the surfaces they were inscribed on.

Xiaozhuan, or Lesser Seal- This is an extremely elegant form of writing found in several of the later dynasties. The writing style is almost pictorial in origin with the letter resembling the objects they are trying to portray. Most of these letters are still popular and are commonly used in modern Chinese writing.

Lishu, or Clerkly Script- as the name suggests, this script was commonly used by the scribes to record day to day happenings. Lishu was extremely popular in the Han dynasty and it shows a particularly spontaneous style that is still easy to use in modern Chinese Writing.

Modern significance:

Recently several archaeologists have disputed the fact that Chinese writing is 3,500 years old. The modern day count has established that the ancient style of Chinese writing could be as old as 8,000 years old! But apart from that, the understanding of Chinese writing and the language has undergone a dramatic change. Initially, the stylized writing created the perception that they were pictorial in depiction. But now the understanding is that the language is made up of clubbing of characters that are used as aggregates to signify an object or large range of objects.

Layout of Chinese writing:

The characters of Chinese writing are arranged in a box so in any booklet of writing, you will see columns and rows of graceful letters. Even if two letters are used to signify a word they are gracefully compressed to fit into the same location and square so as to look more symmetrical.

There is so much more you can learn about Chinese writing and the calligraphy style. But no matter what the underlying basis, it’s only fair to say that the writing is really mesmerizing in its simplicity and designs.