Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

We do not need a drawing-board to be hinged to the edge of the table so that it can be inclined at any desired angle. We simply place the paper on the flat surface. The table sketched in Fig. 90 is higher than the tables we use for other purposes, because, for the sake of greater freedom of movement, we prefer to stand when writing a large piece of calligraphy. When We sit to write we like to have the chair of such a height that the waist is just below the level of the table.

We use the same paper for writing as for painting: coarse in weave and more porous than that with which you are familiar in the West. It is specially suited to our method of handling the brush, with its rapid, lively and balanced alternation of light and heavy strokes. If you examine carefully any wellwritten character you will understand what I mean.t For learning and practising we use a cheaper paper. Unbleached and yellowish in colour, it has nevertheless the same general characteristics as the more expensive kind. For formal calligraphy we use as a rule a well-ripened paper which has been dipped in a warm solution after the initial process and then pressed to give an extra fineness of texture.

Fig. 90 shows how the paper is placed on the table. Beside it are the brush, the brush-stand, the ink, and the ink-stone. These four writing instruments are called The Four Treasures, of the Room of Literature, Wén-Fan-Szu-Pao (x % W #), because all four are indispensable to every calligrapher, painter, and scholar. I will not go into the history of their evolution, but content myself with explaining how they are used.

Chinese ink, the most characteristic medium for calligraphy

1 For a more detailed discussion of the instruments used in Chinese painting and writing I refer the reader to The Chinese Eye, pages 192-212.

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