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

TECHNIQUE

quired, and we shall need to fill the whole length of the hairs with ink. Only a part of the hairs will ever touch the paper. For Tun seventy per cent of them; for T% fifty per cent; and for Na ninety per cent (Fig. 98). In any particular stroke, two of these movements only may be employed, or all three. There is no hard-and-fast rule; my figures are only rough computations, and must vary with the individual manner of the calligrapher. The 7% movement makes thin strokes, and the Na movement thick; and their right alternation governs the

FIG. 98

composition of a character. The Na movement is often applied to the ‘empty’ part of a character where the strokes are few ; T% to the parts where many strokes are accumulated. In making the 7“: movement the brush is gradually lifted, starting with about half of it on the paper and ending with the point only. Tun is always used for starting and ending a stroke, when turning, and at the junction of two strokes. There is a saying that a stroke should be started with a force great enough to move a mountain and end with some of it still left! Every stroke has its definite startmg and ending, easily visible in K*‘a-Shu and Hsing-Shu, but somewhat obscure in Ts‘ao-Shu. 10 [145 ]