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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

The speed of the strokes is another important factor of brushwork. Every stroke is composed of alternating quick and slow movements. Which these are can only be described in relation to a particular character.

The terms Reserved and Exposed, which describe the two ways in which the brush-tip can touch the paper, require some explanation. When the brush is filled with ink all the hairs are bound together into a fine point. A stroke is said to be Exposed when the brush—poised, as usual, vertically—is drawn along the paper without the tip of it being turned in, the resultant stroke having sharp outlines like a bird’s beak and lacking, to our eyes, vitality. In a Reserved stroke the hairtips are turned in slightly and the track of the brush’s point forms a visible line down the centre of the stroke. Any good example by an old master will display Reserved brushwork. If you hold the paper up to the light you will notice—for Chinese paper is rather thin—a darker streak running down the middle of the stroke, the ink around it being lighter.

The expression Fu-Mu-San-Fen (A # = 3) which means ‘piercing into the wood three-tenths of an inch’, is used to describe the impression created by a stroke of which the ink, under the force of the writer’s stroke, appears to penetrate through the paper into the wood of the table beneath. This is done with an ‘ upright brush’. A graceful and supple stroke can be achieved by slanting the brush. Depending upon these two positions of brush are two distinct styles of writing: YdianPi ({B] 4), Round Stroke, and Fang-Pi (Fj 4), Square Stroke (literally). The first type is produced by the 7‘: movement, the second by the Tun. Round Stroke writing is graceful and supple, Square Stroke solid and reposed. Square Stroke is

[ 146 ]