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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

vertical stroke should divide the oblong into two or four equal squares, but the equality should be more an optical illusion than a geometrical exactitude.

(4) Hsiang-Pei (0 4),

內 AT Py 幼 Facing Inwards and Out-

wards. In certain characters

(intedor) (good) (do (young) «the parts have the appear-

FIG. 115 ance of facing one another ;

in others, of turning their

上 Jak x Ht, backs to each other. The

4 four characters in Fig. 115,

Fei Nei, Hao, Men, and Yu,

(Nort nd) oui) (8) face inwards; the four in

" Fig. 116, Pez, Fen, Wai, and

Fei, face outwards. These effects are the product of the general

movements of the strokes. In composing inward-facing char-

acters, the difficulty is to place the parts just far enough apart to

secure the effect of ‘facing’; with outward-facing characters,

it is to get the parts, without cramping, close enough together to secure the effect of ‘ back-to-back’.

跟 形 AA ie

Kén Hsing Yiian (heel) (shape) (to wish) (body) FIG. II7 FIG. 118

Sometimes the two parts face the same way. Both parts . of the character Kén in Fig. 117, for example, have a rightward tendency, while both parts of Hsimg are directed leftwards. Hsiang-Pei is also applied to characters, such as Yiian and Ti (Fig. 118), of which neither part faces either inwards or out[176 ]