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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

Kuan, K‘ung and Yu have a flat cover at the top, the centre of which is marked by a well-placed dot; Ym and Lao have additional strokes above the cover; Hui, Ho, Chin and Ming have obviously roof-like tops, with the lower elements so disposed as to balance the whole.

(8) Man-Pu-Yao-Hsii (js 不 BE iit), an idiomatic phrase which may be translated, ‘in filling up, leave no empty space’. Man-Pu-Yao-Hsii is applied chiefly to characters bounded by a large outer square which the calligrapher must fill with suitably sized strokes so as to leave no ineloquent blanks. The tendencies are either to crowd the enclosed strokes or to extend

them too close to

EA 國 目 \e 2) oO the square. The square itself, inci-

(eanden) ea ie 5) (return) an dentally, is usually more nearly a rectangle (see Yiian,

Kuo, and Mu in Fig. 128), and the corners are not perfect

right angles but are modified in such ways as the five shown in

Fig. 128. Characters like Mu, Hui, and K‘ou, which have few

or no enclosed strokes, have their whole compass diminished

in order to reduce the size of the blanks. (9) I-Lien (3% #2), Implied Connexion. Certain rather simple characters are composed of dots and strokes which have no obvious interrelation. al: y = yy Hsiao, I, San, and Ch‘uan — in Fig. 129 are examples. at Gn Chuan Lhese touches of the brush (small) (to 和 (three) (stream) fall, as a rule, away from

FIG. 129 ‘one another, but they seem [ 180 ]

FIG. 128