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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

can be arranged to discharge aesthetic ‘ musical’ significances, as in much Western poetry. Written words can be formed to. liberate visual beauties; and this is possible with Chinese characters in a greater degree, it is safe to say, than with the script of any other language, because art, not science or religion, was the prime end of those responsible for their development. A good Chinese character is an artistic thought.

Chinese characters are monosyllabic and pictographic. They are not made up from an alphabet, but stand alone, each ideogram throwing on the mind an isolated picture. This is a different system from that of any Western language. European words are sound symbols intended for pronunciation and containing no visual idea. Some of our characters too, I must admit, are only sound symbols, having no ‘ written’ meaning, but these derive chiefly from our comparatively recent attempts to translate by their sounds the words of foreign languages into our own. Chinese characters comprise three elements, thought, sound, and form, and thus are able to fulfil both the uses of daily life and the exacting requirements of an artistic medium.

I doubt if, as a step to the full appreciation of Chinese calligraphy, I can persuade my readers to learn the Chinese language, in spite of the assurances of many of my countrymen that it is an easy language to acquire ; but I should at least like them to realize the simplicity and clarity of its appeal to the memory. It is these qualities that have caused Chinese writing to be so widely used throughout our vast country. Chinese is in nature and origin entirely different from any other language. It is perhaps the only pure language in the world. Thoroughly to understand a single Western tongue one must know several others. English, to take one example—an extreme one, it is

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