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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

its meaning clearly through its appearance, even if it has no sound.

It has been said that Chinese characters were derived from ancient Babylonian and Egyptian. We can easily pass a judgement on the first of these propositions by examining the following comparisons ! :

sun house hand comb bird

Ancient Babylonian : © 0 wl tl ¥

sun house hand broom swallow

Ancient Chinese : a 1 Y 說 小

Between the first two pairs of characters there is a difference in the way of imaging the object. Both of the fourth pair have a connexion with ladies, but in Babylonian the object is a comb while in Chinese it is a broom. The similarity of construction in the fifth pair is only very approximate.

Now let us compare the ancient Egyptian script with the Chinese. For convenience I will divide my comparisons into four groups :

(1) Similar in form and meaning :

Ancient Egyptian :

sun moon mountain water eagle silk eye knife 0oe® ws wa hed BE mm {yoo \}

Ancient Chinese : sun moon mountain water eagle silk eye knife

no typ @U TTA AHL Ud

1] take these comparisons from ‘:Kuo-Wen-Tan-Su-I-Pan’, by Hua Shih-Fu. [ 36 ]