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

IV

THE ABSTRACT BEAUTY OF CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

EAUTY is a difficult word to define, especially as B applied to Chinese calligraphy.

There is a beauty which appeals immediately to the heart—in natural scenery, for instance, and in some pictures. There is also a beauty which more than half conceals itself within or behind Form and is revealed only to the ‘informed’ and searching eye. The first we can trace to its origin and analyse. The second is generated neither by powerful thought nor reason, nor has it any particular source : it is the ‘ abstract ’ beauty of line.

The word ‘line’ suggests certain general shapes—straight and curved, thick and thin. The medium of all the graphic arts is line—straight and curved or in combinations of straight and curved. Straight lines give the impression of solidity, strength, severity, immobility. Curves engender feelings of motion, buoyancy, suavity, and delicacy ; they also tend towards the negative and effeminate. The beauty of handwriting in any language is the product of combinations of these two linear movements. But whereas calligraphers of Western languages are confined within the range of straight and curved lines, Chinese calligraphers have additional scope for individuality in

[ 106 ]