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

ABSTRACT BEAUTY

variations of the separate strokes. All this constitutes what I have termed the ‘ abstract beauty’ of line. But definition is difficult and not always very helpful; my meaning may be clearer after I have given some examples and analogies.

To the Chinese themselves, calligraphy is the most fundamental artistic manifestation of the national mind. Rhythm, line, and structure are more perfectly embodied in calligraphy than in painting or sculpture, and even form and movement appear in it in at least equal measure. Every Chinese character, built up in its own square, presents to the calligrapher an almost infinite variety of problems of structure and composition ; and when executed it presents to the reader a formal design the abstract beauty of which is capable of drawing the mind away from the literal meaning of the characters. Many of our scholars have confessed that they have almost lost their minds in contemplating the miraculous lines and structures of some of our characters—characters so combined as to introduce indirectly to the thought aesthetically satisfying equilibria of visual forces and movements. For there is in every piece of fine Chinese writing a harmony which is a source of pleasure over and above the pleasure of apprehending the thought. To those who lack the sense of abstract visual beauty, or are unable to experience it from Chinese characters, the enthusiasm of those Chinese connoisseurs who lose their heads over a single line or group of lines that have no apparent logical meaning, will seem little short of madness ; but such enthusiasm is not misplaced, and it is my aim in this book to explain whence this joy is derived.

I cannot write of the abstract beauty of Chinese calligraphy without mentioning some of the most vital movements in con-

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