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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

seek to examine as many existing masterpieces of calligraphy as possible. Until recently they suffered a considerable handicap in that no means existed of reproducing calligraphy beyond that of engraving on stone and taking rubbings from the stone. The rubbings were circulated among scholars and closely studied, and the process of engraving was carried to such a pitch of excellence that it became itself an art; in every period there were good craftsmen doing this work, though their names were not recorded and are not now known. But these rubbings had no wide circulation. Formerly, when travel in China was tiresome and inconvenient, it was often very difficult to procure good examples of them. Sometimes a scholar who possessed one would try to take a fresh engraving from it and circulate rubbings of this; later, a third engraving might be taken from one of the second rubbings. With each transcript a part at least of the quality of the original would be lost. This necessitated a special study being made by scholars to distinguish rubbings taken from original engravings from those taken from copies. It was a delicate study, for the craftsmen who engraved the copies had necessarily to be highly skilled and they could generally write well themselves. From reading and personal experience I know that Chinese scholars have always spent a great deal of time discussing the strokes and composition of good examples of calligraphy engraved on stone. The stone may be worn with repeated rubbings; the inscription may be partly obliterated and the meaning of the passage incomplete; there may be nothing left but a few isolated strokes—still our scholars see beauty in these stone inscriptions and copy them as faithfully as they can.

It has always been the ambition of our scholars to collect

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