Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons, page 206

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

vertical stroke should divide the oblong into two or four equal squares, but the equality should be more an optical illusion than a geometrical exactitude.

(4) Hsiang-Pei (0 4),

內 AT Py 幼 Facing Inwards and Out-

wards. In certain characters

(intedor) (good) (do (young) «the parts have the appear-

FIG. 115 ance of facing one another ;

in others, of turning their

上 Jak x Ht, backs to each other. The

4 four characters in Fig. 115,

Fei Nei, Hao, Men, and Yu,

(Nort nd) oui) (8) face inwards; the four in

" Fig. 116, Pez, Fen, Wai, and

Fei, face outwards. These effects are the product of the general

movements of the strokes. In composing inward-facing char-

acters, the difficulty is to place the parts just far enough apart to

secure the effect of ‘facing’; with outward-facing characters,

it is to get the parts, without cramping, close enough together to secure the effect of ‘ back-to-back’.

跟 形 AA ie

Kén Hsing Yiian (heel) (shape) (to wish) (body) FIG. II7 FIG. 118

Sometimes the two parts face the same way. Both parts . of the character Kén in Fig. 117, for example, have a rightward tendency, while both parts of Hsimg are directed leftwards. Hsiang-Pei is also applied to characters, such as Yiian and Ti (Fig. 118), of which neither part faces either inwards or out[176 ]