HUAI Nan Tzu, a book on philosophy authored by Liu An of the Han Dynasty, notes that when Tsang Chieh, the legendary official recorder to the semi-mythical Yellow Emperor (2697-2597 B.C.), was inventing the shu chi (notched-stick), an early precursor to Chinese writing similar to the English tally, heaven scattered millet grains for him so that he might not go hungry-and gods and ghosts cried in the night.
Despite countless views of this account, Chinese scholars generally agree that the ancients clearly considered the invention of Chinese writing an event so great that it shook both heaven and earth. As a result, the dawn of a very sophisticated Chinese civilization emerged.
For all Chinese, from intellectual to laborer, it is accurate to describe an affection for their written language as almost incredible. Perhaps no other people match the Chinese for their fascination with the intrinsic charm of writing symbols. Deeply influenced by Confucian thought, especially in earlier times, the people of China were imbued also, with respect for its expression as writing.
Ancient elders often admonished their juniors not to throw a waste sheet of writing into any distasteful place or to misuse any paper with writing on it. Such waste writings were to be burned in the special structure called hsi tzu ta (the pagoda with a compassion for words), otherwise, one might well be punished by heaven. A common sight of olden times was of old men carrying bamboo baskets of waste written papers—garnered from streets or lanes—to the pagoda for burning. Today, there still exists an old but solemn hsi tzu ta in the northern Taiwan district of Lungtan.
THE special pagoda represents much more than superstition. It is an evidence of that respect for their written language, their culture, and their ancient sages that has given the Chinese people their enduring identity.
The absolute origins of Chinese characters have always been cloaked in mystery. Yi Hsi Tsu (a section of the Book of Changes, one of the Five Classics) declares: "In remote antiquity, people tied knots in strings or ropes for record purposes. Later generations developed the shu chi, (notched-stick)." The chieh sheng (knotted-string) has since been considered the first effort towards Chinese writing.
As stated earlier, the notched-stick was purportedly invented by the legendary Tsang Chieh-actually as a primitive form of contract, used also for official tabulations and simple business transactions. It is said that Tsang's inspiration for the shapes of the notches came from his observations of traces of birds' claws and animal tracks ... and of the shapes of tree shadows.
Tsang's great invention led to the belief that he, himself, was physically extraordinary. A Han Dynasty book by Wang Chung (27-97 A.D.) passes on the story that Tsang Chieh was endowed with an extra pair of eyes—thus, extraordinarily perceptive.
Tsang Chieh's notched-stick was, more or less, communication in the form of a limited set of pictures; to meet additional communication needs, more characters were developed. And from extant Shang Dynasty (16th-11th Century B.C.) bronzes, we next find chin wen, the script on ancient metal articles, also called ku wen (the ancient script).
The chin wen characters are still considered pictographs. The contemporary scholar and world-known archaeologist Tung Tso-pin (1894-1963) traced the genre back to the Neolithic Age, to the period following the introduction of agriculture. He maintained that bronze inscriptions were in use as far back as 4,800 years ago, two hundred years before the legendary Yellow Emperor founded a Chinese empire—making Tsang Chieh's role as unsubstantial as the official himself.
The pictographic characters inscribed on ancient bronze objects were probably in use for a rather extensive part of the Hsia Dynasty (21st-16th Century B.C.). They were gradually developed into chia ku wen a script used for inscriptions on bone or tortoise shell during the Shang Dynasty. Lines of this script are simple, straight, thin, and vigorous—from the viewpoint of practicality, a major renovation. During the Shang Dynasty, chia ku wen was modern writing, and the inscriptions on bronze objects, an ancient precursor.
The 19th Century excavation of approximately 100,000 oracle bones (used by the ancients for divination, ancestor worship, religious offerings, and to record events) at Anyang, one of the sites of the capital of the Shang Dynasty, forwarded the study and analysis of this type of script. Of the two thousand different characters from the Anyang oracle bones, 1,300 characters are accepted as having been definitely ascertained.
This changeover from picture characters to oracle bone script has a probable relationship to the invention of bronze ware during the Hsia Dynasty. Before bronzeware, Chinese writing conveying the spoken language (there are "written languages" also) was inscribed on silk fabric by means of hard or soft pens. Later, during the Bronze Age, durability became a priority, and sharp bronze burins were used to carve records of important events on wooden or bamboo slips, or bones and tortoise shells, for the generations to come. Many extant Shang bronze objects carry the engraved inscription, Treasure This Forever, From Generation to Generation.
Before the middle of the Western Chou Dynasty (l1th Century-771 B.C.), most of the oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions were accomplished in delicate lines, with characters of varying sizes and of uneven densities. There was no standard, but a full natural flavor. During the middle of the Western Chou, another script renovation occurred. Strokes were now bold, vigorous, plump, the overall arrangement and composition of the characters more balanced and in better order. Characters inscribed on the Mao Kung Ting and on ten stone drums are the best of evidences:
The Mao Kung Ting is a bronze tripod-based vessel cast in the Chou Dynasty and famous for the extensive inscriptions—numbering 497 characters—on its inside surface. The characters convey the Duke of Mao's gratitude for favors granted him by Emperor Hsuan (827-780 B.C.) of the Chou Dynasty. The famed vessel was excavated in the middle of the 19th Century and is now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
The Shih Ku Wen, ten short poems inscribed on ten large, round, stone drums carved during the Chou or Chin Dynasty, made use of ta chuan (large-seal characters). These are similar to those of the ancient script in use shortly before Chin Shih Huang (the First Emperor of the Chin Dynasty, 246-214 B.C.) decreed a unified system of characters. One school of archaeologists, incidentally, considers the script form of the drum inscriptions to be between large-seal and hsiao chuan (small-seal), the latter devised by Li Ssu, prime minister for the First Emperor of Chin.
The characters of the drum inscriptions are specially praised in Shih Ku Ko (Song of the Stone Drums), a poem by the prominent Tang Dynasty (618-907) writer Han Yu. Treasures for both calligraphers and archaeologists, the drums were discovered during the Early Tang Dynasty in Shenhsi. Han Yu and Wei Ying-wu, poets of the time, believed the style of the inscriptions to be chou wen (Chou script), designed by a Chou Dynasty official historian appropriately named Chou.
- However, other both ancient and modern authorities, such as Ou Yang-hsiu of the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) and Wang Kuo-wei (1877-1927) of the Ching Dynasty, hold that Chou wen was a script design employed during the Chin Dynasty, not the Chou.
From the standpoint of calligraphic aesthetics, the oracle-bone inscriptions discovered on artifacts from the Shang ruins, and the inscriptions on ancient bronze objects are highly creative. They present a natural beauty, whereas the stone drum characters, in almost a nationally standardized writing form of the Chou Dynasty, are very neat and balanced, offering a well-arranged, stylized beauty.
DURING the Spring and Autumn Epoch (770-476 B.C.), most of the independent Chinese states adopted the Chou wen. But by the time of the Period of Warring States (475-221 B.C.), each of the seven states had its own system of characters; a state of calligraphic diversity had ensued.
The first Emperor of the Chin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) not only unified the Chinese Empire, but whatever else came to his attention. He accepted Prime Minister Li Ssu's suggestion, for instance, that all wheeled vehicles should have the same gauge ... as well as the proposition that all different scripts should have standardized forms. The new small-seal script was developed by Li from a combination of the strongest areas of the ancient script and the large-seal form. Small-seal characters are well-balanced and, of course, of uniform size. The ancient script is rough, "hand hewn" in appearance; the new script resulted in a pattern-like design.
But the standardization finally gave way again to diversity in the Chin and following Han (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) Dynasties, when Chinese calligraphy bloomed. At the outset of the Han Dynasty, there were eight different scripts, namely: the great-seal, small-seal, ke fu (a script used for etching on tallies, usually made of bamboo and used in the army), chung shu (worm-script, used especially for writing on banners), mo yin (the script for seals), shu shu (title script, used for envelopes or large title boards) shu shu (the script engraved or moulded on weapons only), and li shu (clerical script).
A word could be written in any of the eight styles, according to its special context. Of all eight scripts, only the small-script and clerical script are still being used.
Clerical script, also called tso shu (assisting the small-script), was developed for its convenience in recording complicated official documents, and like today's kai shu (regular style), was the script for formal and solemn occasions. The Chin Dynasty established, for the first time in history, a central Chinese government wielding real, nation wide power. Its other standardization impulses overflowed from the same springs.
The design of the final form of clerical script is attributed to Cheng Miao, who offended the first Emperor of the Chin Dynasty and was jailed at Yunyang. During his ten years there, as atonement for his crime, he designed about three thousand characters of a new calligraphic style, soon put into use by clerks and assistants for the drafting of documents. Cheng's achievement not only won him his freedom but later promotion to a high position.
THE Emperors of the Han Dynasty attached great importance to calligraphy. They not only set up a calligraphic examination system, but also established official positions for eminent scholar-calligraphers. At the time, people over 17 were allowed to take the examination requiring, among others, the writing of nine thousand large-seal characters, and demonstrations of all eight calligraphic styles. Those performing exceedingly well won government posts as shang shu shih. And not only a carrot, but a stick-the poorly performing were specifically punished!
In Eastern Han (25-220 A.D.) times, calligraphic appreciation flourished, and such giants of the art as Tsao Hsi, Tu Tu, Tsui Yuan, and Tsai Yi were produced. Eternally famous calligraphic masters also emerged in the Western Han (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) —Shih Yu, Ku Yung, Chen Tsun, Hsiao Ho, Chang Shih-an, and Yen Yen-nien.
In the Eastern Han, the convenient clerical script was developed into po feng shu, employed for such famous declarations as the Epitaph of Kung Chou and the Epitaph of Chang Chien. This writing style is attributed to Wang Tzu-chung, magistrate of Shangku Prefecture. Its characters are flat and broad, "in the shape of the wild goose tail."
Both ancient and modern calligraphers diverge in their views of the meaning of pa fen. Pau Shen-po, Ching Dynasty calligrapher-critic, perhaps, puts for ward the most reasonable interpretation: Po means "back to back," while po fen was a term used by ancient writers to describe the spread-out formations of characters in the script.
The calligraphic styles of the Western Han never ranged beyond great-seal, small-seal, and the six Chin Dynasty scripts (clerical script was used, though, for stone tablet eulogies).
During the Han Dynasty, besides the po fen, calligraphic styles employed included the wa tang wen tzu (eaves-tile inscription); seal script; wooden slip characters, chang tsao (a kind of cursive); cursive script; regular style; and fei pai shu (characterized by hollow strokes, as if done with a half-dry brush).
The art of making special eaves-tiles and other ceramic ware reached a zenith during the Chin and Han Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, bricks and roof tiles were especially elegant, featuring exquisitely molded designs of Chinese characters. Clerical script is the major style utilized on Han decorative bricks. Actual Chinese Characters inscribed on extant Han bricks include wu chi (a state of mind completely devoid of worries, thought, or desire), yen nien (the prolongation of life); and chang to wan sui (everlasting happiness and longevity).
The number of characters appearing on a Han eaves-tile normally range from one to twelve. They are in the script called mou chuan, one of six styles of characters used during the tenure of Wang Mang (45 B.C.-23 A.D.), a prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty. A calligraphic style deriving from Chin Dynasty seal characters, mou chuan is simpler than small-seal but more complete than clerical script—similar to the modern and popular "artistic calligraphy." Therefore, it is not standardized. Well-proportioned beauty is the basic requirement.
Several decades ago, Chinese and foreign scholars and archaeologists discovered in Kansu and Hsinkiang Provinces of mainland China, numerous inscribed wooden slips dating from the Han Dynasty. Archaeologist Lo Chen-yu wrote an important research paper entitled Wooden Slips in the Quicksand on this discovery. The extant Han wooden slips provide information of historical value, and also for research into the development of the cursive, running, and regular scripts.
The Han wooden slips were developed entirely for purposes of practicality, and most are a show of careless writing involving either official documents or records of private affairs. The appearance of the slips—their everyday practicality—marks an unprecedented shift in the direction of Chinese writing.
Although the Han Dynasty devoted great effort to the promotion of the art, calligraphers were, seemingly, not inclined to show off their artistic attainments. As a result, extant Han stone tablet inscriptions do not bear the writers' names.
OVER the course of Chinese history, the people of Han Dynasty times have been depicted as generally honest and sincere. Those of the Three Kingdoms (220-265) and the Tsin Dynasty (265-420) periods were considered talented in the arts. And in truth, although the latter periods were chaotic, master calligraphers arose, including Wang Hsi-chih, Wang Hsien-chih, and Chung Yao. Even many military officers were prominent calligraphers.
The calligraphic styles of this era entirely followed those of the preceding Chin and Han Dynasties. Chung Yao, Madame Wei, Wang Hsi-chih, and Wang Hsien-chih again established standards—a significant feature of the calligraphic arts of the time, well demonstrated via two genre: pei pan (rubbings from steles) and fa tieh (model copybooks for students).
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, elaborate funerals were common, and from emperors to commoners, all found honor in erecting, for the dead, stone tablets carved in the shapes of animals. Then in 205 A.D., Tsao Tsao (ruler of the Kingdom of Wei during the Age of the Three Kingdoms) banned the practice, the first of several to do so. After his son, Tsao Pi, usurped the throne, the new ruler also insisted on simple (and thrifty) funerals. In 278 A.D., Emperor Wu again decreed the prohibition of elaborate funerals and of the erection of stone-animal-shaped tablets.
Most of the extant steles bear inscriptions in the pa fen style. Only a few are in seal or clerical script.
During this period, fa tieh (model copybooks) especially flourished. The best such work ever done is considered to be of the Lan Ting Hsu, a literary piece by Wang Hsi-chih (321-379) whose literary merit is overshadowed by its artistic value as a calligraphic master-piece. Unfortunately, most of the extant rubbings are copies made in the Tang period which appear to have lost much of the quality of the original.
A famous story has long been circulated about the Lan Ting Hsu In 353, during the ninth reigning year of Tsin Dynasty Emperor Mu, Wang Hsi-chih and 42 other poets gathered at Lan Ting (the Lan Pavilion) on Mt. Kuaichi in Chekiang Province to write poetry. In a joyful mood, Wang wrote the Lang Ting Hsu (A Gathering at the Lan Pavilion) on paper made from silkworm cocoons, with a brush of mouse whiskers, both produced especially for this occasion.
For seven generations, Lan Ting Hsu was guarded by the descendants of Wang Hsi-chih as a priceless heirloom; in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), the poetic work became a precious possession of the monk Chih Yung, a seventh-generation descendant of the poet. When the monk died, he left it to another monk, Pien Tsai.
During the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taitzung obtained this artistic treasure, and Wang Hsi-chih, the Emperor's anointed master calligrapher, considered it the most valuable of treasures. In consequence, when the Emperor died, Lan Ting Hsu was ordered to be buried with him.
The Emperor had ordered famous calligraphers, such as Chu Sui-liang and Ou Yang-hsun, to make copies of the Lan Ting Hsu. Ou's copy was perpetuated as a stone inscription during the reign of Sung Dynasty Emperor Chentzung, and the stone was later placed at Tingwu. Later generations have come to call Ou's copy, the "Tingwu version."
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period (420-589), the Southern Dynasties' calligraphic styles were modeled on those of Wang Hsi-chih and Wang Hsien-chih of the Eastern Tsin Dynasty.
The production of model copybooks of calligraphy was an especially flourishing industry; but rubbings produced from steles were now few.
In contrast, in the domain of the Northern Dynasties, large numbers of inscribed memorial tablets were erected in Buddhist mountain caves and in tombs. Since their inscriptions are durable, a great many have survived. Their authors are unknown, however, since calligraphers of this period, influenced by the Han practice, did not sign their works. Northern Wei stele inscriptions are considered to have immense artistic value—unconstrained, yet solemn; odd, yet natural; radiating with vigor, plump with intimations of flesh and blood.
The calligraphic styles of the period's stone tablets constitute a bridge, linked to the Han Dynasty seal and clerical scripts. They exerted great influence, also, on the later Tang and Sung Dynasties, periods marking the introduction of Chinese calligraphy to Japan.
The Southern Dynasties calligraphic style is considered superior in elegance, featuring a delicate beauty, and the Northern Dynasties, supreme in forcefulness and creativity.
The overall vista of the calligraphically inscribed stone tablets of the Dynasties has been likened to the experience of traveling amid a chain of jade mountains, roaming on numerous, endless mountain paths.
From the Three Kingdoms period to the final years of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, more than three centuries of chaos gripped China. Not until Yang Chien ended the Chen State and founded the Sui Dynasty, was the Chinese Empire finally reunited. Although the Sui had a rather short history (581-618), its emperors had major impact as advocaters of Buddhism who also attached importance to the enjoyment of life. The development of the arts was a Sui feature, with Sui calligraph ic styles following in the stylistic paths of those of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (222-589) —designs with a clear and bright bearing and neat and lofty form. There were no particular deviations in formations and strokes.
Only a few Sui fa tieh (model copy-books) are extant, one of them being the exotically titled Monk Chih Yung's Authentic Work on The Thousand-Character Classic. While Monk Chih Yung was dwelling at the Yunghsin Temple in Wuhsing, he produced eight hundred copybooks modeled on The Thousand-Character Classic (a primer for children authored by Chou Hsing-tse of the Liang Dynasty) and distributed these to the temples in the Kiangsu area.
In his whole lifetime, Monk Chih Yung never ceased his calligraphic efforts. The broken and worn brushes he discarded were encased in five bamboo trunks. He later buried them in a mound known as Tui Pi Chung (the Mound of Used Brushes). The threshold of his door was always so worn by visitors, who came in an endless stream to obtain his calligraphic works, that the monk finally covered it with a piece of iron sheet.
Following the Sui, in the Tang Dynasty—especially during the 150 years of the Early and Prosperous periods-artistic and military achievements are both ranked by historians as unprecedentedly splendid. If Chinese culture was at a polishing stage during the Chou Dynasty, it may be said to have been at a developing stage during the Han Dynasty, and in a period of great fertility during the Tang Dynasty. (Indeed, Tang's achievement in this area should be directly attributed to the emperors before the Middle period, who were broad-minded and had keen insight). Master calligraphers of the Tang include au Yang-hsun, Yu Shih-nan, Chu Sui-liang, Yen Chen-ching, and Liu Kung-chuan.
Benefiting from the support of Emperors Taitzung and Hsuantzung, Tang's achievements in the calligraphic arts are considered to be on a par with those during the Eastern Tsin and the Northern Wei Dynasties.
Although Tang Dynasty officials set up special calligraphic degrees to stimulate development of the art, most calligraphers held fast to tradition, daring not to transgress—to leave the "narrow path." Occasionally, one or two calligraphers tried to develop their own unique styles, but their works lacked that "classic elegance." It was impossible to return to the Six Dynasties' ambience, wherein all calligraphic styles were contending for supremacy.
It was a popular practice to erect steles during the Tang Dynasty, and many steles of the dynasty have survived, one of them a stele inscribed with an original calligraphic work of Yen Chen-ching (708-784), considered the most prominent master calligrapher since Wang Hsi-chih. While young, Yen lived in such poverty, there was no money for him to purchase brush and paper. He practiced calligraphy on the walls, forming his characters from the stain of the local loess soil. But later, he became a truly erudite scholar, particularly well versed in literature, including poetry.
A most widely respected calligrapher, Yen was also highly revered for his courage and upright character. His calligraphic style is extraordinary. His regular script strokes are vigorous, majestic. A renowned Sung Dynasty man of letters, Su Tung-po, once commented that, "Writing reached its zenith during the era of Han Yu; poetry, during the times of Tu Fu; calligraphy, during the times of Yen Chen-ching.... " Yen's style exerted a tremendous influence on later generations, including such calligraphers as Su Tung-po, Huang Ting-chien, Mi Fei, and Tsai Hsiang of the Sung Dynasty.
Monk Huai Su (725-785), another famous Tang calligrapher, on one occasion attributed his sudden mastery of the secrets of cursive script to inspiration from clouds drifting in the wind on a summer's eve.
Forthright and sincere, the monk was not a paragon; he would get drunk and write on the temple walls, usually downing a drink nine times a day, a factor people of the time made note of—they called him the "Drunken Monk." He was especially noted for his "crazy cursive script," inspired, this time, not by clouds.
In earlier days, he, also, was too poor to afford paper. Reportedly, he planted more than ten thousand banana trees so he could use their large leaves to practice his calligraphy.
The rubbings of his cursive-script inscriptions reproducing The Thousand-Character Classic are considered excellent—neat and elegant. However, rubbings from his other works differ sharply—are more or less unrestrained, queer, reflecting, as it were, an unbridled fury.
Liu Kung-chuan (778-865), another famous scholar and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, is known for a style which, at first glance, might be mistaken for that of au Yang-hsun. However, the former's strokes have greater "boniness" and his character construction is more elongated. From Liu's calligraphic works, it is not difficult to imagine that he was a man careful in carrying out a thing from start to finish.
An emperor of the Tang once made gracious inquiries of Liu about his calligraphic techniques. "If one's heart is upright, then his brush will be upright" was his answer. Liu was particularly skilled in regular script, and the Pagoda Hsuanmi is one of his most pleasing stone-tablet examples. He accomplished it in his 70s.
Although Chinese calligraphy had been introduced to Japan before the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was during the Tang Dynasty that the Japanese generally looked to China in this art form.
FROM the very beginning in China, calligraphy and painting have been inseparable. Even many of the emperors, busy as they were dealing with the affairs of state and the court, excelled in calligraphy, Emperors Chent-zung, Jentzung, Huitzung, and Kaotzung among them. It is still believed "that those who can paint can also write." During the Sung Dynasty, painting and calligraphy both reached peaks.
Most of the famed Sung calligraphic masters hailed from the Northern Sung Dynasty. In addition to the emperors, there are Su Tung-po, Su Hsun, and Huang Ting-chien. Chu Hsi, Lu Yu, Yueh Fei, and Wen Tien-hsiang of the Southern Sung —politicians-strategists scholars—are not as masterful in their calligraphic works. They are more of note for their integrity, literary achievements, and meritorious contributions as statesmen-which, perhaps, is enough.
The calligraphic styles of the Sung Dynasty follow those of the Tsin and Tang Dynasties, though, occasionally, some works reveal the influence of the Six Dynasties. It is commonly believed that the Tsin calligraphers emphasized charm; Tang calligraphers, rules; and Sung calligraphers, artistic conception.
Influenced by the Li Hsueh, a Confucian school of idealist philosophy, people of the Sung paid great attention to the study of various artistic and academic disciplines, among them the art of calligraphy. Post notations on specimens of calligraphic works and treatises on the calligraphic arts were even more popular during the Sung than the previous Tang Dynasty. Many ancient bronze and stone objects were excavated in Sung times, and numerous research publications emerged on the revealed bronze and stone inscriptions.
Of all the Sung calligraphic styles, shou chin shu, originated by Emperor Huitzung, is especially unique. The thin strokes characteristic of the style appear so weak as to have inadequate strength to withstand the wind. From his calligraphic works, we can infer that Huitzung was handsome, tall, slim, and sensitive.
Great penmen of the short Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) include Chao Meng-fu, Ni Tsan, Hsien Yu-shu, Yang Wei-chen, and Teng Wen-yuan. As in their emphasis on painting styles, the Yuan scholars stressed the importance of romantic charm in their calligraphic works. Modeling on styles of Chung Yu of the Period of Three Kingdoms and of Wang Hsi-chih of the Tsin Dynasty, Yuan calligraphic works are fine, delicate, and charming.
Yuan calligraphers excelled at running scripts; the Ming (1368-1644) calligraphers, both regular script and the "Drunken Monk's" crazy cursive script; and Ching masters, seal script and clerical script.
During the Ming and Ching (1644-1911) Dynasties, the interest and charm of painting techniques is even more revealed in calligraphic works, especially the calligraphy of Huang Tao-chou, Chang Jui-tu, Cheng Hsieh, and Chao Chih-chien. Their painting-like works, full of wit and humor, reach into the realm of Zen Buddhism, free from the bounds of reality.