• It often features a wavelike flaring of stroke, especially a dominant rightward or downward diagonal stroke.
Popular styles
• 楷书Regular script/kǎishū
•Paper: Special types of paper called Xuanzhi is
used, from Tatar wingceltis(青檀) and other materials.
• Regular script came into being between the Eastern Hàn and Cáo Wèi dynasties, and its first known master was Zhōng
Yáo(钟繇) known as “father of regular script”. • It is most common in modern writings and publications.
黄庭坚 (1045-1105) Huang Tingjian
• A calligrapher and poet in Song dynasty. • His works are fancy and firm, leading change of
the trend.
Popular styles
• 隶书The clerical script
Dynasty (甲骨文) •13th century B.C.-A.D 2nd century •Jīnwén (Bronzeware script) •Dàzhuàn (Large Seal Script) •Xiǎozhuàn—character unification in the time of Qin Shi Huang
Popular styles
• 行书Semi-cursive script/running script/xíngshū
• It belongs to a cursive style of Chinese characters. • Easy to read compared to cursive
Four treasures of the study
•Brush: bamboo and weasel(黄鼬) hair •Ink and inkstick: made from lampblack (soot)
and binders, grinded with water before use.
• Charm of “之” in 20 different styles
颜真卿(A.D.709－785)—Tang dynasty
•One of the four greatest masters of kaishu
Yan Zhenqing used to practise calligraphy while sweeping the yard with a groom when he was young. Later he asked Zhang Xun, a famous calligrapher on how to achieve the achievements as the ancients. After years of hard work and combining his sentiments and ambitions from the battlefield, his works reached the consummate level.
Popular styles
• 草书Cursive script/Grass script
• faster to write than other styles, but difficult to read for those unfamiliar with it. It functions primarily as a kind of shorthand script or calligraphic style.
Famous figures
• 王羲之（A.D.303-361）Wei-Jin dynasty • Acclaimed as “Saint of Calligraphy” （“书圣”） • Works: Lanting Xu (兰亭序)—Preface to the
Poems Collected from the Orchid Paville of Chinese calligraphy which evolved in the Warring States period to the Qin dynasty, was dominant in the Han dynasty, and remained in use through the Wèi-Jìn periods.
ChineseCalligraphy
Content
• Brief history • Famous figures • Primary styles • four treasures of the study
History
•16th-11th century B.C. inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang
Yan’s works: firm and stretchy
柳公权(778－865)—Tang dynasty
•Liu Gongquan, a master of kaishu and cursive(行草) who is oftened mentioned with Yan Zhenqing. Kaishu: vigorous and rigorous Running-cursive: fluent and flowing