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CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY
Green Dragon Art Master Calligrapher Tsai
Yung
Over 40 years experience
Calligraphy
Styles
Cursive |
Classic |

Semi Cursive |
There are basically five major styles in Chinese calligraphy - Zuan, Li, Tsao,
Hsin, and Kai. Each style has gone through changes and evolutions throughout
Chinese history in terms of their character form and artistic structures. (Chinese
characters are not symbols, alphabets, or letters. They are composed of strokes,
section headings, and radicals.) At first, each style was created for writing
rather than for art. Chinese calligraphy masters and practitioners in each
dynasty enriched the styles and structures of the characters with their insight,
emotion, and artistic creativity. In practical terms there are literally thousands
of styles of Chinese calligraphy in addition to the individual interpretation
of each style.
The continuity of Chinese culture and civilization is indebted to the preservation
of forms of various scripts throughout the ages
Here at Green Dragon Arts, our calligrapher Tsai Yung has simplified the choices
to three styles that we found to be exemplify the beauty of our Chinese calligraphy
offerings.
-
Classic Style - the most exacting style requiring perfect proportion in every
brush stroke. This style is most widely used in formal writings such as certificates
and literature.
- Cursive Style - the most artistic style filled with flowing brush strokes
that are in harmony with nature. This style is used mainly in artwork such
as poetry.
- Semi Cursive - this style is a compromise between the Classic Style and
Cursive Style. It is beautiful in it's own right and is frequently used in
informal correspondence such as letters between friends.
Calligraphy
Fun - Everything you need to practice calligraphy on your own.
Chinese Calligraphy is an
art dating back to the earliest day of history and is, to this day, widely
practiced throughout China and many parts of Asia. The
neighboring countries of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries
have all made the Chinese calligraphic system part of their own respective
cultures. Kanji in Japanese and Hanja in Korean are both
names for essentially the same system of writing. Even though
Japan and Korea have since developed their own unique system of writing, both
countries still used this traditional form of communication for many occasions.
At Green Dragon Arts we make no distinctions between the Chinese writing system,
Kanji and Hanja.
The spectrum of the Chinese language, with its many subtle
shades has made it a natural vehicle of expression for calligraphic art. One
does not have to know Chinese to appreciate the beauty of calligraphy. This
is because in essence, Calligraphy is an art; an art that combines the expression
of literature with the expression of ink.
A famous
Chinese Calligrapher, Tu Meng of the Tang dynasty (618-905) developed 120 expressions
to describe different styles of calligraphy and establish criteria for them. Like
the many styles of painting, each calligraphic style was appreciated in its
own right. Calligraphers were
known by their interpretation of a style or styles and as you can imagine,
the boundaries of the styles are not always distinct.
Here, at Green Dragon Arts, we have categorized most of
our calligraphy down to three basic styles: Classic,
Semi Cursive and Cursive. Classic
style is the equivalent of printing in the English language, much like the
font these words are in. Cursive
is much like handwriting and Semi Cursive is somewhere in between. (see
above). Do not make the mistake of thinking these are three distinct
categories of Chinese calligraphy. It
is a continuum. Where within the
continuum the calligraphy ends up is dependent on the interpretation of the
meaning by the artist and of course our customers.
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