CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

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.