Chinese Calligraphy

To answer this, we must go back more than 3,000 years ago. It is said that the people of the Shang or Yin dynasty carved out writings on tortoise shells and animal bones. And later writing styles evolved from here.

The oracle bones were discovered at a site that was believed to be the ruins of the Shang Dynasty. It is located at Anyang village in Henan province. There are 15,000 pieces of these oracle bones and more than 4,500 single characters were found.

They were like pictographs. For example, you can see characters resembling mountain and fish. The modern writing today still look something like how it used to be - 山 mountain and 鱼 fish.

The simple characters were small. Other more complicated characters were big taking up the space of twice the smaller ones.

Also known as bell-cauldron script. They appeared slightly after the oracle bone script. The script was carved on bronze objects.

They were seen in the late Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty bronze instruments and products.

Compared to the oracle bone script, these inscriptions are more detailed. The size variants are nearer. Looks much neater too.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there were different writings in each state.

In Qin state, the characters were known as Zhou graphs, also known as large scale script. Stone drum inscriptions are representatives of large scale script.

These were carved on stones by Qin state. Most characters are rectangular in shape and have neat and elegant forms. The script has a compact structure but appears unsophisticated.

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang defeated the other six states and created a unified Chinese empire. The word China came from 'Qin' state. And the emperor proclaimed himself as the first emperor - Shihuang.

He ordered the standardization of Chinese characters as part of the unification process. The chief minister Li Si was put in charge of producing the standard script. As a result, the new form of script was created, known as the small seal script.

Li Si simplified the earlier complicated writing styles to allow people to learn them much more easily. The small seal script began to look less pictographic. The strokes were more elegant. Neater and easier to write.

The clerical script originated from the Qin dynasty too. The administrative officials of the new Chinese empire wanted to write faster. The work was piling up.

The wavy lines in small seal script became square-turned strokes. This made writing with brush and ink easier. The characters now had broken away from the ancient pictographs. This was the beginning of the development of modern Chinese calligraphy and writing.

The characters of regular script are squarish and easy to write. This is the writing that is in used today.

This script originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty and continued to develop during Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties. The development reached the peak during the Tang Dynasty.

Many famous calligraphers rose during this period. The four most famous were Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan and Zhao Mengfu.

The cursive script started during the early period of the Han Dynasty. The script has very fast strokes. This style of writing became a form of Chinese calligraphy.

There are many types of cursive. The main ones are ancient (clerical) cursive, modern cursive and wild cursive. The strokes are roundish and may flow from one character to another. The writings would appear to join together. And very simplified. You will not see the regular symbols and shapes. They are in cursive and very hard to read.

This script is developed from people writing freely in a faster way. This was created when people write a lot of letters. Back in those days, there were no emails, mind you.

They are a cross between regular script and cursive script. And more readable than cursive script. Though I still would not be able to read most of them.