Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

there are comparatively few opportunities of studying it, but in China the moon is constantly visible, and scholars and painters and calligraphers derive continual inspiration from the contemplation of the exquisitely disposed intervals between the stars. The Chinese have always placed their faith in Nature as educator and inspirer; we think that there can be no more perfect models than hers.

So much for Chien-Chia as applied to individual characters : a few words must be added on its application to whole pieces of writing. The problem is really a new one, because characters which, taken separately, might appear indifferently composed and of odd sizes will, taken together, be seen to have been deliberately written thus in order to set off one another. The reader will see this clearly if he turns back to some of the examples of Hsing-Shu and Ts‘ao-Shu, in which styles the characters vary considerably in size and placing. Chiian-Shu, Li-Shu and K‘ai-Shu, which have characters of more even size and position, show it less markedly, but it is still present, and it can be detected in even the most ancient script. To describe this happy sequence of large and small characters we use the simile of the Chinese family. We say that it is like proud grandparents reviewing long lines of offspring. ‘This simile, like many others in this book, will seem far-fetched to those wholly unfamiliar with Chinese ways of life. We live in very large families, several generations residing in different parts of the same house; sometimes as many as thirty or forty persons are sheltered by one roof. - And precedence and respect are always given to elders, for we reverence age and like to ponder the long human tradition which our family system maintains. Hence there is about characters

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