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

VIII TRAINING

S I have already explained the technique of Chinese calligraphy, it may seem to the reader that a chapter

on training is redundant. But actually I have not yet described how calligraphy is taught and the calligrapher systematically trained in the art.

Children are naturally unable to grasp at once all the fine points of technique—the theories of stroke-making, composition, &c. So, at the age of seven or eight, or in some cases earlier, a start is made on very simple lines. But from the outset at least one hour a day is devoted to practice. The pupils are first taught, as I have already explained, how to handle the brush and to grind the ink. They are encouraged to hold the brush very tightly. To test this, the tutor will sometimes creep up behind a pupil and try to snatch the brush out of his hand ! Next, the pupils are asked to work over in black ink a number of characters which are printed on ‘ practice’ paper in red or other bright colour. These characters are not ‘ printing’ characters but reproductions of hand-written ones. Children do not, of course, succeed at first in exactly covering the coloured strokes, nor can they manage the three movements of the brush necessary to the proper formation of a stroke. Frequently they only draw a line down the middle of the coloured stroke.

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