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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

hair. The practice papers are called Chu-chih (4% #&) and Mao-pien-chih (2 % #&) (‘rough-edged paper’); they are made of bamboo or the stems of weeds and they have a coarse, rough surface yellowish in colour. The reader may think that this is to make things more difficult than need be for the beginner. And so it is; but we hold that it is better to start under severe conditions so that easier ones may produce better results. Let me warn you, however, not to ‘make do’ with such paper as is used in the West for printing newspapers and books, nor to use any stiff paper with a shiny surface. The latter papers are not absorbent and the differences of strength in the ink show in the strokes. The great drawback to them for our purpose is that the surface reacts against the force applied through the arm to the point of the brush and makes it almost impossible to get the right shape of stroke. These defects will not be fully realized except by comparison with Chinese papers. Writers who have reached the third stage of development will naturally want to try their hand with better—or even the best—instruments and materials. The best paper is called Hsiian-Chih (& #).

As this book is intended for those who know little or nothing of Chinese calligraphy, I do not feel there is any object in my going into the finer points of training and technique. The subject is inexhaustible. For centuries past thousands of our scholars have devoted their lives to the discussion of its subtleties and delicacies. But these niceties cannot be realized without a great deal of actual experimentation such as my readers are not likely to be in a position to carry out ; they cannot adequately be described in words. It goes without saying, too, that intellectual effort and aesthetic discrimination of graphic and

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