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

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

Style in the Han dynasty, practised his calligraphy out of doors and left the water of a pool near which he worked entirely black. Chung Yu, another great master, the founder of the Regular Style of the Wei period, withdrew for about ten years to the mountain called Pao-Tu (4 #%) in order to practise calligraphy in quiet, and left nearly all the trees and rocks about him stained with ink. Wang Hsi-Chih, the Chin dynasty master alluded to on pages 67-8, practised all his life yet was not satisfied with his work until he was past fifty. The monk Chih-Yung (#3 #), of the T‘ang dynasty, lived in the upper floor of a temple and in forty years’ practising of calligraphy filled nearly five large baskets with worn-out brushhairs. Chao Meng-Fu, a great painter and calligrapher of the Yuan dynasty, devoted himself for a long time to copying the writing of Wang Hsi-Chih, and it is told that he wore out the sleeve of one coat after another with his labours.

Natural objects and movements have often served to awaken or inspire the talents of Chinese artists. The Grass Style writing of Chang Hsii was greatly improved after he had seen the dancing of Lady Kung-Sun (24 #). Huang T‘ing-Chien attained a new posture for his writing from watching boats being rowed with oars. The monk Huai-Su realized the infinite variety possible in Ts‘ao-Shu by watching summer clouds wafted by the wind. Wén T‘ung (% jij) made a sudden step forward with his Ts‘ao-Shu after seeing some snakes fighting. And so on.

Helpful as these stories are in putting the student on the right path, there is, in the appreciation of art as in its performance, no substitute for individual talent. In a book one can explain only the how and the why. Personal effort and capacity must do the rest. Confucius said: ‘There is no one who

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