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This post was last edited by wang*neng on 2016-12-1 at 14:53 (from a Zhihu post; very helpful for improving the appreciation of calligraphy, recommended by the moderators). I. The levels of appreciating calligraphy works. Knowing how to appreciate a calligraphy work is not only related to one’s ability to understand the beauty of calligraphy art but also reflects one’s artistic cultivation. If one is not a professional in calligraphy or an enthusiast of it, I believe that most people, when seeing a piece of work, can only generally say that the handwriting is good, without knowing exactly what makes it good. Today’s article aims to provide everyone with specific methods for appreciating a calligraphy work. Before we begin, I would like to talk about the four levels of appreciating calligraphy works. Please identify which level you belong to: Not yet at the beginning stage: Unable to perceive the beauty of a calligraphy work. This is not surprising; in the sixth grade of elementary school, during our writing lessons, one of my classmates couldn’t tell the difference between the printed characters in the writing textbooks (which were in regular script within grid patterns) and the characters in the teacher’s model writings; he thought they were the same. I think the main reason is that there has been too little exposure to calligraphy. Strictly speaking, this cannot be considered a level of appreciation for calligraphy, because there is no appreciation at all. Beginner: Able to appreciate the beauty of a calligraphy piece, but unable to explain why it is good. This is probably the level of most people in life: they can enjoy the beauty of more mainstream works and think that the writing is good, but if asked to explain what’s so good about it, the answer they give is usually just “it simply feels pretty good,” without being able to specify why. This is mainly due to a lack of the mindset or skills to appreciate a calligraphy piece. The simplest way to determine whether you have entered this field is to read Wang Xizhi’s \"Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection.\" If it pleases you, then congratulations – you have at least entered this field. Advanced: Not only being able to appreciate the beauty of a calligraphy piece, but also understanding what makes it good. Those who can explain what makes a work of calligraphy good must have acquired certain knowledge of calligraphy (such as knowing how to hold a writing brush, understanding the characteristics of different styles of calligraphy, and being aware of the rules governing character formation), possess a certain level of artistic cultivation in calligraphy (such as having studied famous calligraphers’ works, reading writings by calligraphers, and attempting to create their own works), and also know how to appreciate calligraphy works. Since calligraphy education is not mandatory in our country, those who are able to acquire certain knowledge of calligraphy and develop a solid foundation in it are mostly people with a strong interest in calligraphy. Advanced: Able to appreciate a calligraphy piece in its entirety, and identify its strengths and weaknesses. Those who have reached this level should possess extensive knowledge of calligraphy as well as a deep understanding of the art of calligraphy, enabling them to analyze a work comprehensively and even identify flaws in works by renowned artists, so as to select only the best elements. Are there also mistakes in business cards? Of course, even the most renowned calligraphers cannot make every character perfect. For example, take the character \"qing\" in the phrase \"Dongyue Qingqiu\" from Ouyang Xun’s \"Inscription on the Liqueur Spring of Jiucheng Palace\"; as shown in the image (using a Song Dynasty rubbing as an example): https://pic2.zhimg.com/1104bcc5aacf2ffd9b0b08141d8c2d39_b.jpg. Do you notice anything inappropriate about it? Upon close inspection, one can notice that in the character “青”, the two horizontal strokes in the middle of the “月” component are abnormally connected to the right-side stroke. Normally, they should be connected to the long leftward slanting stroke on the left. This occurs because the author wrote the leftward slanting stroke too far to the left; as a result, the two middle horizontal strokes had to be attached to the right-side stroke to compensate for this error. Had they remained connected to the leftward slanting stroke, the “月” character would have been off-center and thus unbalanced. To make it clearer for everyone to see the differences between this character and its usual form, I found another character that reads “qing” in this stele (since there is only one character that reads “qing” in the entire text, I used this character as a substitute). You can carefully observe the differences in the shape of the character representing the moon in both characters, as well as the difference in position between the long slanting strokes on the left side of those moon-shaped characters and the short vertical stroke above the character “qing”. I believe you will be able to discern some clues from these differences. https://pic1.zhimg.com/d977f0dda7c2651ab852ec54952bf994_b.jpg II. From Beginner to Advanced Level Having discussed the four different levels of appreciating calligraphy works, I would like to now explain the purpose of this article, which is to help everyone advance from a beginner’s level in appreciating calligraphy to a more advanced level. This part is the focus of this article, and it covers basic knowledge of calligraphy as well as specific approaches to appreciating calligraphy works. (1) Fundamentals of calligraphy knowledge 1. Calligraphy styles. Calligraphy styles have evolved over time, and it is generally believed that there are five main styles: seal script, official script, regular script, running script, and cursive script. This is only a rough classification; each type of script has more detailed sub-classifications. For example, seal script can be divided into large seal script and small seal script. In a broad sense, large seal script refers to the writing forms from before small seal script, including oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions from the Shang and Zhou dynasties ； Small seal script specifically refers to the official writing system introduced after the Qin dynasty unified China. Similarly, regular script can be further divided into Yan style, Liu style, Ou style, Zhao style, and so on. https://pic4.zhimg.com/f7fe05fe9761871add46c2c8672be2f7_b.jpg 2. Strokes. A stroke refers to a single continuous line drawn in one go when writing Chinese characters, and it is the most fundamental element that constitutes Chinese characters. Strokes can be classified into several categories, such as horizontal strokes (一), vertical strokes (丨), left-falling strokes (丿), dot strokes (丶), right-falling strokes (㇏), and turning strokes (亅). In total, there are over 30 distinct types of strokes. Is there a character that contains all the strokes? Of course, it’s the character for “eternity”. “The character \"Yong\" consists of eight strokes: dot, horizontal stroke, vertical stroke, hook, upward horizontal stroke, left-falling stroke, slanting left-falling stroke, and right-falling stroke. Based on the characteristics of each stroke, these are summarized as eight principles: side pressure, constriction, thrust, propulsion, guidance, sweeping, pecking, and splitting – known as the Eight Principles of the Character Yong. These eight strokes are the basic strokes of regular script; each one has its own characteristics while also complementing one another, forming a cohesive whole. “If one can capture the essence of each stroke when writing the character for \"eternity,\" then regular script can be considered to have reached a considerable level. https://pic4.zhimg.com/1a22efd4cf18200eaa922ed27292ec9f_b.jpg 3. Character formation. The structure of calligraphy, also known as character formation or layout, refers to the arrangement of strokes and the overall shape of a character. The length, thickness, orientation, and variation of the strokes in Chinese characters, as well as the width, height, and alignment of their components, all contribute to the different forms that individual characters take. Some people summarize the standards for character structure as: balance and stability, clear orientation, proper hierarchy, stable center of gravity, appropriate length, even density, appropriate spacing, harmonious interaction, varied patterns, and a balance between solid and empty elements. The rules of character formation have been an important topic of study for calligraphers throughout the ages. Relevant works include Ouyang Xun’s \"Thirty-Six Methods of Character Formation,\" Li Chun’s \"Eighty-Four Methods of Large-Character Structure,\" and Huang Ziyuan’s \"Ninety-Two Methods of Structural Organization.\" Those who are interested may refer to them. https://pic2.zhimg.com/d6d6012f9064185155dcff658a0b2a51_b.jpg 4. Masterpieces by renowned artists. Through thousands of years of development, China’s calligraphy art has given rise to many great calligraphers and renowned masterpieces that have been passed down through the ages. Carefully studying and copying these inscribed stones is not only a way to appreciate the ingenious ideas and superb skills of our predecessors, but also a shortcut to improving one’s own aesthetic sense and cultivation in calligraphy. Here, I recommend some famous works by renowned artists from various eras that have been highly esteemed over time. Due to space constraints, the images are not included here; those who are interested can look them up on their own. Regular script stele inscriptions: Ouyang Xun’s \"Inscription on the Liqueur Spring at Jiucheng Palace\", Yan Zhenqing’s \"Stele of Yan Qinli\" and \"Stele of the Many Treasures Pagoda\", Liu Gongquan’s \"Stele of the Mysterious Secret Pagoda\" and \"Stele of the Divine Strategy Army\", Zhong Shaojing’s \"Lingfei Jing\" (in small regular script), etc. Famous cursive-script calligraphy works include Wang Xizhi’s \"Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection\" and \"Preface to the Sacred Teachings of the Tang Dynasty\" (which was not created by Wang Xizhi himself, but was compiled by the monk Huai Ren from Wang Xizhi’s calligraphic works; it is also known as \"Huai Ren’s Compilation of Sacred Teachings in Cursive Script\"), Su Shi’s \"Cold Food Festival Letter from Huangzhou\", Mi Fu’s \"Shu Silk Letter\", and others. Famous cursive script works: Wang Xianzhi’s \"Mid-Autumn Letter,\" Huai Su’s \"Autobiographical Letter,\" Zhao Ji’s \"Thousand-Character Text in Cursive Script,\" and others. Over the course of thousands of years, the art of calligraphy has produced numerous renowned masters and masterpieces; those listed above are just some of the finest examples. (II) Approaches to appreciating calligraphy works (What exactly are we appreciating when we view calligraphy?) With the groundwork laid earlier, it is now possible to discuss in detail how to appreciate a calligraphy work. Ordinary people don’t know how to appreciate a calligraphy piece, mainly because they lack specific guidelines or don’t know what to focus on when appreciating such a work. Any calligraphy work can be appreciated at three levels: the strokes, the structure of the characters, and the overall layout. This is also why I discussed strokes, character structure, and famous inscriptions in the section on basic calligraphy knowledge earlier. The first level is to look at the strokes. Strokes refer to the most basic elements that make up a single character, such as horizontal lines, vertical lines, slanting lines, and dots. When we practice writing characters, our teacher might say that a certain stroke in a character is well written – that’s what they mean by it. Different calligraphy styles have distinct characteristics in terms of the strokes used. For example, the strokes in seal script and regular script are regular and uniform, while those in running script and cursive script are more varied. To understand the lines, shapes, and dynamics of these strokes, and even to create masterful works, the key lies in observing more, thinking more, and practicing more. The second level involves examining the structural framework, which is termed “character structure”; it refers to the arrangement of the strokes and the overall form of the character. Unlike other writing systems, Chinese characters are pictographic. In elementary school, teachers teach us that some characters have a left-right structure, an upper-lower structure, a left-middle-right structure, an upper-middle-bottom structure, a fully enclosed structure, a semi-enclosed structure, and so on. Characters with different structures should employ different methods of formation, but to achieve a reasonable structure, it is necessary to meet the ten criteria for character formation mentioned earlier, namely: stability and balance, clear orientation, proper hierarchy between elements, stable center of gravity, appropriate length proportions, even distribution of density, appropriate spacing and interaction between elements, harmonious contrast, varied patterns, and a balance between solid and empty areas. The third level is to consider the composition. Composition includes layout, the variations between characters (if two adjacent characters have the same strokes, such as in the characters for \"forest edge,\" the last stroke of the \"forest\" character should be rendered as a dot to avoid similarity with the last stroke of the \"edge\" character), line spacing, negative space, the signature, and the use of seals. If examining strokes and structural layout involves considering each character as a whole, then analyzing the overall composition requires looking at the entire work as a whole. Only in this way can we clearly see how the author arranges the number of lines based on the word count, how he uses characters of different forms to add variety to the work, how he uses seals to add emphasis, and how he utilizes the signature to control the amount of negative space, among other issues. Generally speaking, when appreciating any calligraphy piece, we can start by examining the strokes of individual characters, then look at the structure of each character, and finally consider the overall layout of the entire piece. Of course, you can first look at the overall layout, then at the arrangement of rows and columns as well as the structure of individual characters; it’s also possible to focus on the specific strokes. The key is that this approach helps us know what to observe and look for when facing a piece of work. This approach to appreciating calligraphy works, starting from the individual strokes, moving on to the structure of the characters, and then to the overall composition, has been explained in another ** using specific examples; it has been slightly modified here. Original post link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/20443884