The Early History of Chinese Calligraphy

The History of Chinese Calligraphy

Seal script. Seal script is a broad term referring to calligraphic styles prior to clerical script. This script is difficult to write for modern Chinese, but has remained the principal script employed on seals for the last two thousand years. There are two styles in this script - big, or earlier, seal script and small, or later, seal script.

Big seal script. In the early history of Chinese writing, picture symbols were used to represent objects. Having survived on animal bones, bronzes, stones and bamboo slips, these pictographic characters are collectively called big seal script, the first style in Chinese calligraphy. Because of its depicting nature, a character in this style may be in varied forms by different painters. Showing an incontestable aesthetic quality, these characters shared a common temperament - simple, honest and unaffected. The conception of antiquity, one of the criteria to judge a calligrapher's attainments today, refers to those writings.

Shang Dynasty c. 1675 - c. 1066 BC

Well-developed in agriculture and handicrafts, the Shang is known the second hereditary Chinese dynasty. Its history was a matter of legend until 1899 when the discovery of about 150,000 pieces inscribed bones, once used for divination, at its capital Anyang in northern China confirmed its existence.

Oracle inscription, c. 1500 BC

Bronzes. Chinese people learned how to use bronze around 2200 BC. Among large number of excavated bronze objects are tools, weapons, wine vessels, bell-shaped musical instruments and sacrificial vessels. These Bronzes were made in piece molds, showing a casting technique as advanced as any ever used. To the mid Shang, inscribed bronze began to appear. The inscriptions from this period are short, often bronze owners names of two or three characters with strokes pointed at both ends.

Quadruped vessel, c. 1300 BC
Ink rubbing on rice paper.

Zhou Dynasty c. 1066 - 256 BC

Around 1066 BC a duke kingdom Zhou rose to power and overthrew Shang. In 771 BC an invasion of a nomadic tribe from northwest forced the Zhou to move its capital from Xian east to Luoyang. This event divided Zhou into two period - Western and Eastern Zhou.

The Zhou was built upon a patriarchal clan system which essentially lasted into modern times. Zhou's clansmen devoted much attention to offering sacrifices to their ancestors and had a special place for their sacrificial rites - ancestral temple. The sacrificial utensils - tripods, plates, trays and bowls - were not only cooking vessels or food containers, but also the symbols of a clan's social status. According to Zhou's code, its king could own nine tripods in his temple while a common clan could have only one.

When extended ritual uses brought about the bloom of bronzes, lengthy inscriptions began to appear, recording official appointments, wars and law suits. These characters are regular in form, consistent in stroke thickness, evenly aligned in columns and rows and, above all, less pictographic than before.

		Vessel of Perishing Sky, c. 1066 BC
		Tripod of Yu, c. 1042 BC
		Plate of Qiang, 946 - 935 BC
		Tripod of Ke, 910 - 895 BC
		Plate of San, 851 - 828 BC
		Tripod of the Duke of Mao, 827 BC
		White Plate, 827 - 782 BC

The Zhou was weakened by 771 BC invasion. After moving its capital in following year, it began to dissolve into a number of warring states.

Schools of thought. The political turbulence in this period was accompanied by an intellectual upheaval in various schools of thought. While Confucius, 551 - 479 BC, strove to analyze the troubles of his day by affirming the virtues in Zhou's rites which were abandoned by the warring states, his contemporary Laozi, the exponent of Taoism, favored inaction and withdrawal from society. None of them, however, affected the art of handwriting yet until the reverence in Confucianism during the Han and Taoism during the Jin.

Writing in local color. Chinese writing moved into differently directions when the Zhou was split into small kingdoms by major periods of war and social difficulties, an ancient example of modern day mainland China and Taiwan. While state of Qin went on with Zhou's writing system, the others had their own way. What shared in these characters is their worldly rashness - all bronzes from this period are the items in daily use.

Writing variations in 1. Qin, 2. Wu, 3. Jin, 4. Qi, and 5. Chu.

	Stone Drum Inscription, 770 - 766 BC 1
	Basin of King of Wu, 514 - 496 BC 2
	Treaty of Peace, 497 - 489 BC 3 Carmine on stone.
	Food Vessel of Chen Man, 488 - 432 BC 4
	Slips of Guodian, 316 BC 5 Ink on bamboo

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