Chinese Calligraphy

An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique, Third Revised and Enlarged Edition

Yee Chiang

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 1974
• Print ISBN:
  9780674122260
  9780674122253
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674968035
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art Techniques
• Index: Social Sciences

Chiang Yee's Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique remains the classic introduction to Chinese calligraphy. In eleven richly illustrated chapters, Chiang explores the aesthetics and the technique of this art in which rhythm, line, and structure are perfectly embodied. He measures the slow change from pictograph to stroke to the style and shape of written characters by the great calligraphers.

In addition to aesthetic considerations, the text deals with more practical subjects such as the origin and construction of the Chinese characters, styles, technique, strokes, composition, training, and the relations between calligraphy and other forms of Chinese art.

Chinese Calligraphy is a superb appreciation of beauty in the movement of strokes and in the patterns of structure—and an inspiration to amateurs as well as professionals interested in the decorative arts.

INDEX

Advertisement characters, 116

Aesthetic principles, 217–218

Ancient Script, see Ku-Wên

Animal forms, sculptured and calligraphic, 230, Plate XXII

Architecture, Chinese, 226, 233–235

Arp, Hans, 108

Babylonian script, 36

Bacchylides MS., 3

‘Battle Array of the Brushes’, see Pi-Chên-T‘u

Baynes, Cary F., 215

Beaumont, Cyril W., 193

Birds, paintings of, 209–210, Plates XIV, XV, XVI

‘Book of Calligraphy, The’ (by Ou-Yang Hsün), 187

‘Book of Changes, The’, see I-Ching

Borrowed Characters, see Chia-Chieh

Breton, André, ‘What is Surrealism?’ 109

Bronzes, Chinese, 231, Plate XXII

Brush, handling of, 207

Brush movement, see Yün-Pi

Brush pen, Chinese, 126, 137–138;

handling of, 138–144

Brush Treatment, see Yün-Pi

Buddhist figures in sculpture, 231–232

Carlo, Blasis, ‘Code of Terpsichore’, 127

Categories of characters, 16, 25–33

Chia-Chieh (Borrowed Characters), 25, 32–33

Chih-Shih (Indicative Symbols), 25, 27

Chuan-Chu (Reciprocating), 25, 31–32

Hsiang (Images), 25–26

Hsiang-Hsing (Imitative Figures), 25–26, 33

Hsing-Sheng (Phonetic Compounds), 25, 27–29

Hui-I (Logical Combinations), 25, 29–31, 109

Tzŭ (Compound Figures), 25

Wên (Simple Figures), 25

Cathay Publishers, Shanghai, Collection of, 57, 58, 64, 66, 87, 102, 103, 124, Plate II, Plate V

Chang, Han Emperor...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Author’s Note
• I Introduction
• II The Origin and Construction of Chinese Characters
• III The Styles
• IV The Abstract Beauty of Chinese Calligraphy
• V Technique
• VI The Strokes
• VII Composition
• VIII Training
• IX Calligraphy and Painting
• X Aesthetic Principles
• XI The Relations Between Calligraphy and Other Forms of Chinese Art
• Bibliography
• Index