Calligraphy
Calligraphy is fine handwriting taken to the level of visual art. It involves the design and execution of lettering or characters using a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Classical calligraphy differs from type design and non-classical hand-lettering, though some calligraphers may practice both.
In East Asia and the Islamic world, calligraphy is a prominent element in art. Its visual form is often influenced by the meaning of the text as a whole or the individual words.
Modern Western calligraphy is used in announcements, including wedding invitations, as well as in type and computer font design, letter cutting, hand-lettered logo design, religious art, graphic design, commissioned calligraphic art, carved stone inscriptions, and memorial documents. It is also used for theatrical props, moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, and other written works.
Modern Western calligraphy incorporates a wide range of styles, from functional inscriptions and designs to fine art pieces, where the legibility of letters varies.
Contemporary calligraphy has been defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner".
Tools
Pens and brushes
In the Western world, the principal tools for calligraphy are pens and brushes. The nibs of calligraphic pens may be flat, round, or pointed. For decorative purposes, multi-nib pens can be used. Felt-tip and ballpoint pens may also be used; however, these do not produce angled lines. There are certain styles of calligraphy, such as Gothic script, that require a stub nib pen. In Asia, a makta, or penknife, is frequently used by calligraphers to cut reed pens. Natural reeds offer a wider range of motion compared to metallic pens.Common calligraphy pens and brushes include quills, dip pens, ink brushes, qalams, fountain pens, chiselled markers, reed pens, and fudepens.
Inks, papers, and templates
The ink used for calligraphy is usually water-based and less viscous than the oil-based ink used in printing. Certain specialty papers with high ink absorption and uniform texture help one draw cleaner lines. Parchment or vellum is often used, because imperfections can be erased with a knife, and lines can be viewed through it without using a lightbox. Otherwise, lightboxes and templates can be used to achieve straight lines without leaving pencil marks. Ruled paper can be used directly or with a lightbox. Often, it has line spacing between one-quarter or one-half inch, although one-inch spaces are occasionally used, as is the case with Uncial script.East Asia
is known as ' or ' ; Japanese calligraphy is called ' ; and Korean calligraphy is referred to as '. The calligraphy of East Asian characters remains an important and highly regarded aspect of contemporary traditional East Asian culture.History
In ancient China, the oldest known Chinese characters are oracle bone script, carved on ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons. The rulers in the Shang dynasty carved pits on such animals' bones and baked them for insight into military affairs, agricultural harvests, weather, or even procreation, as a form of scapulimancy. During the divination ceremony, a heat source was applied to the carved pits, causing the bones to crack; they were then interpreted, with the interpretation being carved directly on the shell or bone, sometimes after the characters were written with a brush. With the development of the bronzeware script and large seal script, "cursive" signs continued. Mao Gong ding is one of the most famous examples of bronzeware script in Chinese calligraphic history. It contains 500 inscribed characters, the largest number of bronze inscriptions discovered to date. Moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters.In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles have been preserved and can be viewed in museums. Some date back to 200 BCE and are written in the small seal script style. Around 220 BCE, the emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first to conquer the entire Chinese basin, imposed several reforms, among them Li Si's character unification, which created a set of 3300 standardized small seal characters. Despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, few papers survive from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles. The clerical script , which was more regularized and in some ways similar to modern text, was also authorised under Qin Shi Huang.
Between clerical script and traditional regular script, there is another transitional type of calligraphic work called Wei Bei. It started during the North and South dynasties and ended before the Tang dynasty.
The traditional regular script, largely finalized by Zhong You and his followers and still in use today, is even more regularized. Its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang, who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in kaishu. Printing technologies encouraged shape stabilization. The shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China; however, small changes to the characters have been made. For example, the shape of 广 has changed from the version in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 to the version found in modern books. The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while stroke order remains the same, following the old style.
Styles which did not survive include, a mix of 80% small seal script and 20% clerical script. Some variant Chinese characters were unorthodox or locally-used for centuries. They were generally understood but never used in official texts. Some of these unorthodox variants, in addition to some newly created characters, compose the simplified Chinese character set.
Technique
To write Chinese characters, traditional East Asian writing uses the Four Treasures of the Study: ink brushes known as , Chinese ink, paper, and inkstones. They are also known as the Four Friends of the Study in Korean. Besides the traditional four tools, desk pads and paperweights are also used.There are many factors that influence the final result of a calligrapher's work. Physical factors include the shape, size, stretch, and hair type of the ink brush; the colour, pigment density, and water density of the ink; and the paper's surface texture and speed in absorbing water. The calligrapher's technique also influences the result, as the look of finished characters is affected by the amount of ink and water the brush absorbs and by the brush's pressure, angle, and direction. Changing these variables produces thinner or bolder strokes and smooth or toothed borders. Eventually, the speed, acceleration, and deceleration of a skilled calligrapher's movements greatly affect the final shape of characters and give them their "spirit".
Styles
Cursive styles such as Semi-cursive script| and Grass script| are less constrained and faster, and movements made by the writing implement are more visible. The stroke orders of these styles vary more, sometimes creating radically different forms. They descend from the clerical script, at around the same time as the regular script, but ' and ' were used for personal notes only and not as a standard. The style was highly appreciated during Emperor Wu of Han's reign.Examples of modern printed styles are Song from the Song dynasty's printing press and East Asian sans-serif. These are not considered traditional styles and are normally not written.
Influences
Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese calligraphy were each influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Calligraphy has influenced most major art styles in East Asia, including ink and wash painting, a style of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean painting based entirely on calligraphy and which uses similar tools and techniques.Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese have developed their own sensibilities and styles of calligraphy while incorporating Chinese influences.
Japan
Japanese calligraphy extends beyond the set of CJK strokes to also include local alphabets such as hiragana and katakana, with specific characteristics such as new curves and moves, and specific materials.Vietnam
is called thư pháp and is based on Chữ Nôm and Chữ Hán, the historical Vietnamese writing system rooted in the impact of Chinese characters and replaced with the Latin alphabet as a result of French colonial influence. Calligraphic traditions maintaining the historical employment of Han characters continue to be preserved in modern Vietnamese calligraphy.Korea
The modern Korean alphabet and its use of the circle required the creation of a new technique not used in traditional Chinese calligraphy.Mongolia
Mongolian calligraphy is also influenced by Chinese calligraphy, from tools to style.Tibet
Tibetan calligraphy is central to Tibetan culture. The script is derived from Indic scripts. The nobles of Tibet, such as the High Lamas and inhabitants of the Potala Palace, were often capable calligraphers. For centuries, Tibet has been a center of Buddhism, which places high significance on the written word. Although there is not a large body of secular pieces, they do exist, but usually are related in some way to Tibetan Buddhism. Almost all high religious writing involved calligraphy, including letters sent by the Dalai Lama and other religious and secular authorities. Calligraphy is particularly evident on prayer wheels, although this calligraphy was forged rather than penned or brushed, much like Arab and Roman calligraphy on buildings. Although originally done with a reed, Tibetan calligraphers now use chisel-tipped pens and markers as well.Southeast Asia
Philippines
has many ancient and indigenous scripts collectively called Suyat scripts. Various ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century through modern independence have used these scripts in various media. By the end of the colonial period, only four suyat scripts had survived and remained in everyday use in some communities. These four scripts are Hanunó'o of the Hanuno'o Mangyan people, Buhid of the Buhid Mangyan people, Tagbanwa script of the Tagbanwa people, and Palaw'an of the Palaw'an people. All four scripts were inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World international register, under the name Philippine Paleographs , in 1999.In protest of colonization, many artists and cultural experts have revived suyat scripts that went extinct after the Spanish introduced the Latin alphabet. The scripts being revived include the Kulitan script of the Kapampangan people, the badlit script of various Visayan ethnic groups, the Iniskaya script of the Eskaya people, the Baybayin script of the Tagalog people, and the Kur-itan script of the Ilocano people, among many others. The diverse array of distinct suyat scripts are collectively called Filipino suyat calligraphy. Calligraphy using the Western alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are also prevalent in the Philippines due to its colonial past. However, the Western and Arabic alphabets are not considered suyat, and this practice is not considered suyat calligraphy.