page_title: Chinese calligraphy
section_title: Imperial China
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese calligraphy / History / Imperial China
caption_attribution_description: English: Poems of The four treasures in a schoolar’s study (Qing)
context_page_description: Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held in high esteem across East Asia. Calligraphy is considered as one of the four best friends of ancient Chinese literati, along with playing stringed musical instruments, the board game "Go", and painting. There are some general standardizations of the various styles of calligraphy in this tradition. Chinese calligraphy and ink and wash painting are closely related: they are accomplished using similar tools and techniques, and have a long history of shared artistry. Distinguishing features of Chinese painting and calligraphy include an emphasis on motion charged with dynamic life. According to Stanley-Baker, "Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time and rhythm in shifting space its main ingredients." Calligraphy has also led to the development of many forms of art in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and inkstones.
context_section_description: For more than 2,000 years, China's literati—Confucian scholars and literary men who also served the government as officials—have been connoisseurs and practitioners of this art. In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles — some dating from 200 BC, and in Xiǎozhuàn style (small seal script) — are still accessible.
  In about 220 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Huang(秦始皇, 259–210 BC), the first to conquer the entire Chinese basin, imposed several reforms, among them Li Si's (李斯, 246 BC - 208 BC) character unification, which created a set of 3300 standardized Xiǎozhuàn characters. Despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, little paper survives from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles.
  The Lìshū style (clerical script) which is more regularized, and in some ways similar to modern text, were also authorised under Qin Shi Huang. While it is a common mistake to believe that Lishu was created by Cheng Miao alone during Qing Shi Huang's regime, Lishu was developed from pre-Qin era to the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).
  During the fourth century AD, calligraphy came to full maturity. The Kǎishū style (traditional regular script) — still in use today — and attributed to Wang Xizhi (王羲之, 303 CE-361 AD) and his followers, is even more regularized. reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, when famous calligraphers like Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan produced most of the fine works in Kaishu. Its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang (926 CE -933 AD), who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed shapes to stabilize. The Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have been made, for example in the shape of 广 which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books. The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while stroke order is still the same, according to old style.
  Cursive styles such as Xíngshū (semi-cursive or running script) and Cǎoshū (cursive or sloppy script) are less constrained and faster, where more movements made by the writing implement are visible. These styles' stroke orders vary more, sometimes creating radically different forms. They are descended from Clerical script, at the same time as Regular script (Han Dynasty 202 BC-220 AD), but Xíngshū and Cǎoshū were used for personal notes only and were never used as a standard. Caoshu style was highly appreciated during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (140 BC−87 BC).
  Styles which did not survive include Bāfēnshū, a mix of 80% Xiaozhuan style and 20% Lishu.
  Some Variant Chinese characters were unorthodox or locally used for centuries. They were generally understood but always rejected in official texts. Some of these unorthodox variants, in addition to some newly created characters, were incorporated in the Simplified Chinese character set.
caption: Poems of The four treasures in a scholar's study (Qing dynasty)
exif: {}