In China painting and calligraphy use the same materials therefore, calligraphy is considered to be a high art akin to painting. The argument goes something like this: In Europe, for instance, painting is a high art calligraphy does not use the same materials as painting therefore, calligraphy is not accorded the same high status as painting. Some critics have pointed to this as a way of explaining why calligraphy has a higher status in China than elsewhere. These Four Treasures are the same materials employed by traditional Chinese painters. Together with the inkstone-a carved stone slab with a reservoir for grinding ink and mixing it with water-brush, ink, and paper are known in China as the Four Treasures of the Study (wenfang sibao), indicating the high esteem in which the materials of calligraphy are held. Paper was made from various fibers, such as mulberry, hemp, and bamboo, and provided an inexpensive alternative to silk as a ground material for calligraphy and painting. Tradition credits the discovery of the process to Cai Lun in 105 C.E., though recent tomb findings demonstrate that paper was known at least a century earlier. The invention of paper is widely appreciated as one of China's major technological contributions to the world.
Eventually ink cakes and ink sticks themselves became a decorative art form, and many well-known artists created designs and patterns for their molds. The resulting hardened cakes or sticks can then be ground against a stone and mixed with water, a process that allows the calligrapher to control the thickness of the ink and density of the pigment. After being collected, the lampblack is mixed with glue and then pressed into molds. The ink employed in calligraphy is usually made from lampblack, a sooty residue created by burning pine resin or oil underneath a hood. It is this feature more than any other that allows the calligraphic line to be so fluid and expressive. What all such brushes have in common, however, is their flexibility. Brushes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes that determine the type of line produced. The hairs are not all of the same length rather, an inner core has shorter hairs around it, which in turn are covered by an outer layer that tapers to a point. A typical brush consists of a bundle of animal hairs (black rabbit hair, white goat hair, and yellow weasel hair were all very popular) pushed inside a tube of bamboo or wood (though jade, porcelain, and other materials were also occasionally used).
Those qualities began to emerge very clearly during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.), when Chinese artisans perfected the manufacture of the basic materials still used by calligraphers today: brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.Īlthough archaeological evidence confirms that brushes were known in China at a much earlier date, it was during the Han period that their use became widespread. As a result of this process, the characters (or "graphs" as they are also called) generally lack the kinds of linear variation and other attributes considered prerequisites of true calligraphy.
These early inscriptions were made on the surface of an oracle bone or a bronze mold with a sharp, pointed instrument. Shang kings used these objects in important divination rituals, and some scholars have argued that this early association of writing with ritual and political authority helps to account for the special status conferred upon those who could read and write. The earliest extant examples of Chinese writing are the inscriptions that appear on so-called oracle bones (animal bones and turtle shells) and on bronze vessels, the oldest of which date back to the Shang dynasty (ca.1600-ca.1100 B.C.E.). To understand how calligraphy came to occupy such a prominent position, it is necessary to consider a variety of factors, such as the materials used in calligraphy and the nature of the Chinese written script as well as the esteem in which writing and literacy are held in traditional China. How one wrote, in fact, was as important as what one wrote. In China, from a very early period, calligraphy was considered not just a form of decorative art rather, it was viewed as the supreme visual art form, was more valued than painting and sculpture, and ranked alongside poetry as a means of self-expression and cultivation. Calligraphy, literally "beautiful writing," has been appreciated as an art form in many different cultures throughout the world, but the stature of calligraphy in Chinese culture is unmatched.