An Introduction to Chinese Calligraphy

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An Introduction to Chinese Calligraphy
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• Calligraphy
• In ancient China, painting and calligraphy were
  the most highly appreciated arts
• Produced almost exclusively by amateurs,
  aristocrats and scholar-officials who alone had
  the leisure to perfect the technique and
  sensibility necessary for great brushwork
• Calligraphy was thought to be the highest and
  purest form of painting

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• Tools
• Brush pen, made of animal hair,
• Black inks, made from pine soot and animal glue
• Silk
• Paper, after the invention in the 1st century
• Original writings by famous calligraphers have
  been greatly valued throughout China's history
  and are mounted on scrolls and hung on walls in
  the same way that paintings are.

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• Wang Xizhi
• 4th century AD
• Lanting Xu
• the preface of a collection of poems written
  by a number of poets

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Basic strokes

• 8 strokes
• Dash or horizontal line
• Perpendicular down stroke
• Sweeping or falling left stroke
• Sweeping or falling right stroke
• Hook
• Upright stroke to the right
• Dot
• Bend or twist

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Rice Paper

• made of
• rice plants
• mulberry paper
• edible paper
• straw paper
• used to make flat pieces of paper
• made for scrolls

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Easy to Understand Chinese

• words in Chinese can look like its picture meaning

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Write In Certain Strokes

• Write in certain strokes
• left, right, up, down

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What to make up a Chinese character
strokes
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? ? ?
A dash(a horizontal stroke)
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A perpendicular down stroke
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A hook
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A left-falling stroke and a right-falling stroke
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An upstroke to the right
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A dot
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Bend or twist
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Proper Poster for Writing in brush