History of chinese calligraphy and its chatracteristics - Essay Example

Sur March 21, Development of Chinese Calligraphy Introduction: Ancient people used to portray and inscribe their religious needs and regular, cursive, and other styles of writing gradually initiated and developed in Chinese Calligraphy. Calligraphers like Ouyang Xun who wrote Mengdian Letter, Li Yangbin wso created Sanfenji Stele, and Sun Guoting who wrote The Manual on Calligraphy, among others had great contributions in these styles of writing during the Sui and Tang dynasties.Different Stages of Chinese Calligraphy Development and Its Characteristics: The earliest form of Chinese writing was found in the Shang dynasty (1600-1100 B.C.) when scripts used to be written on oracle bone and inscriptions have been obtained on Bianzhong Bell and Maogong Ding.

This was followed by the Zhou Dynasty (1100-256 B.C.) during which Chinese wrote on bronze vessels and variety of styles was created on greater seals. During the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) the use of lesser seal scripts, also known as xiao zhuan, was made standardizing the characters used for writing. Stone inscriptions were used during this time and scripts for clerical uses were also prepared. Clerical scripts developed more during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220). Such writings could be obtained from Stele Vessels, Stele for Zhang Qian and Stele for Cao Quan.

Also, the cursive style of writing was developed during this period of time characterized by inscriptions on strips or silks. The regular script, cursive script and running scripts were developed during the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties (220-580), the characteristics of which were represented by Stelae style from Northern Dynasty and Manuscript style from Southern Dynasty. The regular script developed to maturity during the Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907) and Five Dynasties (907-960).

During these periods, seal, regular, cursive as well as clerical scripts were used. Personal Creative Styles emerged during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) where regular and cursive scripts were mostly used in the development of creative writings like poetry. During the Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming Dynasties (1368-1644), the ancient styles of writing in seal, clerical, regular and cursive scripts revived with further advancements. Several learning from the original works took place during these times.

The Stelae school of calligraphy advanced during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) during which writers used their learning on seal scripts and clerical scripts to create new writings unique from the past. Regular and cursive writings also flourished more during this period. The 20th century has witnessed radical development in Chinese calligraphy with focus on archaeological findings positively impacting the advancement and development.Conclusion:It can be concluded from the study that Chinese calligraphy has gone through several difficult stages.

In each stage it developed more than before that can be reflected from the clerical script and wooden and bamboo strips as well as inscriptions on stones that have advanced more since the Han Dynasty, and gradually with ages, Chinese Calligraphy has today developed to great extents.