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| Scripts Development / Introduction |
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| The art of Chinese calligraphy was developed through the evolution of many different forms and styles of the Chinese scripts.
If we look at the history of the Chinese script, we will notice that its development was a painstaking process that took hundreds and thousands of years before each of these scripts were commonly accepted and adopted. As these scripts slowly worked their way towards perfection, each of them developed into an art form that is well beyond its practical value. People in ancient time knew long ago how to fasten animal hair to make brushes for writing. But most ancient Chinese calligraphies were carvings inscribed by knives. We see all kinds of inscriptions on bones, bronze, stone vessels, wood/bamboo tablets and stone slabs. Most of these writings were first created with brushes by one person, and then copied into carvings, by another. With the invention of paper around the 2nd Century, brush writing became popular. Chinese characters began to diversify into different flowing forms and styles. Let us begin our tour of this vast art form, tracing it all the way to 8,000 years ago. |