Li Si: Brush Technique 李斯：用笔法

Li Si (- 208 BC), the prime minister in the Chinese Qin dynasty (221 - 206 BC) and is said to be one of the creator of small seal script. He is also a famous calligrapher. His seal (zhuan) characters are dignifiedly rectangular with strokes structurally balanced, and his brushwork is gracefully stretching, producing a streaming effect, especially in curved lines. There have been many calligraphers versed in this style, but none of them outstripped him.
It is said that he left behind a short essay on handwriting, Brush Technique, the very first practical discussion on Chinese calligraphy. However, many believe that this was actually written by someone in the Song dynasty (960–1279).
The notion of ‘no repetition, nor correction’ of brushworks has led the Chinese calligraphers to put emphasis on the how of writing rather than what is being written. In other words, it is the creative or expressive act that should play a stronger role than the actual compositional aspects of work of art. It is therefore no wonder that, in appreciating a work of Chinese calligraphy, the aesthetic pleasure of the viewer is precisely in following the movement of the brush and tracing the play of the lines.
‘To draw a stroke, back the brush quick, and then launch it out firm. Like the wheeling of a hawk or the passing of a roc, draw strokes at will, no repetition, nor correction. In falling stroke, draw like fish in water; in curved stroke, draw like mist around undulating hills. Rolled or unfurled, light or bold, a right stroke is from reasonable mind.’
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李斯(- 208 BC) 是秦朝 (221 - 206 BC) 宰相。据说是小篆的创造者之一。他也是个有名的书法家。李斯的篆书严谨呈长形，线条匀称，优雅地伸延，有飞动之势。曲线尤其如此。后来精于篆书者故不乏其人，但皆难入其境。
据说他写过短文《用笔法》，是中国谈论书法的第一篇实用论文。但不少人认为这篇文其实是宋(960–1279) 人附会李斯所为。
对笔法提出‘信之自然，不得重改’的看法，导致中国书法家强调书写过程多于其结果。就是说，创作与表现行为比作品的最终结构更为重要。难怪在欣赏中国书法作品时，观赏者的欢愉其实来自追随笔画的运动与追踪线条的踪迹。
‘夫用笔之法，先急回，回疾下；如鹰望鹏逝，信之自然，不得重改。送脚，若游鱼得水；舞笔，如景山兴云。或卷或舒、乍轻乍重，善深思之，理当自见矣。 ’

Tan Sok Khoon’s Calligraphy 陈淑群书法

The calligraphy shown here is written by Tan Sok Khoon, a practicing accountant. She has learned the art for about 5 years and is currently a third year student of the Senior Citizen Calligraphy University Centre, Singapore.
Sok Khoon’s calligraphic works have been selected for display at a number of calligraphy exhibitions in Singapore. These exhibitions include the 16th and 18th Senior Citizens Calligraphy Exhibitions and the 28th Singapore Calligraphy Annual Exhibition - Contemporary Singapore Calligraphy Exhibition in 2008.
The content of her calligraphic piece is a poem written by Du Fu, a famous poet during the Tang (618 - 907) period in China.

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Du Fu: Delighting in Rain on a Spring Night
A good rain knows its proper time,

It waits until the Spring to fall.

It drifts in on the wind, steals in by night;

Its fine drops drench, yet make no sound at all.

The paths between the fields are cloaked with clouds;

A river-skiff’s lone light still burns.

Come dawn, we’ll see splashes of wet red –

The flowers piled up the whole Jinguan city
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这里所展示的是陈淑群的书法作品。淑群是一位在职会计师，学书法大约有五年的时间了。目前她是新加坡老年书法大学三年级毕业班同学。
淑群的书法作品入选不少在新加坡举行的书法展。这些书展包括第十六、十八届黄金岁月展与2008年举行的第二十八届新加坡书法年展-当代新加坡书法展。
这幅书法写的是唐代 (618 - 907) 著名大诗人杜甫的诗<春夜喜雨>：

好雨知时节， 当春乃发生。

随风潜入夜， 润物细无声。

野径云俱黑， 江船火独明。

晓看红湿处， 花重锦官城。

Oracle Inscriptions: The earliest Chinese writing scripts 甲骨文：中国最早的文字

One may say that the evolution and gradual institutionalization of the Chinese writing system can be traced back to the fifth and fourth millennium BC when the earliest extant ancestors of modern Chinese characters were painted or engraved on ancient clay potsherds. However, the earliest examples of highly developed Chinese writing system could only be traced back to the late Shang (1766-1050 BC) period. These are the so-called Oracle Bone Inscriptions (jiaguwen) which were found at the site of the last Shang capital near present-day Anyang, Henan province. These earliest written records contain important historical information on politics, economy, military and science of the Shang dynasty.
Oracle bone characters were inscribed on tortoise shells and the shoulder bones of oxen with sharp instruments. Hence their name in Chinese: 甲骨文jiaguwen ‘shell bone writing’. While the Chinese term refers to the materials on which the writing was produced, the English term ‘oracle bone inscriptions’ tells us that the purpose of these early characters was mainly divination, i.e., fortune-telling, for matters such as the waging of wars.

The rulers of the Shang Dynasty were very superstitious so divination was basically a daily activity for almost everything, such as hunting, warfare, weather, health, farming and selection of auspicious days for ceremonies. The bones not only were used in divination as a tool, but also in recording the activities and results on them.
Although their shapes are very different from the characters of today, being less uniform in shape and more picture-like, oracle bone characters were already developed into a variety of mostly non-pictographic functions, including all the major types of Chinese characters now in use. It is indeed a fully functional and fairly mature writing system. Therefore, we think there must have been precursors to oracle bone characters, which represented the first attempts at Chinese writing.
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我们可以说中国文字的发展和逐渐形成，可以追溯到公元前4或5千年。现代中国文字之最早前身被画或刻于古代陶器的破片中。然而，高度发展的中国文字的证据只能追溯到商朝（公元前1766-1050）末期。这些被称为甲骨文在商朝最后国都-现在的河南安阳被发现。这些古代书写记载有关商朝政治、经济、军事与科学的重要历史记录。
甲骨文是以尖锐工具刻画在龟甲和牛肩骨上，所以称为甲骨文。在中文指的是文字书写的载体，而英文却称为‘刻于骨之神谕’，告诉我们这些文字的目的主要是为了占卜，就是预测如战争成败之类事情。
商朝统治者相当迷信，所以占卜成为每天例行公事，包括行猎、战争、天气、健康、农耕与选择仪式的良辰吉日。甲骨不但成为占卜之工具，亦用以记录活动与占卜结果。
虽然甲骨文的形状比较不均匀和较近形象，与我们今天所用的文字不尽相同；但是，它的字形已经演变出相当多非形象功能，包括许多当今所用的中文字。它其实已经是一种具有功能与相当成熟的文字系统。所以，我们认为在甲骨文之前，应有另一种先驱文字，代表中国文字发生的更早尝试。

The Agony of Artists 艺术家的烦恼

Yan Liben (601? – 673) was a famous painter during the Tang period. He was reported to have painted ‘Portrait of Emperor Tao Zong’, ‘Eighteen Scholars’ etc. One day, while boating in the royal garden, Emperor Tai Zong noticed a strange bird in the water and ordered Yan to paint it. While other officials were enjoying the scenery, the painter was most unhappy because he had to be busy with his brushes. Upon returning home, he told his sons that they should not, from then on, to pursue a career as painters. Nevertheless, he himself could not give up painting.
In calligraphy, Wei Dan (179 – 253), who had been a student of Zhang Zhi, had encountered a more frightening experience at the age of 50 that caused him to turn against the art.
It was reported the emperor Ming built a lookout tower called ‘Ling Yun Tai’ (Touching Clouds Tower) and it was only after the tower had been completed that the builders realized that they had forgotten to write the inscription ‘Ling Yun Tai’ on the signboard before it was hung.
Being a famous calligrapher, Wei Dan was asked to write three characters in calligraphy on a signboard that was hung at the top of the tower some 250 feet above the ground in the air. Wei Dan was put into a big bamboo cage and lifted upwards, struggling all the while to balance a big bucket of ink and a big huge and heavy brush.
Once at the top, he was struck by the terror and unable to keep his balance. Wei Dan held his breath, wrote the three characters as quickly as possible and then fainted. When he was lowered down, the people saw that his hair and beard had turned white from the effort.
After reaching home, he called his children together and told that them he would never practice this dangerous and possibly deadly art of calligraphy again, and warned them do likewise.
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阎立本（约601 - 673）是唐朝著名的画家。据说《太宗真容》、《秦府十八学士图》等画是他画的。一天，在皇家花园游船，太宗看到一只特别的鸟在水中，就命令他把它画出来。阎很不高兴，因为其他的官员都在欣赏美景，而他却忙于挥动画笔。回家后，他告诉他的儿子，此后不要以画画为职业。但是，他本身却不能放弃画画。
在书法界，张芝的学生韦诞（179 - 253）在50岁时所碰到的经验更为恐怖，导致他对这门艺术大为反感。
据说明帝建筑一个叫做‘凌云台’的看台，建好后，建筑工人才发现忘了把‘凌云台’写在牌板上就把它挂上了看台。
作为一个著名的书法家，韦诞被叫去把这三个字写在离地面约250尺的牌板上。韦诞坐在一个大竹笼里被吊起，加上一大桶的黑墨和一只又大又重的毛笔，韦诞一直挣扎求取平衡。
到了上面，他被恐怖所笼罩，不能平衡。韦诞屏住气，快快的写完三个字，然后就昏倒了。当他被吊下来，人们发现他的头发与胡须都因此而全变白了。回到家，他召集他的儿子，说从此他不会再写这个危险和致命的书法了，并告诫他们不要学书法。