In Korea, as in China and Japan, calligraphy has long been considered an art form. Korean calligraphy is derived from the writing form of Chinese characters. Each character is composed of lines of different shapes in an imaginary square, all in order to express a unique meaning. Koreans began writing in Chinese characters from about the second or third century AD, although their own language belongs to an entirely different system. Even after the Korean alphabet Hangeul was created in 1446, Chinese characters were still used as the official script until the end of the 19th century. Traditional Korean calligraphy uses Chinese characters instead of Korean characters.
Under the influence of Chinese culture, calligraphy has always been closely related to painting in Korea, and some people believe that painting is influenced by calligraphy from the perspective of the powerful and harmonious arrangement of brushwork. People often hang calligraphy works on the wall to appreciate them like paintings, and appreciate the uniqueness of each stroke of it, the charm of its ink, and the skill, structure, charm, etc. of its entire layout just like paintings. A good calligraphy is not composed of regular strokes arranged evenly, but is like a finely choreographed dance and coordinated movements - passion, movement, momentary pauses and interlaced active strokes, all of which make up the composition. A balanced whole.
Technically speaking, the art of calligraphy depends on how the writer uses skill and imagination to express charm in the strokes, and uses these strokes with different expressions to form a beautiful structure. After writing, no more strokes or complementary colors can be added. , the most important thing is to pay attention to the symmetry of space between strokes, and the symmetry of space arrangement requires many years of practice and training to achieve. However, in terms of understanding the basic nature of the art of calligraphy, proficiency in brushwork and aesthetic accomplishment are not the only basic elements. Among the upper class in Korea in the past, learning calligraphy was considered a necessary process for cultivated people to cultivate their sentiments. The actual function of calligraphy as a means of writing or communication is often less important than the philosophical meaning of the quality of handwriting.
Like all other arts that have flourished in ancient Korea, calligraphy’s basic inspiration comes from nature. Every stroke and every point of a word symbolizes the form of a natural object. Korean calligraphers, like ancient Chinese calligraphy masters, realize that just as every branch of a living tree is alive, every stroke and every stroke of a good calligraphy must also have life when it is written. life. This is the essential difference between words in calligraphy and printed words. Ideographic Chinese characters have an abstract and figurative character, which further enhances the visual appeal of calligraphy because it allows calligraphers who have reached a state of artistic perfection to express their thoughts with almost unlimited freedom, just as the great The painter does the same in painting.
Like the tools used by traditional ink painters, the tools needed by calligraphers are also very simple - high-quality ink, inkstone, brush and paper (some painters like to use silk paper). There is a good name for things called "Four Treasures of the Study" (sometimes also called "Four Friends of the Study"). People are very careful in the selection and preservation of these four things, because they often also reflect the appreciation and aesthetic level of Marxism.
Korean calligraphy has a long tradition, dating back to the early Three Kingdoms period. It is understood that from that time on, Chinese literature was taught in royal academies and state-run colleges and universities. Calligraphy has such a long history, and countless nobles and artists have made significant efforts to promote the art of calligraphy over many centuries. Unfortunately, after many foreign invasions and internal disputes, very few ancient calligraphy works have been preserved to this day. In particular, the Seven Years' War with Japan's Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army at the end of the 16th century not only caused many casualties, but also caused serious damage to historical monuments and cultural relics across the Korean Peninsula. As a result, there are now fewer than 20 surviving calligraphy works belonging to the period before that war.
What can satisfy the intellectual curiosity of modern scholars studying Korean calligraphy is that many stone calligraphy have survived historical changes and were not destroyed by war.
Among the several stone tablets with inscriptions left over from the ancient Three Kingdoms era, the one with unsurpassed historical significance is the large stone tablet built in 414 AD in the southern part of Northeast China to commemorate the military exploits of King Gwanggaeto of the Kingdom of Goguryeo.
This 6.4-meter-high stone monument is engraved with about 1,800 Chinese characters. The font is in the style of an inscription with sharp edges and corners. Most epigraphists and experts on ancient Korean calligraphy point out that the characters on the stele can express the bravery and vigor of the people of this ancient military country that ruled a large part of Northeast China and the northern half of the Korean Peninsula at that time.
There is even less information available to understand the height of the calligraphy art of the Baekje Kingdom in the southwest. Judging from the high level of scholars and exquisite artworks in this kingdom, it is likely that it also reached a fairly mature level in calligraphy. In 1972, many cultural relics with important archaeological value were discovered in the tomb of King Munyeong and Queen in Gongju, the ancient capital of Baekje, central Korea. Among them, a square stone tablet was a rarity for calligraphers and epigraphers. Jane. Placed at the entrance to the sixth-century tomb, this obelisk resembles a deed to purchase a piece of land from an underground deity for the purpose of building the tomb. The Chinese characters engraved on the stele are in beautiful fonts, showing a high degree of skill; the fonts were obviously influenced by the non-cursive scripts in China at that time.
In the following Unified Silla era, due to the admiration of Chinese Tang Dynasty culture, many great calligraphers were produced, such as Jin Sheng and Cui Zhiyuan. Their fonts basically follow Chinese calligraphy masters Ouyang Xun and Yu Shinan. Another great Chinese calligrapher, Wang Xizhi, is also highly admired and his cursive script is widely copied. However, the square Ouyang Xun style that began to circulate from the Silla Kingdom still occupied a dominant position in the Goryeo Dynasty until about 1350. Around this time, the elegant and graceful calligraphy of Zhao Mengzhao, a Chinese calligrapher from the Yuan Dynasty, was introduced to Korea and became a popular calligraphy style. Since then, Cho style has been the basic undercurrent of Korean calligraphy.
The rulers of the early Goryeo Dynasty imitated China and adopted the imperial examination system to select civil servants through examinations. Candidates had to write essays according to the propositions, and the font of the essays was naturally one of the evaluation criteria. This system promoted the upper class's interest in practicing calligraphy diligently. The Han court also had an examination system for selecting low-level officials specializing in paperwork. This era was when Buddhism flourished as the state religion, and it left behind a wealth of typical works through which we can understand the level of calligraphy at that time. Such artifacts that have survived to this day include tombstones, woodblocks and handwritten Buddhist scriptures, inscriptions on stupas commemorating eminent monks, and stone tablets in monasteries. Among the famous calligraphy masters of this era were Li Yan, Li Qixian, Gu Zuda and Han Yun.
The calligraphy of the Joseon Kingdom was originally called Zhao Mengzhao style, which advocated elegant and graceful strokes. King Sejong's third son, Anping Dajun (1418-53), was unparalleled in Zhao style calligraphy. He once wrote the inscription and postscript to "Dream Wandering in Peach Land" painted by An Jian, one of the greatest painters of his generation mentioned earlier. Han Hu (1543-1605) - better known by his pen name Shi Feng - is also an important figure in the history of Korean calligraphy, but he was only a sincere disciple of Wang Xizhi. Although he was very skilled in Wang style calligraphy, he did not create own style. In the early 16th century, a weak and unimaginative style developed, and Korean calligraphy entered a barren period.
However, some distinctive styles emerged in the 19th century that were related to Chinese calligraphers from the 16th to early 17th centuries, such as Wen Zhengming. The emergence of this new trend stems from the close cultural contact between Korea and the Qing Dynasty of China. A group of literati scholars were enthusiastic about such contacts because they were eager to follow the Qing Dynasty's example in finding practical ways to improve people's lives and build a modern country.
The greatest calligrapher in the Joseon Dynasty was Kim Jung-hee of the Shi School. Kim Jung-hee was an outstanding calligrapher and scholar who established a style known as the "Chushi School". His calligraphy was derived from Chinese official script, but he has a rich sense of painting in layout, is good at finding harmony in asymmetry, and his brushstrokes are extremely powerful, making the words full of vitality. Thanks to these talents, he finally created his own unique vivid and powerful style.
In the first two to thirty years of this century, there were still a few calligraphers from the Joseon Dynasty still alive, but around 1920, the influence of Japanese calligraphy began to appear. Since the end of the Second World War, traditional calligraphy has survived only as a minor art. A new trend since the 1960s is calligraphy using the Korean alphabet.