The characteristics of Chinese calligraphy are as follows:
1. The combination of practicality and aesthetics
As a kind of writing, Chinese characters are a tool for recording language. They play an important role in social life. It has many cultural functions. In the history of Chinese calligraphy, whether it is seal script, official script, regular script, running script, or cursive script, whether it is oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, bamboo slips and silk inscriptions, stone inscriptions, paper scripts, official documents, private letters, scriptures, manuscripts, etc., they are absolutely unique. Most are written for "use", indicating a specific purpose.
The practicality of these calligraphy is very clear, but people also pursue "beautiful" writing in "using" writing. In order to write well, ancient Chinese literati spent a lot of energy and time throughout their lives to improve their calligraphy skills. Various calligraphy handed down from ancient China can often give people a sense of visual beauty, so the aesthetic value of Chinese calligraphy exists objectively. This is why Chinese calligraphy is different from the writing of other ethnic languages.
2. The unity of symbolization and concreteness
Writing is the symbol that records language. As a type of writing, Chinese characters are also a symbol. The meaning of language symbols is agreed upon in social life, created to record language, and is simplified. There are fundamental differences between text symbols and paintings: words have three elements: shape, sound and meaning, and their "shape" has definite stippling and structure. The "shape" of paintings is not as certain as the "shape" of Chinese characters, and there is no definite "sound" to read.
The "shape" of Chinese characters is a symbol and does not describe objective things. Chinese characters are based on language. The symbolic nature of Chinese characters determines its fundamental difference from painting. However, Chinese characters are displayed through writing and engraving, and they form a certain visual shape from stipples, structures, and compositions. What, but there are also specific "images", so Chinese characters are concrete.
3. A meaningful form
Mature Chinese characters are not pictographic, so what is the beauty of them? What? British esthetician Bell believes that art is a "meaningful form". Chinese characters are actually such a "meaningful form" that is displayed on certain materials with a distinctive and unique style.
Especially when the brush is pressed and turned on the paper, the ink marks on the paper are ever-changing, interesting and meaningful. Therefore, the Chinese characters written by a diligent calligrapher must have exquisite stipples, structure and composition. , has a strong ornamental value. In addition, the written text is often beautiful poetry or famous quotes, so a calligraphy work shows rich and timeless artistic charm.