The Chinese believe that calligraphy reflects the writer's cultivation, including temperament, academic achievement, tastes and character.In short, calligraphy reveals personality and personality shapes calligraphy quality.
In evaluating calligraphic works, people often talk about the scent. Although intangible, the Chinese believe excellent literary and artistic works must have their scent. A well-known Chinese collection of short stories, Strange Tales Written at Liaozhai Studio, includes a tale of an immortal who disguised himself as a blind monk in the temporal world to judge the quality of scholars' articles. What he would do is to burn the articles and smell the scent to discern the quality. The scent of a piece of calligraphic work is like the temperament of a person. Chinese critics believe that the works style of a calligrapher is linked with his or her character and academic achievement. And in turn people hope to imbue their writings with their tastes and learning. As a Chinese proverb goes, "The writing reveals the writer." Two people can learn much about each other from the calligraphic features of letters that they exchange,even if they live a thousand miles apart and have never met. Therefore, almost all the Chinese people will devote some time to handwriting practice.
In Chinese literary criticism, it is a general rule to link the personality of an artist with his works. This is true for painting and other literary works such as calligraphy.
Editor: Dong Lin
Print
Save