A spectacular achievement of eastern Asian art, Chinese calligraphy is almost as old as Chinese characters. Considered as one of the three “essential skills” for ancient Chinese to master in order to enter the scholar class, it was developed throughout China’s history by innovative artists and scholars striving to create new styles based on a number of established, well-developed models. Even nowadays, the mastery of this art is regarded as a great achievement in the Chinese society that is sure to win praise and admiration. In Beijing, a Beijing tour guide can take you on a Beijing city tour to shop for exquisite Chinese calligraphy works in the city’s amazing local shops.

Chinese calligraphy is as beautiful as it is mysterious and profound. Characters on a work, especially those written in cursive or semi-cursive script, usually represent a calligrapher’s personality, aspiration, outlook of life, and inner state of mind. Beginners of this art often find the exercise restricting and unfulfilling, since there are a number of strict rules to follow. But it is generally agreed that once a certain level of proficiency is achieved, a calligrapher is able to express any idea in almost any style he/she desires.

Chinese characters were already written in a stylistic way on oracle bones dating back to the Xia dynasty, about 3,000 years ago. In the ancient Yangshao culture site of China, archaeologists discovered 6000-year-old pottery items with primitive patterns that looked like simple symbols with meanings, which were considered by some as the origin of Chinese characters and the art of calligraphy. 2,000 years ago, Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China, standardized the use of Chinese characters. After which the development of Chinese calligraphy began to follow a stable trajectory, with artists and scholars inventing new styles in each dynasty.

Chinese calligraphy, like ink and wash painting, is done by using four basic tools collectively called the “Four Treasures of Study”: brush, ink, inkstone, and paper. Each of these tools is an art in itself with a long history of development. A master calligrapher can use these four items skillfully to write beautiful, excellent works with high quality.

New styles of writing Chinese characters kept springing up throughout China’s history, but most of them could be traced back to the five major scripts: regular script, seal script, clerical script, cursive script, and semi-cursive script.

Regular script: This is a standard form of script for Chinese characters. It is a popular practice for beginners of Chinese calligraphy to imitate exemplary works of master calligrapher written in this script. Appearing late in the history of the development of this art, it was developed from a semi-curisve form of clerical script.

Seal script: One of the oldest styles of Chinese calligraphy, it was imposed by Qin Shi Huang Di as the standard script in the Qin dynasty. Nowadays very few people can read this script, which has become an undecipherable code of a few scholars and seal experts. But it is still the popular script used on Chinese seals. So its English name is called “Seal”.

Clerical script: A style that appears flat and wide with a tendency toward a square form, clerical script is believed be have been invented during Warring States period or Qin dynasty as an alternative style to seal script. As a high artistic type of writing, it is generally used in advertisement and artistic calligraphy.

Cursive script: Cursive script is a way of fast writing that developed in the Han dynasty. A style known for its omission of parts and lack of complicated strokes, it is popular with experienced calligraphers who wish to fully express their ideas and emotions in an unrestrained way. With irregular forms and random strokes, it is generally unreadable for a person untrained in the art of Chinese calligraphy.

Semi-cursive script: Of all styles of writing, semi-cursive scripts bears the most resemblance to normal hand writing. A style that borrows elements from both regular script and cursive script, it can be read by most people who understand Chinese characters.

In the fantastic local shops of Beijing, there are excellent, beautiful Chinese calligraphy works done by some of the best artists in all of China. Go with a Beijing travel guide to discover these wonderful, high-value products.

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