All written languages have three key elements or functions: shape, pronunciation, and meaning. With regard to Chinese calligraphy, the shape of the characters is closely related to it; the meanings of t

Characters are composed of strokes arranged in different ways.

he characters have some, but not a great relationship with it; and the pronunciation of the characters has no relationship with it at all. So I will mainly introduce the relations of the unique shapes of the Chinese characters to the art of calligraphy.

    The special and unique shapes of the Chinese characters and the principle of their composition form the basis of the emergence and

Square scroll in running hand by Bada Shanren (1626?-1705).

    Chinese characters are square, and each occupies a square space on paper. Statistics show that there are 3,500 common characters, against the total of 90,000. The Chinese people use these characters, which occupy a similar space each but with different shapes, as means to exchange or

Dots and hook strokes in different forms.

The character "yong" demonstrates the eight fundamental strokes.The numbers in the  pictures above show the writing order of the strokes.

    Chinese characters, in general, are composed of a dozen basic strokes, which have similar functions to the letters of the Western languages. But they do not combine sounds into syllables. There are eight basic strokes: dot, Horizontal stroke, turning stroke, vertical stroke, hook stroke, right-upward stroke, left-downward stroke and right-downward stroke. They can be demonstrated using the character yong in the so-called formal script.

Commonly used styles for Prints and computer scripts include the Song, imitation-Song, formal, running-formal, Shu, boldface, Wei tablet and official styles.

   In practice, in individual handwriting, the strokes show some variations, as they do in different styles of script. Take the formal script for example, A dot in the formal script is written in more than 20 different ways, and the hook stroke in a dozen different ways. Some are illustrated on this page. In a small square space, characters are composed of different strokes linked and arranged in various ways, thus they are easily to recognize, and look neat. These strokes are placed

Pages from the Book of Models of official-script calligraphy by Qian Shoutie (1897-1967).

in various positions in the square - upper or lower, left or right, separate or linked, crossed, going through, overlapping, piling up or surrounding.

    Western languages have 20-30 letters, more than the basic strokes of  Chinese characters, but have only three forms: straight line, curved line and dot. And the letters,

    In general, there are two or three handwriting styles like

A pair of couplets in rumming script by Yu Youren (1879-1964).

    Formal script , or regular style. With a history of more than 1,O00 years, formal script is a fundamental writing style and usually appears in printed matter and on computer screens, featuring standard strokes, rigorous rules and a slow speed of writing. The Chinese characters in this style are easy to recognize. This style is

commonly used in shop signs, horizontal or vertical signboards on buildings, Spring Festival couplets, tablets in front of tombs, monuments, nameplates of newspapers and official documents and correspondence.

Seal-script characters by Wu Changshuo.

    Running script . This script has been developed from the quick-writing formal script, and is a style halfway between formal script and cursive script. Such a style is looser than the formal script, and has more links between strokes. Most characters in this style have slanting shapes. Moving of the strokes is simple, smooth and light, and characters are easily recognizable. This writing style appears usually in letters and daily life writing.

    Cursive script . Written at the quickest speed, the characters in this style are further away from the formal script than the running script in form. With irregular forms, some strokes join together, or parts of strokes or some whole strokes are omitted. So the characters in this style are difficult to write and recognize.

    Seal script. The most ancient calligraphic style, the seal script is no longer used except for special effects. The ancient seal-script characters were discovered in inscriptions carved on oracle bones, which were animal bones and tortoise shells used for divination, and on ancient bronze objects as well as in lesser-seal-style inscriptions. It contains few strokes and no dots, hooks or turning strokes, and seeks a unanimous

Part of the formal-script Buddhist Sutra by Liu Yong (1720-1805).

    Official script . This basic form appeared after the seal script, and was mainly used during the Han Dynasty. It changed the rule of unanimous thickness of strokes in the seal script and abolished the pictographic features of the seal script. The characters of this script are squat-shaped, contrasted with the high shapes of the other five scripts. The official-script characters are antique, but easy to recognize.

    Today, characters appearing in print and used in computers are mainly Song,

imitation-Song, block and boldface characters. The Song style was developed when movable type printing was invented in the Song Dynasty, represented by the calligraphic works of Ouyang Xun and his son Ouyang Tong from the Tang Dynasty. It was reformed during the Ming Dynasty, having thicker vertical strokes and thinner horizontal strokes, and has been the main printing style since the 16th century. The imitation-Song style changed all strokes into thin ones. The block style is a printing style very similar to the handwriting style. Recently, some other block characters have appeared in print and in computer formats, including the Shu style, represented by the modem calligrapher Shu Tong (1906-1998).