Calligraphic characters are quite different from those written purely for decoration and the

   Now we will discuss three structural forms essential to calligraphy. They are strokes, characters and lines, which join together to reflect the beauty of the work.

Among these three, strokes are basic, because all the characters and lines are composed of strokes. The characters and lines are the tracks of movements or arrangement forms of the dots and strokes. Vigor, shifting, rhythm, change and harmony are key elements of the beauty of the dots and strokes, and are also the key elements of the beauty of the characters and lines. Certainly, these key elements de monstrate different proportions in the strokes, characters and lines.

   When writing with a brush, the key element is the vigor of the strokes. Talking about the importance of the vigor of the strokes in calligraphy in an article, the 19th-20th century scholar Liang Qichao emphasized, "The vigor of the strokes is the main  criterion for judging whether the work good or not." 

Lifting and pressing. The red spots show the places for pressing the brush, and the arrow shows the direction of the movement of the brush.

  Likewise, dragging the brush across the paper would be like covering the paper with paint. While writing characters with a brush, the brush should be held vertically at 90 degrees to the paper's surface. Comparing characters written with a brush and those written with a pen, the strokes of characters written with the latter are all more or less the same thickness. But the dots and strokes of characters written with a writing brush illustrate different thicknesses, express dark or light black ink, and the speed of the movement of the brush. Also, all the dots and strokes of each character are finished in order, and they cannot be revised. This is the main difficulty in writing with a brush and the charm of calligraphy. So we can say the vigor of the strokes depends on the mastery of the brush by the calligrapher.

   There are several ways to demonstrate the vigor of the strokes, but

Moving the tip of the brush in the middle of a stroke (left). Moving the side of the tip of the brush along one side of a stroke (right). Different ways of using the tip of a brush in writing a vertical stroke.

introduce only two of them here.

   First, more use of the tip of the brush. While writing the character the brush is held vertically and moves from the middle of the stroke. A character written this way is vigorous, smooth and natural. Opposite to this is the use of the side of the brush, when the tip of the brush moves along one side of the stroke.

   Second, a good command of the technique of pressing and lifting the brush is needed. Both are the main ways to express vigor and rhythm in calligraphy. Lifting the brush a little makes the strokes delicate, powerful and smooth, and pressing down on the brush makes the strokes thick, vigorous and powerful.

   The thickness or thinness, and darkness or lightness of

A page from the Book of Models by Qian Dian.

   Whiling lifting or pressing the brush, the calligrapher should deal with another pair of ways to use power: moving the brush forward and holding it in position for a while, or moving the brush slowly - like a basketball player who moves forward while bouncing the ball on the ground. Such a skill is the result of hard practice.

   Various scripts have different frequencies of transfer of lifting and pressing.

The wild cursive hand features swift movements of brush and fewer changes of lifting and pressing. The changes are more frequent in the lesser cursive and running styles. The official script demonstrates more transfers between lifting and pressing, especially in writing horizontal strokes, which starts with a silkworm's head and ends in a wild goose's tail, and fight-downward strokes. The formal script illustrates the highest frequency of changes of lifting and pressing. But the seal script demonstrates no lifting or pressing at all.

 In addition, in the seal script the calligrapher uses the tip of the brush only, not the side of the brush, because this style seeks to make all the strokes of a similar thickness. One of the ways to display the vigor of strokes in the seal script is the quick or slow movement of the brush, together with the application of heavy or dry ink. The firm and smooth characters in the copybook compiled by Qian Dian, a Qing Dynasty master of the seal script, demonstrate the quick or slow movement of strokes and thick or dry ink excellently. In his last years, Qian Dian suffered from paralysis in his right side, but created charming calligraphic works using his left hand.