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Chapter Nine: The Development of Chinese Calligraphy II -- The Clerical Script
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115 chapter nine the Development of Chinese Calligraphy ii The Clerical Script In the previous chapter, we saw that Small Seal Script has a high degree of formality and strict rules for writing. It is not surprising that such a formal and difficult script was outlived by another script, called Clerical Script, as a popular way of writing. After examining the Clerical Script in this chapter, we will learn about the traditional Chinese dating method, which is still used to date calligraphy works today. tHe CLeriCaL sCriPt As the story goes, in the late Qin, a minister of the First Emperor named Cheng Miao offended the First Emperor and was thrown into prison. However, he put his ten years in prison to good use by creating the Clerical Script. In reality, the development of a new script cannot be the work of only one person. Not only does the need for a new script arise from social upheaval, a new script also goes through a long, gradual process from the emergence of the individual stroke features to maturation and standardization. In this case, research shows that the Clerical Script was actually developed gradually in the pre-Qin era and matured and prevailed in chinese writing and calligraphy 116 the Han dynasty (roughly when the Roman Empire was flourishing in the West from 27 BCE to 395 CE). China, at the height of its development during that time, was making significant progress in social development, technology, and, most relevant to this discussion, language. This was a time of great prosperity, and the Chinese are so proud of the period that Han 漢 is now used to name both the Chinese people (漢族 Hànzú, “Han nationality”) and the Chinese language (漢語 Hànyǔ, “Han language”). During the Han dynasty, writing instruments were greatly improved. Earlier when writing on shell and bone, brushes were used to trace characters on hard surfaces as a guide before carving. Apparently sometime before and during the Han dynasty, the use of brushes in true writing became widespread. Also during the Han, the invention of paper by Cai Lun in 105 CE changed writing completely.1 Before, scribes had to write on hard surfaces such as bone, bamboo, or wooden slats. Space limitations on these media were severe; one slat, for example, usually provides enough space for only a single column of text. When paper became available and writing spaces became much wider, another dimension to the art of writing was added: the arrangement of characters and columns in a text. In fact, some scholars today believe that the rounded, slim Small Seal characters were changed into the flat, square shape of Clerical Script owing to this increased availability of writing space, as Clerical Script characters are more stable and easier to manage in alignment and composition. Seen from this perspective, the popularity of paper played a role, although indirect, in the development of the Clerical Script. Meanwhile, the combination of resilient brushes and soft, absorbent paper allowed more freedom for writers to easily press, lift, and turn and thereby produce a large variety of strokes. As the brush began to be used to its fullest extent, the even and wirelike lines of Small Seal gave way to more expressive styles that featured varied stroke thicknesses. This, in turn, led to the rise of more aesthetic approaches to calligraphy. Consequently, in the Han dynasty, calligraphy became an independent form of art and added aesthetic value to its original function of communication. It began to be used to write poems to describe beautiful and peaceful scenes, to record philosophical discourse, and to portray an abiding appreciation of nature. All of this was done to produce not only beautiful content, but also a beautiful form of art. Calligraphy became much more than a form of written language. The evolution of the Chinese writing system directly paralleled the development of writing techniques. The Han was the time when Chinese characters finally broke away from pictographic symbols. With the straight lines of the Clerical Script, writing became much more stylized and abstract. The demand for wider vocabulary and more written symbols in a fast-growing society also led to a boom in phonetic borrowing and, later on, in semantic-phonetic compounds. At the governmental level, Han officials recognized Clerical Script as the first standard [54.81.33.119] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:54 GMT) development of chinese calligraphy ii: the clerical script 117 script for official use. That recognition brought about increased...