Page 163 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

by forging something new, but by carefully
examining what already existed. In other words, he

did not write so much as he read.

Cangjie's story resonates suggestively with the ft ^ \t
earliest fully developed and sustained system of
writing in China: the oracle bones from the Anyang
phase of the Shang dynasty (ca. 1300-ca. 1100 bce)
(fig. 2a). "Oracle bones" is the general term used for
the ox and deer scapulae (fig. 2a) and tortoise
carapaces and plastrons (fig. 2b) that were used to
communicate with Heaven. To specific questions
incised onto the bones ("Will it rain?" "Will the
hunt be good?" and so on), Heaven responded in
the form of cracks that appeared on the surface of
the bone after the application of a heated point to
drilled holes. These cracks were auguries, and
professional scribes in charge of this vital
communication interpreted their patterns and then
recorded the interpretation on the bone surface.

The scratchy appearance of the incised forms

echoed the original fissures resulting from the

applied heat. The writing was not an imposition
but an evocation, the giving of form to what was
understood to be embedded within.

The significance of Cangjie's story is twofold: the

presumption that writing in China is rooted in

natural process and that writing carries inherent Fig. j. Mi Fu (1052—1107/8). "Poems Playfully Written

meanings. More than a millennium separates the Myand Presented to Friends, About to Embark for Tiao

oracle bones from our earliest evidence ot Stream." Dated to 10S8. Detail of a handsaoll, ink on

calligraphy being recognized as an art of personal paper. Palace Museum, Beijing.

expression (in the Eastern Han period, 1st c. 2

ce),

yet these two presumptions remained a consistent, if

slightly modified, foundation of the art. The source the text. Stroke by stroke, character by character,

—of the writing changed it was now a person column by column (from right to left), one "re-
—rather than Heaven that communicated but what views" the original performance of writing. The

issued forth was still considered the embodiment of more informed the viewer, the more familiar with

inherent truths. "Writing is pictures of the heart," using the brush to write, the more vividly that
viewer will sense the brush's original movements
wrote Yang Xiong (55 bce— 18 ce) in the Han and pacing. Some say that the visual retracing of a
dynasty. 3 The beauty of Chinese calligraphy is that

the tools of writing, as well as the rules, allow particularly dynamic piece of calligraphy evokes an

practice to concur with this promise of expression. unearthly sense of the calligrapher writing it for the

Deceptively simple in appearance, the brush proves Nofirst time. other art can claim such immediacy.

capable of conveying the slightest nuance of No other art captures the process of creativity so

movement. It is a direct line from that point where vividly.

the ink-charged brush meets the paper or silk

through the fingers, hand, and wrist to the eye and The immediacy of Chinese calligraphy can create
an aura of timelessness. An informed viewer attuned
brain; and as anyone who has tried to wield the to the subtle art of reading calligraphy may feel as
familiar with the author of a piece of writing done
calligrapher's tool would know, skill or ineptitude is
centuries earlier as with a contemporary. No one
readily apparent. Equally important, Chinese
illustrates this effect better than the Northern Song
characters are essentially of fixed form, composed calligrapher Mi Fu ( 1052-1 107/S). a celebrated
eccentric and dedicated student of his art.
of an established number of brush strokes. There is Throughout his life Mi Fu diligently collected
ancient bits of writing, savoring them to the point
a predetermined order to the writing of the of obsession."! have no desire for wealth or noble
rank." he wrOte,"My only love is for those letters
individual strokes in a given character, and a from the brushes of the men ol antiquity. Ever)

predetermined direction for the writing of each

stroke. These rules are integral to calligraphy's

expressive dimension, for they allow a later viewer

to retrace visually the process ot writing, to re-

experience the spatial and temporal unfolding of

CALLIGRAPHY 161