Many Eastern art forms are built upon the philosophies of Chinese calligraphy. It was developed over thousands of years of history and has gone through many innovative stages. Calligraphy was developed as a writing tool, but has evolved to be an art which emphasizes on line type, proportion of characters, and form of the characters. Because of its large influence on East Asian culture, calligraphy is held in high regard in many eastern countries, and is still practiced today. Traditional Chinese calligraphy is the art of writing Chinese characters using ink and an animal hair brush. Many aspects of a line can be manipulated with the brush. Subtle attention to details in a line such as the beginning and ends of strokes, the speed of the brush stroke, the angle and rotation of the brush while drawing are all important towards the overall style.

The kai shu style focuses on legibility and clarity and is a very calm and proper form of writing. It is currently the most widely used style of writing. Cao shu is akin to the cursive style in the West. It focuses on lightness, speed, and the spatial relationships between characters.

The process of writing calligraphy requires involves the entire body, and importance is given to posture, and stance. Because of this, the ideas of calligraphy carry on through to dance, martial arts, and meditation. The visual aspects of calligraphy can be seen in carvings, ink wash paintings, sculpture and architecture.

Marcus Poon