Response to Chinese Calligraphy.

You would never imagine that the beautiful Chinese Calligraphy used and created by the Chinese is a principle of writing. It is actually a non-phonetic alphabet made of twenty-six letters and sounds that are used as a traditional form of art and a way of knowing for these people. However, these letters actually are meanings of adjectives and/or verbs that make up 3200 characters of this skillful art. During Wednesday's co-curricular event, a lady who studies this kind of painting came to teach us about Chinese Calligraphy, teaching us not only the history of it, but the beauty of perfection for this Asian culture.

Created by a Chinese gan, the Chinese Calligraphy was invented in 2700 B.C. It is a traditional way of knowing how to write (draw) different characters, an adjective and/or a verb, sometimes together to form a new word. In contrary to the English language and many others, Chinese Calligraphy is written right to left, top down.

Chinese Brush for Writing Calligraphy

Flickr Chinese Dragon Year Statue

May E. Miller - Trungeon [i.e., Trudgeon] stroke ...

Customarily these beautiful paintings were written on bamboo strips and are not allowed to use your left hand.

There are four treasures that the instructor taught us about the key to making fine Chinese Calligraphy. Obviously, to paint these you must use a brush. She mentioned that there are many size brushes used from tiny brushes to huge brushes when you must use both hands to hold it. Next thing you need is ink, and in this case she used black ink. And you will also need paper to do the paintings on. She said that now-a-days they use what's called rice paper made from mulberry plants. This is to help the paint absorb better into the paper. And last but definitely not least you need an ink stone in order to begin.

To start, you add water to the...