A good start | Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique, Third Revised and...

book: Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique, Third Revised and Enlarged Edition | Yee Chiang

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	• Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique, Third Revised and Enlarged Edition Yee Chiang Harvard University Press, 2003 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Best All-Round Book forUnderstanding the Chinese Aesthetic

The book deals with the traditional art of Calligraphy from both a philosophical and an aesthetic point of view and uses numerous examples for the serious student of Chinese Calligraphy. It is written in a lively and informed manner that will stimulate the reader's imagination and appreciation of the art of Calligraphy and its masters throughout history. It is the #1 book in the field.

A good start

I feel that Mr. Chiang Yee's book provides an excellent introduction to the art of Chinese Calligraphy as well as to the idiosyncrasies of Chinese aesthetics. However, it is an old book, and it constantly dates itself. There is more than a touch of "orientalism" in this book, and Mr. Yee presents China the way it would be seem to a Westerner a half century ago, as a mysterious place, a dark "other" with incomprehensible mystic traditions that stand in sharp contrast to the bright and carefully delineated West. For example, he makes the assertion several times through the book that a person's appearance and personality can be gauged by their calligraphy style. Analyzing Emperor Hui Tsung's calligraphy Yee reveals to us that the emperor was "a well-built handsome figure." Of course, as this particular emperor died nearly 1800 years ago, there is absolutely no way to empirically refute or support his claims. Of course, we can't forget that modern China is not a land of dragons and mystics. It is a nuclear power, and a burgeoning economic superpower. However, with that one caveat in mind, I would still heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Chinese calligraphy or aesthetic traditions.

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This is the classic introduction to Chinese calligraphy. In nine richly illustrated chapters Chiang Yee explores the aesthetics and the technique of this art in which rhythm, line, and structure are perfectly embodied. He measures the slow change from pictograph to stroke to the style and shape of written characters by the great calligraphers.

Speech and writing are two organs of the same human impulse--the conveyance of thought: the one operating through hearing, the other through sight; the one by sound from mouth to ear, the other by form or image from hand to eye. But each can do something besides convey thought. Spoken words can be so arranged as to discharge aesthetic "musical" significances, as in much Western poetry. Written words can be formed to liberate visual beauties; and it is these which form the subject of this book. In addition to aesthetic considerations, the text deals with such more practical subjects as the origin and construction of the Chinese characters, styles, technique, strokes, composition, training, and the relations between calligraphy and other forms of Chinese art.

For the third edition the author has added two new chapters: "Calligraphy and Painting" discusses the dependence of Chinese painting on calligraphic training and techniques; "Aesthetic Principles" explores the fundamental concepts underlying every Chinese art form.

Chinese Calligraphy is a superb appreciation of beauty in the movement of strokes and in the patterns of structure--and an inspiration to amateurs as well as professionals interested in the decorative arts.

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