Painting and calligrapy applied in Chinese brushwork

Dear friends,

Among the basic categories of Chinese brushwork are:

1. Center Brush: With the brush held upright, the tip does the painting.

2. Side Brush: When a wide enough stroke cannot be made with the tip of the brush, one must tilt the brush, and this tilting brings the side of the brush into action. One may use a quarter of an inch, half an inch or even the whole side of the brush, depending on how wide a stroke one wants.

3. Turning Brush: When the brush is in motion and the artist wishes to change the direction of a line, he twirls the brush as much as necessary to place the brush in the proper painting position to effect the directional chance.

4. Rolling Brush: When side brush is being used, the twirling of the brush to achieve a directional change is actually a rolling over of the brush.

5. Folding Brush: When changing direction, the brush actually folds over. Each specific technique produces a quite different effect (See Fig. 2)

Painting and calligraphy share a close technical relationship. This affinity was first pointed out by 7th century art critic, Chang Yan-Yuan: An object must be depicted by its form; and the form must be filled up by its bone structure; both the form and bone structure are based upon the original idea. All these are carried out by the brushwork. Therefore, a master of painting will also be good at calligraphy.

What he was saying about the sister art is that the two arts, which share the same tool and the same materials, also share common principles and techniques.

Chinese artists have always been ready to exploit the advantages of the close relationship between calligraphy and painting. In fact, they use the theories of painting to write and impart the techniques of calligraphy to their painting. The same strokes are evident in both. Thus the two arts are blended into one.

In the Five-Dynasty period (906-960 A.D.), Ching Hao, an outstanding landscaped painter, in his treatise On Brushwork, discussed the essential qualities of brushwork: "Generally there are four major aspects: Chin (tendon), Jou (flesh), Ku (bone), Ch'i (the vital force of the line)."

According to Ching, the effect of a tendon-like brush stroke is caused by generating a tension between the two ends of a line. What he meant by flesh is all the fat part of a stroke which looks solid. The strong expression of a line is called bone, and ch'i refers to the energy pulsing within a line or among the lines. One can conclude that the study of brushwork was quite advanced in those early days, for they had already discovered the various qualities and function of each part of a line.

Perhaps, the most concise yet comprehensive definition of Chinese brushwork is to be found in Wang Yu's 18th-century critique entitled East Village on Painting:

"What is brushwork? Light, heavy, swift, slow, concentrated, diluted; dry, moist, shallow, deep; scattered, clustered; flowing and beautiful, lively; when the artist knows all these, wherever the brush goes on paper will be perfect".

As this description indicates, in the intervening 800 years the art of brushwork had become much more advanced and sophisticated. Almost all of the essential elements of brushwork are mentioned. The words light and heavy refer to the pressure the artist employs in wielding the brush. Concentrated, diluted, dry and wet or moist are terms applied to the use of ink or color. Shallow, deep, dense and loose are the essential aspects of composition; and the term flowing, beautiful, and lively refer to the overall harmony and vigorous expression of a painting or calligraphy.

The historical development of Chinese brushwork as an art may be divided broadly into four periods, the Archaic, Germinant, Ripening, and Flourishing periods. It will be necessary, of course, in tracing this development to use critical terminology derived from a formalistic aesthetic, which will be fully elaborated on later on.

Best wishes.

--Kwo Da-Wei