Between heaven and earth : a history of Chinese writing 2003002497

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B E TWE E N

HEAVEN

Shi Bo

T hompson Rivers ggf University

------------------------------- W -------------------Library

Box 3010, Kamloops, BC V2C 5N3

and

EART H A H i s t o r y of C hinese W riting

Translated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn

Shambhala

• Boston & London • 2 0 0 3

Shambhala Publications, Inc. Horticultural Hall 300 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115 www.shambhala.com Previously published as Entre d e l et Terre: Sur les Traces de L’Ecriture Chinoise ©2000 by Editions Alternatives, Paris, France English translation © 2002 by Shambhala Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part o f this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Shambhala Edition Printed in the United States o f America ® This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 Standard. Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House o f Canada Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shi, Bo. [Entre ciel et terre. English] Between heaven and earth: a history of Chinese writing / Shi Bo; translated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn.— 1st Shambhala ed. p. cm. 1-59030-050-55 1. Calligraphy, Chinese— History. 2. China— History I. Title. isbn

NK3634.A2 S53413 2003

745.6'i995i— dc2i 2003002497

C ontents

Foreword

vii

1. The System of Chinese Writing

1

2. Oracle Bone Script (Jiaguw en)

n

3. Ritual Bronze Vessel Script (Jinw en)

19

4. Small Seal Script (Xiaozhuan)

29

5. Clerical Script (Lishu)

39

6. Standard Script (Kaishu)

51

7. Cursive Script (Caoshu)

63

8. Semi-Cursive Script (Xingshu)

81

9. About the Art of Calligraphy

95

Conclusion

107

Appendices

113

Bibliography

115

F oreword

C

hinese

writing

has a long history of evolution and

refinement, one that is entirely unique compared to the other

ways of writing humanity has developed. Today, the artistic nature of this writing remains one of the aspects of the soul of my country. Like the Chinese language, Chinese writing is not alphabetical; it is composed of ideograms, in which each character represents a syllable that communicates a precise idea. The number of characters, according to researchers in linguistics and calligraphy, reaches fifty thousand; but in the common language, only three thousand signs are in frequent use. This mode of writing has passed through seven important stages of evolution, which I will present in this book, illustrating them through calligraphic characters and providing historical and legendary anecdotes as well. In addition, in order to make my ac­ count of this development easier to read and understand, it seemed necessary to introduce it with a brief overall presentation of the Chinese system of writing. Finally, it should be made clear that in the Chinese sense of the term, writing is not equivalent to calligraphy, and knowing how to write is by no means all that is needed to be a calligrapher. Just like traditional Chinese painting, Chinese calligraphy is known through­ out the entire world as a full-fledged art on its own, with an incon­ testable esthetic quality. For centuries many Chinese have devoted

via

Foreword their entire lives to mastering this difficult discipline. Their works, which are very much sought after, are found in the world’s museums alongside those of the greatest painters and sculptors. Sh i B o

Spring 1999 Solitude Pavilion, Ivry-sur-Seine

I

K

1 THE SYSTEM OF C H I N E S E W RITING

L

F orms of C o m p o s i t i o n It is true that Chinese characters

M 3,

are complicated, but they are not as difficult to grasp as one might think, because they are part o f a system o f writing that is logical and scientific, and that observes a certain number o f principles of

Second E xam ple: This pictographic char­ acter represented a horn

composition. According to Chinese etymolo­

with scratch marks run­

gists and calligraphers, nearly fifty

ning across it— works of

thousand characters can be classi­

nature. It meant and still means

fied in terms o f six forms o f com­

“the horn,” with the sole difference

position with the general

that in antiquity, two other mean­

designation o f Liushu.

ings were attributed to it: “jug of wine” and “musical instrument.”

XlANGXING (pictograms)

This character underwent a num­ ber o f modifications, o f which the most important are the following:

The Xiangxing were originally drawings o f animals and concrete objects. As they evolved, they be­ came ordinary characters. Let us look at two examples. First Exam ple:

Z

hishi

(ideograms)

In the most ancient

As it developed further, primitive

Chinese writing, this

society was no longer able to con­

form represented a bow

fine itself to concrete pictograms because the ancients also sought

used by the ancients for hunting. Over time, the string on the right disappeared and the word underwent the fol­ lowing transformations:

to express abstract ideas. For this reason representative symbols arose that progressively turned into ideograms.

T he S y s t e m of C h i n e s e W r i t i n g We can cite two examples: First E xam ple:

acter components. This new method o f organization made it possible to create new words.

This ideogram is clearly composed o f two dis­ tinct parts. The upper

First E xam ple: In the initial form of

part represents a watch-

this character, a tired

tower whose top points to the sky,

man (left-hand part) leaned against a tree

and the lower part symbolizes the Great Wall or a surrounding wall

(right-hand part) to rest. This

with an entrance door in the mid­

character meant, and continues to mean, “rest.”

dle o f it. It has an abstract mean­ ing: “ high.” The form o f this

By extension, today it also has

character has undergone few

other meanings, such as “ happi­

changes:

ness,” “not,” “stopping (an activ­ ity),” etc. Let us examine more closely the major stages o f evolu­ tion o f its form:

Second E xam ple:

'W1 K £/

ttJi* Second E xam ple:

This character has two elements,

Originally, this

which originally signified a deep

ideogram was com­

ditch open to the sky and a care­

posed o f two men

less hunter who has fallen into it. It had and still has the meaning of “danger,” “menace,” “malevo­ lent,” etc.

standing side by side. It meant just that— “side by side,” or “together,” and its form un­ derwent major

Hum

changes:

(composite ideograms) A large number o f ideograms are composed o f two or several char­

l i # l

3

B e t we e n H eaven a n d E ar t h

XlNGSHENG (composite phonetics)

It evoked a fish (the left part) in the water (the right part), or a fish captured by a hand or a net. Over

In Chinese, Xingsheng means

time, only the first interpretation

“form plus sound” and refers to Chinese characters that result

was preserved, and the positions o f the two parts were reversed:

from putting together a visual

ifk ((Ǥ

semantic component with a pho­ netic component. First Exa m ple:

m W

This character has an upper part that means

This word is connected with all

“take” and a lower

fishing.

equipment having to do with

part that represents “woman” ; the whole character thus means “to take a wife.” The

Z

huanzhu

upper part makes the pronuncia­

(transferred characters)

tion o f the character “Qu.” The

Opinions differ on this form of

principal forms o f evolution of

composition. In general, linguists

this character are the following:

and philologists believe that the

Zhuanzhu present, in a new writ­ ten form, characters whose pro­ nunciation has progressively changed in an effort to better ex­ press a new sound. Second E xam ple:

For example, the

In ancient times,

character Kai (right)

this character

is a transfer from the

exhibited different

original Qi (below):

forms, o f which the most impor­ tant is this one: The character Kai was especially created to better reflect a new pro­ nunciation that developed from

T he S y s t e m of C h i n e s e W r i t i n g the former character Qi. Today, these two words have the same meaning: “open,” “begin,” etc. Another example is the character

Originally, it was written like this:

Hua\

This character comes from the word Hui.

H¥

It represented two people stand­ ing back to back and in the an­ cient books signified “the back.” But over time this word was taken over and used to designate “north,” while still keeping the pronunciation Bei. In the interest of avoiding con­ fusion, a new

Hua came into use in order to

composite word

Jit, 3

give a new pronunciation and a

was created of

new form to its original, Hui. Both

which the upper

mean “to draw (a picture).”

partis J b (Bei, the north) and the lower part is f\ (rou, flesh).

JlAJIE

Since then, this character has re­ placed J b to designate “the

(borrowed characters)

back,” while J b , which originally

In order to develop and enrich the

meant “the back,” now means “north.”

Chinese language and way of writing, the ancients borrowed or took over a large number o f exist­

Another example is Dong.

ing characters to create new words that had nothing to do with the

The original mean-

initial meaning o f those original

ter was “the end.”

characters but which were inti­ mately linked to them by phonetic resemblance. This is the case with the character Bei.

ing o f this charac^

In the most ancient books, it was writ­ ten in the form o f a string whose two ends ended in knots:

5

6

B e t we e n H eaven a n d E a r t h This new character, which is pro­

A n n #

nounced Huo, meant, and still means, “to catch wild animals”

But on the left was added a radical

and “to obtain good harvests,” whereas the borrowed J L (Zhi)

& , meaning “silk,” resulting in a

has lost its original meaning and

new quasi-homophonous charac­

has become a mere qualifier.

ter, Zhong.

St r u c t u r e In terms o f structure, Chinese characters can be divided into two This derivative character took on

categories.

the meaning o f the word Dong (“ the end” ), while the original

S im p le Characters

character A

These are characters composed of

henceforth meant

“winter.” Let us look at a third, more complicated, example: Zhi. In the beginning, this char­ acter was written like a bird caught in a hand and meant “to catch.” Later, two elements

not very many strokes.

AA A Ren (Man)

Da (Large)

meaning, respectively, “dog” and “grains,” were added to it:

Tian (Sky)

Xiao (Small)

_L- T J r '/< /\

Shang (Above)

Mu (Tree)

Xia (Below)

Huo (Fire)

T he S y s t e m of C h i n e s e W r i t i n g C om posite Characters Most Chinese characters are com­ posed o f two or three parts, gener­ ally well-structured and organized according to a predefined order. A— Characters composed o f an upper part and a lower part:

m in

Si

pfcfct

Piao

D— Characters composed o f an upper part, a central part, and a lower part:

- m Mo

M

Bin

Hui

E— Characters composed o f a left part, a central\part, and a right part:

Shuang

B— Characters composed o f a left

«

Jie

M Ji

Shu

R a d ica ls

part and a right part:

Over time, the most frequently used component parts became

Shuo

Ru

f t

radicals, or keys. According to the

Fan

Dictionary o f Contemporary Chi­ nese, which is considered authori­

C— Characters composed o f an inner part and an outer part:

tative in China, fifty-three o f them exist; according to the Centenaire editions published in Paris, there

1 *3 Wang

are 214. The following pages pre­

m

sent the most commonly used

Yan

Mi

radicals.

7

B e t we e n H eaven a n d E a r t h RADICALS

NAME

Shan (mountain)

a

Rz (sun)

EXAMPLES

& t >1 i £} P3 fl-j"

M ao (bird)

Chong (insect)

> / -i •j r c r~f nou N V

Liangdianshui (ice)

>k.>fy->fi

Sandianshui (water) Yanzipang (speech) Lidaopang (knife) Pianchang (cliff) Sankuang (basket) Tubaogai (to cover) Tongzikuang (border)

M-Lcr-vk M %\ ft fyit m Ia & n i» -5 s -s s l $•*] $ i®l f '\

Danliren (man alone) Baozitou (envelope)

>L P 13

*} a] $ ®)

Jianzhipang (construction) Dan erpang (bucket) Zuo’erpang (left ear)

i.

g-p

T he S y s t e m of C h i n e s e W r i t i n g RADICALS

f

NAME

You’erpang (right ear) Jiangzipang (plank)

>1r^>

EXAMPLES

Shuxipang (vertical heart)

# Vi ■M- -HSf+k ft

Baogai (roof)

r

Guangzipang (shelter)

L

Zhouzhipang (to walk)

i

Titupang (earth) Caotou (grass)

i t ii-il iff. to

^

Tishoupang (hand)

-krJfid&ffj

0

Fangkuang (enclosure)

l«l ifl $ C

Fanquanpang (dog standing up) Shizipang (food) Zizipang (son)

JL Li’

Lt

Jiaosipang (silk) \ v x >

Sidian (four points)

^ XS'«/ X\»l *A. xx>, nt

9

10

B e t we e n H eaven a n d E ar t h RADICALS

NAME

k

Huozipang (fire)

% 1

EXAMPLES

at

Shizipang (indication) Wangzipang (king)

A

Muzipang (tree)

H !fK_

Niuzipang (bullock)

Hi

Bingzipang (illness)

ft) & # » $ -

*

Yizipang (article o f clothing)

4

Jinzipang (metal)

4

Hemupang (grains)

k%¥\A\kk 4V4 *f

Dengzitou (face-to-face)

A

Juanzitou (scroll)

%

Mizipang (rice)

4 AA

Huzitou (tiger)

It- A 1 &

Zhuzitou (bamboo)

%

Zuzipang (foot)

*27

Sizitou (four)

sn.

Minzidi (vessel)

Pb > a

clearly make out the two horns,

great deal o f millet,

|

curving slightly

the ears o f which are heavy and

Shu

loose, spilling and scattering their grains all around the fields. The character for millet, Shu, looks

downward; the first horizontal line represents the two eyes and the second

ing to either side; but in addition,

represents the nose with a pointed i muzzle.

in the lower part o f the character, lines signifying water were added. However, according to some scholars, the lines below the stem do not represent water but reflect

word meant “pig” In the Jiaguwen system, it did clearly look like a pig that had its head lifted toward the sky and its tail hanging toward

like this plant with two ears bend­

Yang*

Third example: Originally, this

S mal l S eal S c r i p t the ground. In the Xiaozhuan, a hori­ zontal line replaced the raised head, and the slightly curved back as well as the four legs and a short tail added to the back are preserved. Today, this word no longer ex­ ists except in certain expressions. In the common language, it is re­ placed by another character, Zhu. Fourth example: Like the character

Yang, this is a pictographic word that evokes the head of a bullock whose two horns are raised to­ ward the sky, while

Niu

those of the goat curve downward. Qin Shihuangdi is venerated by the Chinese as a great man of pol­ itics. He could take pride in being the father o f Xiaozhuan, which is still used today as the basis for modern Chinese writing. People like very much to decorate their reception rooms or cultural meet­ ing places with Xiaozhuan.

37

38

B e t we e n H eaven a n d E a r t h

to* * 1 m 9L n -*gr u T y€ if\ to &

«-lc~

^

3$-

€

$ *J

Kaishu

Caoshu

Xingshu

A ppendices Chronology of the History of China X IA D Y N A ST Y

c. twenty-first to sixteenth century b .c .e .

SH A N G D Y N A ST Y

c. 1750-1040 B.C.E.

Z H O U D Y N A ST Y Western Zhou Dynasty Eastern Zhou Dynasty

c. eleventh century-771 b .c .e . 770-256 B.C.E.

Spring and Autumn Period

770-476 B.C.E.

Warring States Period

475-221 B.C.E.

Q IN D Y N A ST Y

221-206 B.C.E.

HAN D YN ASTY Western Han Dynasty

206 B.C.E.-23 C.E.

Eastern Han Dynasty

25-220

T H R E E K IN G D O M S Wei Kingdom

220-265

Shuhan Kingdom

221-263

Wu Kingdom

222-280

JIN D Y N A S T Y Western Jin Dynasty

265-316

Eastern Jin Dynasty

317-420

SO U T H E R N A N D N O R T H E R N D Y N A S T IE S Southern Dynasties Song Qi Liang Chen

420-479 479-502 502-557 557-589

114

B e t we e n H eaven a n d E ar t h Northern Dynasties Northern Wei Eastern Wei Northern Qi Western Wei Northern Zhou

386-534 534-550 550-577 535-557 557-581

SU I D Y N A ST Y

581-618

T A N G D Y N A ST Y

618-907

FIV E D Y N A S T IE S Later Liang

907-923

Later Tang

923-936

Later Jin Later Han

936-947 947-950

Later Zhou

951-960

SO N G D Y N A ST Y Northern Song Dynasty

960-1127

Southern Song Dynasty

1127-1279

LIAO D Y N A ST Y

907-1125

JIN D Y N A ST Y

1115-1234

YU A N D Y N A ST Y

1271-1368

M IN G D Y N A ST Y

1368-1644

Q IN G D Y N A S T Y

1644-1911

R E P U B L IC OF C H IN A

1912 (from 1949 in Taiwan)

P E O P L E ’ S R E P U B L IC OF CHINA

1949 (in continental China)

B i bli ography Chang, Leon. Four Thousand Years of Chinese Calligraphy. Chicago: Uni­ versity o f Chicago Press, 1990. Fazzioli, Edoardo. Chinese Calligraphy: From Pictograph to Ideogram. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987. Fu, Shen. Traces of the Brush: Studies in Chinese Calligraphy. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1977. Harrist, Robert, and Wen Fong. The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy

from the John B. Elliott Collection. Princeton: The Art Museum, Prince­ ton University, 1999. Hwa, Khoo Seow, and Nancy Penrose. Behind the Brushstrokes: Appreci­

ating Chinese Calligraphy. Hong Kong: Asia 2000 Ltd., 2000. Ledderose, Lothar. Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligra­ phy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. McNair, Amy. The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics. Honolulu: University o f Hawaii Press, 1998. Nakata, Yujiro, trans. J. Hunter. Chinese Calligraphy. New York: Weatherhill, 1983. Tseng, Yuho. A History of Chinese Calligraphy. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1993. Yee, Chiang. Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and

Technique, 3rd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973.

I would like to express special thanks to the library of the Centre culturel et d’information de Taipei in Paris, which was kind enough to allow me to consult its rich collection of documents related to Chinese writing.

Writing’s Perfume

Chinese Calligraphy