calligraphy

[kasia]

i took lessons in chinese calligraphy for only a short amount of time, so i don't know very much about it aside from the fact that it is very difficult. why is kungfu associated with chinese calligraphy?

[moschikat]

man, if it wasn't for the money bribe that my grandfather offered me - i wouldn't have lasted a month . . .

sunday mornings at 9 am . . . while i had to learn how to speak / read/ write and do caligraphy (and sometimes tai chi) . . . my cousins were playin' on the superfamicom . . . <_<

[Deadpool]

Caligraphy require very steady nimble hands. It require a lot of patience to learn and practice. Lookinh at the art aspect of it, it can be pretty fun.
I hated it when i was a kid though, LoL. Sitting still for long periods was definently not for me at that age :P

[deez nuts]

pain in the ass.

did it for like 5+ years with my grandfather when i was living in taiwan.

the strokes have to be fluid or appear fluid i.e. one swift stroke here, one continuous stroke there blah blah blah. some strokes have to appear darker than others, in other words varying pressure on brush strokes. there are different ways to hold the brush to get a specific desired effect.

it's associated with kung fu cuz it allegedly teaches patience, stability of the hand, you're supposed to feel serenity and at peace when you do it (not me) blah blah. if someone can do it well, they usually refer to the guy as having gong fu, even if the guy has no martial arts background. gong fu can also mean skills and ability in that sense. for example: a good cook that prepares a really good meal can be referred to as having "gong fu."

hahaha my mom saved all my calligraphy i did with my grandpa when i was kid. apparently i wrote down/copied a lot of buddhist mantras to practice. beats me.

i'll leave you with an:

oh mi to fuo

[SunWuKong]

i had to do this in school beginning from 3rd or 4th grade. but i moved away in 5th grade. i always kind of liked it a little. i also did a little bit of brush painting on the weekends.

[yoMAMA]

Yeah, I had to take a caligraphy class back in the elementary school dayz in China.

It was some tough shit, and my stuff always looks like it was done by some spiders laying a web.

However, I remember that our teacher was so cool. He was obnoxious and likes to shout during random times.

What a guy, I miss him :D

[yoMAMA]

Originally posted by kasia@Jun 10 2003, 10:42 PM
i took lessons in chinese calligraphy for only a short amount of time, so i don't know very much about it aside from the fact that it is very difficult.&nbsp; why is kungfu associated with chinese calligraphy?
I don't think caligraphy is associated with kung fu at all.

In China, caligraphy is mostly an artform associated with the 'ru', or confucian aristocracy/intellectual class, which doesn't really associate itself with kung fu guys.

The most famous caligrapher has to be Wang Xizhi and his Lan Tingxu, or the writing by the blue pavilion.

There was a great story about Lan Tingxu back in the dayz of the Tang dynasty..... :D

My favorite caligraphy piece:

Give me back my country!

by Marshall Yue Fei, a Chinese national hero back in the Song dynasty who was also a Martyr for defending the motherland during the invasion by the Jin kingdom.



<img src='http://www.chinapage.com/images/yuehfei02dc.jpg[/img]

[amietron]

I had to practice calligraphy in Japanese school. In Japanese it's called oshuji. One thing you learn is that the ink stains and doesn't come out.