Chapter 3 Flashcards
Chinese Calligraphy
- An ancient writing system using gestured brush strokes developed by the ancient Chinese
- Used today by more people than any other visual language system
Paper
A writing substrate made with wood pulp
Logograms
- graphic signs that represent an entire word
- the sign $ for example
chiaku-wen
- meaning “bone-and-shell”
- Used from 1800 to 1200 bce as a pictographic writing system inscribed on oracle bones, which were believed to convey communications between the living and the dead
Oracle Bones
animal bones with written messages on them used to communicate with the dead
chin-wen
- meaning “bronze script”
- inscriptions of well-formed characters in orderly alignment on cast bronze objects
- including food and water vessels. musical instruments, weapons, mirrors, coins, and seals
- also used for important treaties, penal codes, and legal contracts
hsiao chuan
- meaning “small-seal style”
- a much more abstract form with lines drawn in thicker, more even strokes and with more curves and circles used in a graceful, flowing style
chen-shu or kai-shu
- meaning “regular style”
- has been in continuous use for nearly 2 thousand years.
- Every line, dot, and nuance of the brush can be controlled by the sensitivity and skill of the calligrapher.
- It is considered the highest form of art in China, more important than painting
li
the prehistoric character for the three-legged pot, which is now the word for “tripod”
Tao
The cosmic spirit in Chinese culture that operates throughout the universe in animate and inanimate things
Chop
- A seal made by carving calligraphic characters into a flat surface of jade, silver, gold, or ivory.
- The raised surface is inked and the image is transferred to paper by stamping
Cinnabar
A substance used to make a pastelike red ink for stamping
Woodblock printing
The negative space around characters and images are carved away from the wood. Ink is them applied to the wood, and it is pressed onto paper or other substrates to print the image
Relief printing
The space around an image on a flat surface are cut away, the remaining raised surface is inked, and the image is transferred to the paper
dharani
Buddhist charms printed and placed in pagodas to help lengthen one’s life and eventually lead to paradise
Diamond Sutra
the oldest living surviving printed manuscript, consisting of seven sheets of paper pasted together to form a scroll conveying Buddha’s revelations to his elderly follower Subhuti
accordion-style book
folded book resembling a scroll that was folded like a railroad timetable instead of rolled
codex-style book
stitched book with sequences of two pages of text printed from one block, then folded down the middle with the unprinted side of the sheet facing inward and the two printed pages facing out
pen ts’ao
a medical book on herbs with illustrations and calligraphy used for headings and a graphic design grid system used to separate the text into sections shown in the center of the right-hand page
movable type
in Asia, single characters made individually in a mixture of clay and glue and arranged side by side to compose full lines of text
Cangjie
inspired un about 1800 bce to invent writing by contemplating the claw marks of birds and footprints of animals, then developing elementary pictographs of things in nature
Prime Minister Li Si
- c. 280-208 bce
- charged with designing the new standardized writing style, hsiao chuan
Li Fangying
- 1695-1754 ce
- wrote and illustrated the Album of Eight Leaves, showing how the vividly descriptive strokes of a bamboo brush could join calligraphy, painting, poem, and illustration, into a unified communication
Cai Lun
the high government official credited with inventing paper
Pi Sheng
- 1023-63 ce
- Chinese alchemist who developed the concept of movable type
