Chapter 3

Question 1

Chinese Calligraphy

Answer 1

• An ancient writing system using gestured brush strokes developed by the ancient Chinese
• Used today by more people than any other visual language system

Question 2

Paper

Answer 2

A writing substrate made with wood pulp

Question 3

Logograms

Answer 3

• graphic signs that represent an entire word
• the sign $ for example

Question 4

chiaku-wen

Answer 4

• 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

Question 5

Oracle Bones

Answer 5

animal bones with written messages on them used to communicate with the dead

Question 6

chin-wen

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

hsiao chuan

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

chen-shu or kai-shu

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

li

Answer 9

the prehistoric character for the three-legged pot, which is now the word for “tripod”

Question 10

Tao

Answer 10

The cosmic spirit in Chinese culture that operates throughout the universe in animate and inanimate things

Question 11

Chop

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

Cinnabar

Answer 12

A substance used to make a pastelike red ink for stamping

Question 13

Woodblock printing

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Relief printing

Answer 14

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

Question 15

dharani

Answer 15

Buddhist charms printed and placed in pagodas to help lengthen one’s life and eventually lead to paradise

Question 16

Diamond Sutra

Answer 16

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

Question 17

accordion-style book

Answer 17

folded book resembling a scroll that was folded like a railroad timetable instead of rolled

Question 18

codex-style book

Answer 18

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

Question 19

pen ts’ao

Answer 19

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

Question 20

movable type

Answer 20

in Asia, single characters made individually in a mixture of clay and glue and arranged side by side to compose full lines of text

Question 21

Cangjie

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Prime Minister Li Si

Answer 22

• c. 280-208 bce
• charged with designing the new standardized writing style, hsiao chuan

Question 23

Li Fangying

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

Cai Lun

Answer 24

the high government official credited with inventing paper

Question 25

Pi Sheng

Answer 25

• 1023-63 ce
• Chinese alchemist who developed the concept of movable type