Chinese Writing

The Marvel of Chinese writing

Among all the ancient languages, Chinese holds a very special place. It is the only ancient language that has conserved its pictographs. How and when it originated is not quite clear. Most experts agree that Chinese writing does not seem to have a relationship with any other ancient writing system. The old Chinese script may have originated somewhere in the valley of the Yellow River over 10,000 years ago.

As with all other Chinese cultural elements, there are many legends about the origin of Chinese writing. The most popular is that Can Ji, a minister in the court of the legendary Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, invented it. Can Ji was taking a walk in the forest one day observing the tracks of birds and animals. He became fascinated when he realized that the lines and forms were very clear and each animal's tracks were different. Inspired by his discovery, he began to draw pictures using lines and forms. These picture characters were called xiang, xing or image shapes. Eventually, these signs were stylized and reduced to a few essential lines. These pictographs were the beginning of Chinese writing.

These first Chinese written symbols appeared on bones and on the shells of tortoises during the Shang Dynasty around the year 1400 BC. These symbols or pictographs had a special fascination for Chinese rulers who used them to consult the gods before making any important decision.

Pictographs are picture-symbols of a concrete object, eg, a man, an animal, a tree, etc. As time went by pictographs alone did not suffice to express abstract concepts. The Chinese added ideographs. There is good documentary evidence to show that ideographs became a part of Chinese writing as early as 4000 BC.

With the advance of civilization, tremendous changes were taking place in society, and the language needed to develop further. Ideographs no longer sufficed to express complicated abstract thoughts. To remedy the situation the Chinese, through a man called Xu Shen, devised a phonetic script called xing sheng. This new development in the structure of the Chinese language spans some 1600 years, through the end of the Yin Dynasty (1384–1112 BC) to the Han Dynasty (206BC–220AD).

Good Chinese dictionaries today list more than 40,000 graphs or characters. An adequate reading skill requires at least 5000.

Chinese writing is not simple but for all its complications, at least for the Chinese, it has been very valuable. It does away with the difficulties encountered from the many different spoken Chinese dialects. The characters mean the same thing no matter how they are pronounced. As a consequence, literate Chinese can communicate in writing even when they cannot communicate effectively orally.

From the middle of the first century AD until the beginning of the 20th, Classical Chinese was used for writing. Any scholar who mastered the written language could without any difficulty whatsoever read documents 2000 years old. In fact, very few changes took place until 1950.

In an effort to make Chinese writing simpler and more convenient the People's Republic of China introduced a simplified form for some 2000 characters. This simplification has its particular drawbacks. Much of the beauty of the classic characters and their original structure has been lost.

For the Chinese people writing is more than a means of communication; it is an art. Confucius lists calligraphy as one of the "six arts" (rite, music, archery, chariot riding, calligraphy, mathematics). Calligraphy was seen as a character–forming discipline.

The long hours of practice needed to master calligraphy in order to make it presentable to the reader taught the student patience and perseverance. Furthermore, it was a lifelong endeavour.

Children took up brush and ink and began to learn to write characters as they learned to read. They were taught to follow the style of some great master, such as the ninth century master, Liu Kungchuan, who became famous for his remarkable "bony" strokes. Those who preferred to develop more graceful lines practised the linestyle of the 13th century Chao Meng t'iao. When a person had acquired a certain amount of proficiency he was then allowed to follow his own inclination.

The civil service examinations provided additional incentive to develop beautiful calligraphy. Papers were automatically rejected if the calligraphy was not up to standard. Poor calligraphy was among the greatest handicaps in securing good employment. Calligraphic achievement became the measure of a person's cultural achievement.

During the first 30 years of the People's Republic, calligraphic activities were restricted to a small circle of high ranking political and cultural figures. Deng Xiaoping was well known for his beautiful calligraphy. During the Cultural Revolution calligraphy, along with all forms of art, was not only discouraged but also banned. All art schools and professional art organisations were closed. Since 1990, Chinese calligraphy has once again become highly prized in China, and it is constantly gaining more and more attention. Today there are a significant number of calligraphic societies in various provinces and municipalities. A number of symposia, competitions and exhibits are held each year. Recent exhibits in Beijing reveal that more and more artists are drawing their inspiration from classical works rather than from political matters, a trend that may have a far-reaching effect on the country.

In those areas where there are a number of Chinese Christians, Christians have made extensive use of Chinese calligraphy to preach the message of salvation and to decorate their churches and sanctuaries. n

Taken from Sunday Examiner Hong Kong. Research by the Holy Spirit Centre.

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