I have just attended my first lesson on calligraphy, though very struggling (spent two solid hours just drilling on two dians and still cant get 100% pass from my Lao Shi)... but I find it real real interesting.

Most of my classmates who have been here for years, they wrote a different kind of shu-fa.. very cursive, and i cant read all the characters. How many types of shu fa are there?

surprisingly, i find writing shu-fa can actually soothes my nerves

For different style of chinese calligraphy, you can refer to my thread at

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2138

The major writing style are CaoShu 草书, Xing Shu 行书, Li Shu 隶书, Zhuan Shu 篆书, Kai Shu 楷书...

I'm also interested in chinese calligraphy. I went for chinese calligraphy lessons 2 years ago and written a few couplets. But I have to say, I still need to practise and polish up my skill, as my chinese writing is still not nice at all. If I'm free, I hope to pick up writing chinese calligraphy as a hobby.

Actually, I just love Cao Shu (Cursive) writing.. as far as I know, there are 8 ways of writing the character 龙

Do refer to the thread
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1025 for more information on chinese calligraphy.

In Singapore, there are many places to learn chinese calligraphy, Luminous Moon, just wonder where you're learning chinese calligraphy...

In Singapore, there are many places to learn chinese calligraphy, Luminous Moon, just wonder where you're learning chinese calligraphy...
[/quote]


Hi General.

Because i am working full time, and this is my part time course, i could only choose a centre convenient, best is just next to home... so my neighbourhood Community Centre. Actually not bad as the class is small so the lao shi can give us individual coaching.

looking forward for class tomorrow!

Yup, community centres are one of the best places for Singaporean heartlanders to pick up new skills or learn new stuff not to mention get to know your neighbours better. Usually a lot of interesting stuff is happening, the grassroots leader are putting a lot of effort to have appealing courses. Unfortunately some younger Singaporeans still has the impression those activities usually only cater to the 'Aunties' or senior citizens. Hopefully with greater awareness more young Singaporeans can take part in those community activities.

Yeah, was thinking of taking up gu zeng too, but then, one at a time..

looking forward to meet you all this sat.

A good chinese website and forum to visit on chinese calligraphy art is "Chinese Calligraphy Net" at

http://www.freehead.com/

Mod Warning to Easy Void
Please do not hijack topics like this. That is almost irrelevant and off the train of discussion.

Attended my second calligraphy lesson last evening.. this time I learnt another two more dians.

Seek advice from my Lao Shi, understand that the type of writing I am doing is "Kai Shu", not "Xing" as I have mentioned earlier. Is there any way that "Xing Shu" is the same as "Kai Shu"? cause the dians are exactly the same.

The type of writing that my other classmates are doing, look alot like those in Qing Shi Huang period, very nice! I learnt from them that they have been in this calligraphy learning centre for 10 years, another for 20 years! Wow! The 'youngest' in class has been there for 5 years! My goodness, NOW I am not so worried that I always get my dian wrong.. I am a newbie!

Wait till I am more familiar with them, I am going to ask them to p-l-e-a-s-e write something for me, anything! Wow neat!

So anyone who is interested in Chinese Calligraphy, better not procrastinate anymore. By the time I perfected my writings, I may be an old hack already..

"Words are the voice of the heart; calligraphy is the painting of the heart." - Master Yang

神 Shen

Spirit

According to Chinese mythology, when we are born and enter the world of light we receive the part of our soul which, at death, ascends to heaven and becomes a shen or active 'spirit'.

In ancient days special signs, believed to have been made by ancestral spirits, were divined to determine decisions of state. Thus Shen, the character, combines 'to divine' and 'sign', or 'to give orders'.

The word shen is paired with others to produce terms relating to 'spirit' as it is manifested in our own life. Sheng-ching 神情，literally 'spirit-condition', gives us our 'facial expression'; shen-chi 神气, a 'forced spirit', means 'conceited'.


source: The Spirit of the Chinese Characters, by Russell Eng Gon

My favorite chinese character has to be Fu - Happiness

福

Confucius said, "With coarse rice to eat, with only water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow, I am happy." Absolute happiness, he contended, comes not from material things but from one's inner life.

Indeed, the Chinese character for happiness, fu, is formed around the idea of a full stomach - by joining a 'mouth', a cultivated 'field', and 'one'. All combines 'to fill'.

Very interesting! Never did realise the character for 福 is thus. Thanks for sharing! More!

Clarity - Ch'ing

Ch'ing means 'clear', lucid', and 'pure'. The character is a simple ideogram composed of two elements; 'water', represented by three 'drops' of the water radical (an abbreviated form of 'water'), and 'the color of nature'.

"Keep clear the originally clear character," said Confucius. When water has clarity you see in it the color that nature gave it, just as the essential humaneness that nature gave us shines through when our energy is pure, like a pearl through clear water.

This was the title chosen by China's last imperial dynasty in 1644, which called itself the Ch'ing Dynasty.



Source: The Spirit of the Chinese Character by Russell Eng Gon