The Origin of Calligraphy

Chinese calligraphy art began in the production stage of Chinese characters, "sound can not be transmitted in different places, stay in different times, that is the birth of characters. Words, therefore, are the traces of meaning and sound." Thus, writing came into being. The first works of calligraphy were not words, but symbols -- hieroglyphs or pictographs.

The symbols of Chinese characters first appeared on pottery. The first symbols represented only a rough concept of chaos, with no definite meaning.

Dynasty about eight thousand years ago, the Yellow River basin in the magnetic hill, PeiLiGang culture, on the handmade ceramic PeiLiGang unearthed, there are more kind of text symbols, the symbols, is ancestors" communicative functions of notepad, functional and decorative pattern of chaos, these are not people to recognize Chinese characters, but it is the prototype of Chinese characters.

Then, at the Banpo Site of the Yangshao Culture, about six thousand years ago, colored pottery with simple engravings similar to the script was unearthed. These symbols have been distinguished from decorative patterns, which further advanced the development of Chinese characters. This can be said to be the origin of Chinese characters.

書法的起源

中國的書法藝術開始於漢字的產生階段，“聲不能傳於異地，留於異時，於是乎文字生。文字者，所以為意與聲之跡。”因此，產生了文字。書法藝術的第一批作品不是文字，而是一些刻畫符號--象形文字或圖畫文字。

漢字的刻畫符號，首先出現在陶器上。最初的刻畫符號只表示一個大概的混沌的概念，沒有確切的含義。

距今八千多年前，黃河流域出現了磁山、裴李崗文化，在裴李崗出土的手製陶瓷上，有較多的類文字元號，這種符號，是先民們的交際功能、記事功能與圖案裝飾功能的混沌結合，這些雖非現人能識別的漢字，但確是漢字的雛形。

緊接著距今約六千年前的仰韶文化的半坡遺址，出土了有一些類似文字的簡單刻畫的彩陶。這些符號已區別於花紋圖案，把漢文字的發展又向前推進了一步。這可以說是中國文字的起源。