Compendium of Calligraphy Characters. Clerical Script

Author: Li Zhiming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Chinese calligraphy art has a long history and is a symbol of Chinese culture, showcasing its unique artistic charm to the world. The Lishu script, which originated in the Qin Dynasty and flourished in the Han Dynasty, is deeply loved by the general public due to its flat, straight, and orderly style, as well as its strong decorative effects. However, when learning calligraphy and starting to collect phrases or couplets for initial creative attempts after mastering the basic brush techniques, the challenge of finding the right characters becomes apparent. To facilitate learning and creation, a group of calligraphy enthusiasts, including teachers and students, have selected three representative Han Dynasty Lishu inscriptions—Cao Quan Stele, Zhang Qian Stele, and Shimen Inscription—to create a phonetic-compiled character book.
The Cao Quan Stele features elegant and smooth characters, primarily using round brushwork, making it the preferred choice for beginners. The Zhang Qian Stele predominantly employs square brushwork with distinct (dùncuò), showcasing a rustic yet powerful style. The Shimen Inscription is grand in (qìshì) and full of spontaneous variations. A deep understanding of it is like standing at the summit of a mountain, broadening one's horizons.
This phonetic-compiled character book is organized by stele, arranging the original characters from each stele (excluding unrecognizable fragmented characters) in pinyin order, providing a searchable function. Unlike dictionaries, all identical characters from the same stele are grouped together. This allows not only for easy retrieval of needed characters during calligraphy creation but also for comparison of different writing styles for the same character, saving significant time.
Compiling this phonetic-compiled character book is simply a sharing of the accumulated knowledge from our regular teaching experiences. We hope it will be helpful to all calligraphy enthusiasts and welcome friends with similar interests to point out any shortcomings in this book for improvement.