Calligraphy book compilation. Cursive script. 2

Author: Ma Yunxian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Wang Xizhi's Seventeen Characters belongs to the category of modern cursive script, "with ancient and rustic brushwork, retaining the essence of seal and clerical scripts." It can be considered the best model for practicing cursive script. Huai Su's Self-Description is wildly swirling and dazzling, displaying extraordinary artistry. The Thousand Characters has been a favorite subject for generations of calligraphers, with many renowned calligraphers leaving behind precious ink works. The Thousand Characters written by Huai Su and Zhi Yong are often regarded as among the best. The author has categorized and compiled these four scrolls separately before combining them into one volume for convenient practice by readers. During the compilation process, the author has strived to maintain the original appearance of the scrolls, minimizing the constraints of layout formatting on the individual characters, and avoiding any scaling adjustments to the fonts. Additionally, the author has preserved most of the characters in the original scrolls, only removing a few severely damaged characters that hindered recognition. The order of characters in this volume follows the character sequence of the Xinhua Dictionary for different characters, while the same characters are arranged according to their original order in the scrolls. To reduce layout waste, line breaks are made only when the first letter of the Pinyin changes, with no spaces inserted between lines. For clarity and ease of reference, identical cursive characters are annotated only once at the first occurrence, facilitating quick identification. This volume can serve as a model for beginners learning cursive script, making both comprehensive and selective practice convenient. It helps reduce the difficulty of recognizing cursive script, enhances interest in practicing it, and shortens the learning time. For those engaged in calligraphic creations using collected characters, this volume offers numerous conveniences. First, characters can be found quickly by their Pinyin order, and all instances of the same character are presented together for easy comparison of brushwork and structure, aiding in selecting the most suitable style for creation. Second, identical characters are grouped together, making it easier to observe variations and characteristics in brushwork and structure. A character index is included at the end for reference.