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Once Upon A Time ... Shell Bone Style
Intro ~ Styles ~ People ~ Snippets ~ My Work ~ Other Sites
Origins
Chinese calligraphy goes all the way back to the legendary Yellow Emperor (2898-2679 BCE). His chief secretary Chang Jie decided there must be a better place to keep records than his own head, and consequently searched nature for inspiration. The script that he created was based on the curve of tree branches, animal tracks and other gifts of nature.
Even the Chinese don't remember too well that far back. 2679 BCE is over 500 years before the Epic of Gilgamesh was written in Mesopotamia, perhaps a thousand years before Theseus slew the Minotaur in the mythical Labyrinth of Crete, and just before we're sure the Egyptians kept cats. So we don't know what this pictographic script looked like. Even its successor, Shell Bone Style, was unknown until this century. It was discovered when 2 scholars made some herbal soup from "dragon bones", and realized that the bones contained writing. The story goes that since tortoises last a very long time, people thought they'd be suitable for keeping records on.
It looks like this ...
I guess it's obvious that people carved Shell Bone Style onto tortoise shells and other such things using knives. Calligraphers today imitate the knife-strokes on paper. Strokes are generally even, and begin and end slightly sharply.
The prehistoric styles are interesting for scholars, but don't allow a calligrapher much opportunity to display his skill. As I see it, the main part of the fun in this style is that no one knows how to write it, so you can invent characters on your own authority! Unfortunately, I haven't collected any calligraphy in the these ancient styles, so please excuse the lack of real examples. Please note that the heading of this page is in Seal Style, not the prehistoric styles.
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Brahm's Hungarian Dance No. 6