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Thread: Calligraphy

  1. #31
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    Thanks for the great article, Gene. I think it's very important to see martial arts through different perspectives.

  2. #32
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    I think there might be some who in the West who say Cali-what?.. I know California. Or The Chinese studied the fine art of European calligraphy in China?

    Me, I think Chinese calligraphy is a measure used to determine the quality of the person. The better your Chinese writing the more respect points and reverence you get. Chinese calligraphy is a way to get cool points to those respectful of or in the Chinese community.

    I think Chinese calligraphy is a tool for making great Kung-Fu people. You see the character writing can include writing passages from classic texts of ethics and morals of civility and properness. How to handle challenging situations. How to be a good person for yourself and for the society-at-large.

    Besides learning ethics literally by wrote. I thin the technique s of the writing make for strong arms for press or brushing away. Strong fingers for Seize and Control or fingertip striking. You learn to read-increasing your vocabulary making you able to read any kung-fu manual for hurt or for healing and health.

    You have examples of how to be tactful and can talk your way around trouble and perhaps occasionally Out-of Danger.

    There are twenty-four to around twenty seven strokes (perhaps less that are the core strikes from which there are variations. But the strokes are techniques of deflection, blocking~ and striking.

    When I was looking at Chinese calligraphy for finding the Kung-Fu in it for Ernie Moore Jr.'s Kung-Fu (attempt), Squirrel. I was looking not only at the result stroke as a swipe to deflect or strike but the way the stroke is made as part of the technique, so there's wavey slight side moves, perhaps a swirl and writing and thinking as I was writing/key-stroking this I realized there would perhaps be advance-retreat; forward-backward ; phoenix tortoise moves simulating greater pressure and lesser pressure.

    That's what the part of the West that is this me thinks of Chinese Calligraphy.

    No_Know
    There are four lights...¼ impulse...all donations can be sent at PayPal.com to qumpreyndweth@juno.com; vurecords.com

  3. #33
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    [QUOTE=brianlkennedy;1041557]Could you tell us more about some of the teachers there in south coastal China who are famous martial arts teachers and well known for their calligraphy? QUOTE]

    Tibetan White Crane stylist Kwan Tak Hing, famous for portraying Wong Fei Hung in numerous films, was better known as an actor than a kung fu teacher but was said to be a master calligrapher whose writings fetched high prices.

    Might be worth noting the obvious: many kung fu men of reknown were semi-literate, at best.
    Last edited by jdhowland; 10-12-2010 at 09:26 AM.
    "Look, I'm only doing me job. I have to show you how to defend yourself against fresh fruit."

    For it breeds great perfection, if the practise be harder then the use. Sir Francis Bacon

    the world has a surplus of self centered sh1twh0res, so anyone who extends compassion to a stranger with sincerity is alright in my book. also people who fondle road kill. those guys is ok too. GunnedDownAtrocity

  4. #34
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    "It might be worth noting" that calligrapy as Kung-Fu was not done by everyone nor as a standard. If you were a Kung-Fu person of reknown it was for your prowess and ethics yes, not your literacy. And their excellence in their style/System of Kung-Fu was not necessarilly literacybased-at least not by Chinese calligraphy.

    No_Know
    There are four lights...¼ impulse...all donations can be sent at PayPal.com to qumpreyndweth@juno.com; vurecords.com

  5. #35
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    This is what I'm talkin' 'bout!

    I love the big scale calligraphers.
    Fred Attewill - 27th March, 2011
    Ba Desheng fuses kung fu with calligraphy using massive brush
    Ba Desheng gives a whole new meaning to the term martial art, using kung fu moves to sketch out giant Chinese letters – known as calligraphy – in front of impressed onlookers.


    Ba Desheng kung fu calligraphy Kung fu writing: Ba Desheng

    The tools of the 60-year-old’s trade are a 2m-long brush that weighs 5kg (11lb) and a bucket of water.

    His intricate creations last just a few minutes before the sunshine dries them up.


    kung fu calligraphy Ba's brush is two metres long and weighs five kilos

    Ba fuses two revered pinnacles of Chinese culture while dressed in traditional red flowing robes.

    He has now become famous with people travelling to the park in Kaifeng city in Henan province to see his creations.


    kung fu calligraphy China People come from miles to see Ba's work, even though it dries up quickly in the sunshine

    The relationship between calligraphy and martial arts runs deep in Chinese culture.

    Martial arts masters are expected to harmonise their scholar and warrior sides and many practise calligraphy as a form of aesthetic training.

    Kung fu – which can be translated as ‘achievement through great effort’ – is at least 1,700 years old and typically features sharp blows and kicks.

    Calligraphy is even older and its fusion of poetry, literature and painting is regarded as the supreme expression of Chinese art.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  6. #36
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    The way I have always explained it to Western people -

    In my country, every word has a soul.
    It is bias to think that the art of war is just for killing people. It is not to kill people, it is to kill evil. It is a strategem to give life to many people by killing the evil of one person.
    - Yagyū Munenori

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Violent Designs View Post
    The way I have always explained it to Western people -

    In my country, every word has a soul.
    Except for simplified characters. I can't say how much I detest them.

  8. #38

    my calligraphy today from scribble

    http://makchingyuen.wordpress.com/20...-painting-art/

    someone have to do a scribbling to start.. and then I change the whole thing into a piece of art! haha! cool~
    (Mak Jo Si, Tin Yat Lineage Taoism) A Taoism Master with 16yrs+ of experience in Taoism and as a career. Exorcism is my profession.

    Chi in Nature - My Taoism Temple Website
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  9. #39
    Nice Work!


    Please post a really good high quality picture of it so I can use it as a wallpaper!

  10. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott R. Brown View Post
    Nice Work!


    Please post a really good high quality picture of it so I can use it as a wallpaper!
    Haha~ Thanks!

    You can just use the one ony my blog, it's about 1000 pixel x 675 I think.. you can use it for your wallpaper and it will still be nice~

    (Mak Jo Si, Tin Yat Lineage Taoism) A Taoism Master with 16yrs+ of experience in Taoism and as a career. Exorcism is my profession.

    Chi in Nature - My Taoism Temple Website
    Taoist Master BLOG - my blog

    My Kungfu Channel on Youtube

  11. #41
    yeah, that is what I ended up doing. I like the way you integrated the tear into the picture. There are no accidents, it is as it is supposed to be!

  12. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott R. Brown View Post
    yeah, that is what I ended up doing. I like the way you integrated the tear into the picture. There are no accidents, it is as it is supposed to be!
    Yep, Taoism theory put into calligraphy~

    If you can read my poem, it also have a hidden meaning as well. Anyway~ glad you enjoyed it~
    (Mak Jo Si, Tin Yat Lineage Taoism) A Taoism Master with 16yrs+ of experience in Taoism and as a career. Exorcism is my profession.

    Chi in Nature - My Taoism Temple Website
    Taoist Master BLOG - my blog

    My Kungfu Channel on Youtube

  13. #43
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    Li Tusheng

    A Shaolin Calligrapher!
    The write stuff
    Updated: 2012-01-31 08:00
    By Mei Jia (China Daily)


    Li Tusheng spent 10 years to finish a 10-volume book of Chinese classics in handwritten calligraphy. Photos by Mei Jia / China Daily


    A scroll of Li Tusheng's Collection of Manuscripts of Asian Classics.

    Li Tusheng is multitalented but his calligraphy works are particularly valued, and his latest 10-volume book was 10 years in the making. Mei Jia reports.

    To those who know him, Li Tusheng is a miracle man. He was taught Shaolin kungfu by his father as a child, has defeated martial arts challengers from many nations and can predict the future or determine feng shui through understanding the Book of Changes, his fans say.

    He is also a talented calligrapher who sold one work - with just three characters - for 267,000 yuan ($42,300) at an auction in Beijing in 2010.

    Li says he wears a lot of hats.

    "But I see myself principally as a lover of traditional Chinese culture," he says. "I want to be an inheritor of our culture, because it's where national pride comes from."

    For Li, traditional culture is "the root of culture".

    Born in 1953 in Dongyang, Zhejiang province, he is a self-funded researcher based in Beijing. In December, he published a 10-volume book of Chinese classics in handwritten calligraphy called Li Tusheng's Collection of Manuscripts of Asian Classics.

    It has 360,000 characters and is 640 meters in length. The content includes Confucian works, the Four Books and the Five Classics, Buddhist sutras, and historical and literary masterpieces.

    "When words are spoken, they leave no trace," Li says. "But when words are recorded by hand, they're passed on."

    He started the project 10 years ago, when he was living in a Buddhist temple. There, he copied the Buddhist scriptures for two years, in the distinctive calligraphic style developed from the so-called "big-character posters" of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

    "Brush writing is like doing tai chi. The continuity of qi is important," Li says. "I was concentrating so much on writing that I forgot to eat or sleep and didn't know whether it was day or night."

    Even so, errors were unavoidable, Li says, and he occasionally had to trash a script as long as 4 meters when a ringing phone disturbed him and caused him to make a mistake.

    Zhao Changqing, of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, says: "In a computerized era, when people are losing the ability to write by hand, Li offers an example of respecting tradition with action."

    Li Peiyu, with Beijing Daily, says the book is valuable because it provides an accessible approach to the Chinese classics, saving the trouble of checking in libraries to locate rare versions.

    Li says he adopts different styles when he writes, according to the content and atmosphere of the manuscripts.

    "When the content is sublime and serious, I use regular kai script, but when it is easy and unrestrained, I use the 'running', or xingshu script," he says.

    Li says he turned down a 100 million yuan offer to buy all the manuscripts because he believes the work should not belong to a private collector but rather to the nation.

    What really lends value to the volumes, as calligrapher Zhao points out, is that Li writes with a solid understanding of each character.

    "I think knowing about the characters, their origins, their evolution through the various dynasties and their structures is fundamental to a calligrapher," he says.

    Li has spent years researching more than 7,000 frequently used characters. His collected thoughts about these were published in his magnum opus in 2009, called Tusheng's Collection of Explanations of Chinese Characters, which was 8 million characters long.

    He's often invited to give lectures abroad. He says that after a speech to some 400 people at Harvard University in 2003, he explained the Chinese character for country () as part of his answer to a students' question about whether China would be a "major threat".

    "I told them the element, which partly means weapon (), is created within the bigger square frame () that stands for Chinese territory," he says, "So, that means Chinese people, typically, will guard their land but never launch an aggressive action outside their territory."

    Li often takes notes, when he has time, about the misuse of words in the media, in the hope that language is used correctly. He also writes down his thoughts about the differences among Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, using simple phrases.

    Li was in the army from 1973 to 1991, where he exercised his ability to memorize and perform mental arithmetic.

    After that, he established a small company to support his research of Chinese characters.

    "Though he's not an academic, he is unique in having absorbed so much knowledge," Li Peiyu says.

    Li Tusheng also practices what he preaches. For instance, when it comes to filial respect, a traditional Chinese moral imperative, his is not limited to his 85-year-old mother but extends to other old people, too. Li is a frequent visitor to the senior citizens' house in his neighborhood. He tries to bring happiness to them by performing magic and providing gifts.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  14. #44
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    I was taught a little bit of this and it's concepts in relation to martial arts by the same sifu who taught me a double broadsword vs spear set.

    He was interesting. We later worked on a signboard together. that was fun and he was a very interesting dude with some good kung fu and great artistic skill. It was over the course of a summer back in the mid 90's.

    Thanks for sparking the memory who ever necrothreaded this. (otherwise known as ~G )


    p.s ever notice that ~G if turned upright with the tilde on top, would be Hui-ke posture?
    Kung Fu is good for you.

  15. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by roc View Post
    I am from Fuzhou China. Chinese calligraphy is closely linked with kungfu, both of them are considered a high level of art form. To what extend is Chinese calligraphy embraced in the west?
    It depends on the holistic frame of reference of the calligrapher and his social milieu keeping in mind that kungfu was a 'low art' street performing and bodyguarding.

    One of my former taijiquan teachers knew at least 6 forms of calligraphy that many could not even understand (NB_I think the number is right??).
    When I was stationed in Okinawa, there was a tradition of calligraphy that I used to do around 20 years ago but it has fallen by the wayside! By itself, Chinese calligraphy is challenging itself without the 'kungfu' influence! Kungfu as in the art (wushu today) as opposed to its essence as 'excellence in a given task or endeavour"!

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