Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
Wengu is'nt bad to get you started with the chinese characters though there must be better sources around :
http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php
Calligraphy sounds like a good exercise in meditation. Apart from the number of strokes there is a correct order in which to draw the strokes.
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Hi, Irfan:...
Does anyone have any good sources on the ideagrams, or on Chinese calligraphy generally?
Hi, Irfan:
There are many sources.
For a beginner interested in the Changes, I believe taht a good way is:
1) To study the names of the hexagrams in the page of LiSe, The Book of Sun and Moon:
2) To practice chinese script like a westerner, using a fountain pen, with Johan Byorksten´s Learn to write chinese characters, available free at 4shared: [Press the grey button DOWNLOAD NOW, wait some seconds and click the link DOWNLOAD FILE NOW, follow the instructions]
3) In Yellowbridge you have the chinese received text of the Changes syncromized with Legge´s translation, a chinese english dictionary, an application for seeing the stroke order of the main characters and much more:
Begin with the first two, have fun and don´t worry for time. After trying LiSe and Byorksten you will be able to face chinese calligraphy better eqquiped.
You also can read Prof. Owen´s Evolution of chinese writing, availabe free at Archive.org:
All the best,
Charly
Hi, Arabella:I suppose i wasn't very clear in saying why calligraphy in relation to the Yi Ching is so exciting. And I'm considering idea of calligraphy of the Yi hexagram names as a potential analogy with the transcription of ancient guidance, mantras and prayers that were transcribed in various shapes to increase their energy and import. And I'm also thinking of "in the beginning was the Word." And that the original Word was spoken or sounded; but that there is also influence and vibration in the writing of characters/words and even of thoughts or meditation on these symbols. If what is written is the pure symbol itself and it is produced in a meditative state, doesn't that have particular inspirational influence? Is this in itself a creative force, a conjuring or divinatory Art, a kind of alchemy? Anyway, I would think so.
Hi, Arabella:
Practicing chinese calligraphy as a meditative discipline requires a strong will and some proficiency handling traditional chinese characters that can be acquired with the book of Byorksten.
But the shape of traditional character has lost much of the so called «ideographic» or iconic value, it belongs to the times of Han dynasty for it´s standarized, characters are built using some number of strokes each with fixed shape and following fixed rules with little exceptions.
That´s why some editions of the Changes bring the characters in small seal style, also standarized and simplified with respect to the earlier calligraphy, but more «ideographic» than the Han characters. It belongs to the times of Chin dynasty, the first that unified China as an empire. Much online dictionaries bring the small seal style for each character.
Maybe this style is more apt for meditative practice. Of course, the Changes is much more ancient. It belongs to the Zhou dynasty during which the characters were not standarized, lacked of elements added later and were drawn with much variations.
I believe that for drawing even only the something more that 64 characters needed for the hexagram names, the best way is to begin with the traditional style, although less iconic, passing later to the small seal characters.
For tracing the iconic values, which is matter of polemic, one must go to sources like Chineseetymology.org by Sears that bings much of the known bone and bronze variants.
I believe. Not all think like me.
Good luck and all the best.
Charly
I think it would work. Even contemplating a hexagram, not the text, just the Chinese character and a vague image of its meaning, is like a meditation. For me it makes stress and such leave.I suppose i wasn't very clear in saying why calligraphy in relation to the Yi Ching is so exciting. And I'm considering idea of calligraphy of the Yi hexagram names as a potential analogy with the transcription of ancient guidance, mantras and prayers that were transcribed in various shapes to increase their energy and import. And I'm also thinking of "in the beginning was the Word." And that the original Word was spoken or sounded; but that there is also influence and vibration in the writing of characters/words and even of thoughts or meditation on these symbols. If what is written is the pure symbol itself and it is produced in a meditative state, doesn't that have particular inspirational influence? Is this in itself a creative force, a conjuring or divinatory Art, a kind of alchemy? Anyway, I would think so.
I think it would work. Even contemplating a hexagram, not the text, just the Chinese character and a vague image of its meaning, is like a meditation. For me it makes stress and such leave.
Drawing it, following the way the character is built up, and repeating that over and over, filling a sheet with it, bigger, smaller, any way you happen to get it on the paper. :bows:
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).