Chinese Calligraphy is an beautiful and sophisticated traditional art of writing Chinese characters of the Chinese culture. It has very long history of about a few thousand years. To be able to do this, you must first recognize the Chinese character and the meaning with a good foundation of the basic strokes and structure.

The Chinese language has evolved from various different writing styles and scripts to form the Chinese characters that we see today. There are about five types of Chinese Characters: Seal script, Official script, Cursive script and running script.


Seal Script is the most ancient of the calligraphy script. It is no longer in use except for calligrapher ans seal-carving. This script consists of Oracle script, Big seal script and Small seal script.

Official Script is used during the Qin dynasty by low-ranking official and common people. It is actually the simplification of the seal script from round strokes to square bending strokes which can be easily recognized and write faster. It was mainly used during the Han dynasty

Standard Script started at the end of the Han dynasty. It is much simplified than the official script and is the foundation script for learning Chinese calligraphy which consists of Southern and Northern dynasties, and Tang dynasty. The four famous styles are Ou style, Yan style, Liu style and Zhao style of calligraphy.

Cursive Script is a normal script that is written at the quickest speed and hence, become very abstract and simplified in structure. It is difficult to read, recognize and write. Only those at the advanced level and calligrapher are able to appreciate the beauty of the strokes.

Running Script is the combination of the fundamental of standard script and the beauty strokes of cursive script and therefore, is much more practical. It can be easily recognized and written smoothly.

There are four tools used in Chinese Calligraphy: writing brush, ink slab, ink stick and paper. These are also known as "the four treasures of the study".

Before you actually do the real thing, you must first know the strokes. There are a total of 8 basic strokes that is a MUST to know. They are Dian, Hon, Su, Go, Tee, Pe, Duan Pe and Na.

Chinese Characters are usually written from left to right and top to bottom...

Diǎn (点) is simply a dot.

Héng (横) is a horizontal stroke.

Shù (豎) is a vertical stroke.

Gōu( 鉤) is a hook at the end of other strokes.

Tí (提) is a rising diagonal stroke.

Piě (撇) is a descending diagonal stroke from right to left (simply opposite of Tí).

Wān (彎) is a stroke that follows a concave path on the left or on the right.

Nà (捺) is a descending diagonal stroke.

Make sure that you sit up right and you legs should not be crossing!

To hold the brush, put the middle of the brush on the first line from the tips of you middle and index finger only. Then, secure it with you thumb. Use you other two fingers to support you thumb while writing. If you did it correctly, you should get something like this.
Also, try to keep the brush straight and vertical all the time.

Next, just clear your mind; do not think of anything first.
Dip the brush hair into the ink and sharpen it. Make sure that the brush hair does not hold to much ink and then now, you are ready to start!

This is the Seal script (picture above).