Yang Zhaojun and Wu Chuke
Chinese characters are the incredible creation of the Chinese nation and an essential carrier and tool for carrying and transmitting Chinese culture.
Chinese characters are different from the Western phonetic alphabet. The Chinese character “日” is itself a pictogram of the sun. Its unique feature is the close combination of “sound,” “form,” and “meaning.”
When the Chinese hear the sound of the character “日” ( Ri in pinyin), a picture of the sun appears in their mind. Even when they see the character “日” ( Ri in pinyin), some people will feel the heat and see the light in their eyes.
Sun, in English, does not conjure up the meaning of the sun from the sound and the line itself. Explaining the meaning depends on the help of the predicate or other words and does not constitute the concept itself.
Therefore, the Chinese character is not only the symbol of recording language, but also has the unique beauty of phenomenon and artistic conception, the beauty of structure and harmony, and the beauty of rich implication, which is the crucial, indispensable carrier of Chinese social life and profoundly reflects the aesthetic interest of the Chinese nation.
The beauty of Image and Artistic Conception of Chinese Characters
The glyph of Chinese characters is based on a pictogram, which creates vivid beauty of Chinese characters. The font evolution of Chinese characters has experienced Oracle Bone Inscriptions, inscriptions on bronze, seal script, official script, cursive script, and regular script. Oracle Bone Inscriptions’ “pictographs” began to decrease, and the pictographs of Chinese characters were almost invisible in regular script.
However, “later, from pictographs to harmonic sounds, shapes, and sounds benefit each other, enriching the artistic conception of ‘characters.’ Chinese characters such as “江,” “河” (River) make one feel as if one is witnessing the flow of water and hearing the gurgling sound of water (Zong, 1998).
It can be seen that the artistic conception of the beauty of pictophonetic characters is the beauty expressed in the connection between visual image and auditory image.
Therefore, Chinese characters combine written and artistic symbols, unique and fit characters, which are cast into a particular artistic conception, forming a dual combination different from other pure phonography.
Beauty of the Harmonious Structure of Chinese Characters
The structure of Chinese characters reflects the unique aesthetic thinking of the Chinese nation. From the perspective of a single character, the Chinese character structure reflects the beauty of the uneven and neat combination of a single Chinese character.
The complexity of strokes of Chinese characters includes the rich and orderly collocation among strokes, which is unified and harmonious in a single Chinese character.
Judging from the arrangement of many Chinese characters, thousands of Chinese characters arranged together have a neat order beauty. Therefore, we believe that the beauty of Chinese character structure is harmonious and diverse.
This aesthetic taste of Chinese characters fundamentally overcomes the aesthetic defects of uneven length, varying size, and monotonous configuration of pinyin characters.
The Beauty of Rich Implication of Chinese Characters
There is a potential aesthetic ideal of the Chinese nation in the square shape of Chinese characters. This potential aesthetic ideal is displayed through the external form of Chinese characters.
Chinese calligraphy art must convey the aesthetic taste of Chinese characters according to the rational structure of Chinese characters. Chinese calligraphy is engaged in the artistic creation of Chinese characters, and it must take the noumenon of Chinese characters as the processing object.
From the structural characteristics of a single Chinese character, each Chinese character has an independent square space, and the strokes constituting this square space have strict and standardized timing.
The creation of calligraphy art must follow the sequence of strokes of Chinese characters to make the writing process coherent and smooth. Judging from the combined characteristics of many Chinese characters.
The combination of Chinese characters and Chinese characters in words and poems must express specific meanings and emotions according to specific Chinese rules. Calligraphers must follow this rationality of Chinese characters when creating calligraphy.
The unique beauty of phenomenon and artistic conception, the beauty of the rhythmic structure, and the beauty of the rich implication of Chinese characters reflect the differences between eastern and western civilizations and the aesthetic taste of the Chinese nation.
This is the aesthetic feeling of Chinese characters themselves, and the Chinese calligraphy based on the structure of Chinese characters embodies the aesthetic feeling of the Chinese nation, is the artistic sublimation of Chinese culture, is a beautiful work in the history of human art.
*Yang Zhaojun, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Ethnology and Sociology of the Minzu University of China, is a researcher at the Pakistan Research Center of the National and Regional Research Institute of North Minzu University.
*Wu Chuke is a distinguished senior professor at the Area Studies Research Institute of Honghe University
*The views, research, and opinion in this article are the writers’ own and do not necessarily represent the institution’s views.
