China is known for its beauty and intellectual prestige but the one thing that mostly stands out when speaking of Chinese art is the form of calligraphy. It is known to be one of the earliest forms of writing that can be translated, which began thousands of years ago and is used today.
The earliest form of Chinese calligraphy is dated from the seventh to eleventh centuries B.C. during the Shang dynasty. Calligraphy is known to be the accomplishments of the Chinese gentlemen. The elite of the society were the first to be recorded using this form of writing, the privileged minority. The rich and the most prestigious of all the people were the ones who could be able to write in calligraphy because of the learning advantage from other teachers and well as the money concern.
The first calligraphy to be recorded came from the Shang dynasty, which began in the 17th century to 18th century B.C., was used in a form of religious beliefs. The Chinese believed that if they were not able to verbally communicate to their gods, they could communicate with them through writing. They would scratch a message to the gods on a piece of bone or the under shell of a tortoise. Thousands of fragments of these oracle bones have been found at Anyang as well as other sites around China. .
The Han dynasty was established 206 B.C. and lasted for a total of 425 years. Some Han Dynasty calligraphy was written on wood sticks in the north and bamboo sticks in the south. This was much different from what we have seen in the Shang dynasty, which wrote calligraphy on oracle bones. Vigorous and bold writing style of li characters that was influenced by the social manners of the Han Dynasty. They convey a sense of strength and are always charming. Till this day we can see them being used on stone inscriptions. It is said that a sense of humor was used in some of the calligraphy from the Han dynasty. These writings form the basis of the development of the later cursive script of calligraphy.