Chinese Language Museum

Oracle Bone Inscription

Oracle bone script is a type of writing carved on turtle shells and animal bones during the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties to record divination content. It is the earliest known writing system in China, with the Yin Shang oracle bone script being the most representative. The characters were typically engraved with sharp tools, characterized by thin, angular strokes that, regardless of thickness, are both robust and vividly incised, with a writing style that varied across different periods.

○ Turtle Shell Exihibits

The divination text indicates sacrifices offered to respected male and female ancestors, King Zujia and King Zuyi from Shang dynasty on GengChen, Jiashen and Yiyou, which are certain dates marked by Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in the lunar calendar, using sheep, pigs, and grain liquor. The other oracle bone asks whether Zi and Ziji should learn ritual dance. This oracle bone bears the style of Xiaozi Group, a category of a small, elegant and controlled writing style of oracle bone inscription that dates back to Wuding period of Shang dynasty(B.C.1250-1192 according to the history of pre-Qin dynasty).

○ Animal Bone Inscription

The oracle bone named "Tu Fang Zheng”, or inscription about “Tu” tribe’s invasion colored red by powdered vermilion on cattle bone, known as the "King of Oracle Bones" has high representative values. Housed in the National Museum of China, this cattle bone was inscribed on both sides with large characters filled in with vermillion, exhibiting a bold and vigorous style. It’s compared to Wang Xizhi’s “Orchid Pavilion Preface,” serving as one of the best templates for students of oracle bone calligraphy.

Bronze Inscription

Bronze is also called "jin"(metal), so inscriptions on bronze vessels are also called "jin wen”. Compared to oracle bone inscriptions, the style of bronze inscriptions is dignified, solemn, with a strong sense of scared grandeur. Engraved inscriptions started to gain popularity during the Warring States period, replacing the predominant use of cast bronze inscriptions before that era.

○ King Zhongshan Square Vessel Hu

Towards the late Warring States period, the number of engraved bronze vessels increased. The “King Zhongshan Square Vessel Hu”, unearthed in 1977 from the tomb of King Zhongshan of the Warring States period in Pingshan, Hebei Province, is a prime example. Now housed in the Hebei Provincial Museum, the Hu features long inscriptions of ten lines on each of the four sides, totaling 450 characters, narrating the victory of the Zhongshan King over the Yan state in the 14th year of his reign and the casting of this vessel to celebrate his achievements, extolling the importance of consolidating the power and solidifying rule. The inscriptions are exquisitely engraved, with short and vigorous horizontal strokes and long and curved vertical strokes. The vertical strokes feature “Suspended Needle”, a style that is known for its vertical strokes that terminate with a fine point, smooth and slender in shape, with elevated center of gravity, all adding to its decorative value and making it a treasure of late Warring States bronze script.

○ Food Container Gui of Minister (Taishi) Cuo

"Taishi" is the name of an official position, equivalent to the rank of a minister. "Cuo" is a person's name, and “Gui”is a tureen-shaped bronze container. In the lid of this artifact, there are seven lines, seventy characters of inscription, stating that in the afternoon on the sixteenth day in the first month of the twelfth year on the lunar calendar, the king summoned Minister Cuo and rewarded him with a tiger-skin robe. Cuo deemed the event honorable and had it recorded on this container. Among over 10,000 inscribed bronze vessels from the Shang and Zhou periods, only about thirty are so precisely dated. Compared to oracle bone inscriptions, bronze script characters are more regular, the structure is more strict, and the layout is more balanced.

Stone Carving Calligraphy

It's said in “Wenxin Diaolong”, or “Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind” that “Replacing metal with stone, and the latter equally endures forever.” Our ancestors first used metal and stone to preserve the content of writings. Stone's durability, chiseling and engraving ease, ample surface area, flexibility in placement, and simple preservation led to its gradual preference over bronze for historical inscriptions.

○ Stone Drum Scripts

Stone inscriptions were first seen on stone chimes and jade artifacts during the Shang Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, a small number of stone carving works emerged, significantly longer in length, among which the most iconic were stone drum inscriptions. Known as the ancestors of stone carvings, they were inscribed on ten drum-shaped granite stones, hence the name “stone drum scripts”. On each stone drum, there is a quatrain recording the Dukes of Qin’s hunting activities. They represent a transitional and indefinite script between Large and Small Seal scripts, holding a pivotal position in the study of Zhou and Qin history, epigraphy, philology, literary history, and calligraphy.

○ Dengci Temple Stele

The full name of the “Dengci(meaning equally merciful) Temple Stele” is “Dengci Temple Stele by the Great Tang Emperor”. It is said to have been written by Yan Shigu(a minister, Confucian scholar and linguist) of the Tang Dynasty and has a history of more than 1300 years. The inscription records the event where Emperor Li Shimin, with only a few thousand elite soldiers, defeated rebel leader Dou Jiande’s army of 100,000 at Hulao Pass, and the reason for the subsequent establishment of the temple and stele, making it an important historical document. The layout of the inscriptions is clear and well-arranged, and has been praised by contemporary calligrapher Ouyang Zhongshi as “ An excellent learning resource with ample room for maneuver, from the Wei Steles to the mature Tang regular script.”

Bamboo and Wooden Slips

Before the invention of paper, the main carrier for writing and record-keeping were bamboo and wooden slips, or “Jiandu”. “Jian” is bamboo or narrow slips, and “Du” is wooden or wide slips. The content is mostly documents and classics, with clear and discernible writing. The style has evolved from ancient Chinese to cursive script, adapting to the changing times. The scripts of Qin bamboo slips are simple, the Chu are romantic, and the Han are expansive. The styles evolved over the ages, adding vibrant diversity to the history of Chinese calligraphy.

○ Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips

In 1994, the Shanghai Museum acquired two batches, over 1600 pieces of Chu slips from the Warring States Period on Hong Kong antiquities market. These slips cover philosophy, literature, and notably, some records of Confucius thoughts, which are important lost texts of pre-Qin Confucianism. As we can see, the exhibited slips show horizontal strokes slanting upward to the right, vertical strokes are square on the top and end with small dots—some decorative, some serving as short horizontal stroke substitutes.

○ Tsinghua Bamboo Slips

In July 2008, Tsinghua University acquired around 2500 Warring States bamboo slips with diverse forms and mostly Chu style. Buried underground before the Qin Dynasty, they were spared from the “burning of books and burying of Confucian scholars” and preserved an undistorted view of pre-Qin texts. Therefore, studying them helps to understand the early appearance and development of Chinese culture. These two slips shown here are from a chapter called "Chu Ju", written by historians of Chu, detailing the migration routes from the ancestors of Chu to King Su of Chu over 2300 years ago, as well as the origin of the name of Chu, which can be considered a Chu history book. The characters are neatly written, with compact structure, fluid brushwork, and strokes that resonate dynamically.

Silk Manuscript

While bamboo and wood were readily available, they were cumbersome. In the same era, silk, a lighter and more portable medium, emerged for writing. Writings on silk are known as silk manuscripts. The use of silk for writing dates back to the Spring and Autumn period, becoming more widespread during the Han Dynasty alongside bamboo, wooden slips, and paper.

○ A Letter about Duck Head Pill

This is Wang Xianzhi's representative work in running-cursive script, and the only surviving silk manuscript, containing a short message he sent to a friend with only 15 characters. It reads, “I have tried the Duck Head Pill(a pill made of duck head and herbs), and sure enough, it’s not good. Tomorrow we must meet.” His tone suggests that someone had taken the pill, felt the poor effect, and informed Wang Xianzhi, who took it, too, and agreed with the conclusion, and thus replied to plan a gathering and discuss further. During the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a famous collector Wu Qizhen once referred to this letter as "elegant and upright calligraphy, stunning and magnificent, naturally fascinating, and an unparalleled masterpiece."

Calligraphy on Paper

Writing on silk was expensive, and the invention of paper in the Han Dynasty provided a more affordable material. This advancement also led to a new appearance in writing styles, from official documents, personal correspondence, literati manuscripts, to large scrolls for mansions, enriching the content and diversity of the forms of Chinese character writing.

○ Lanting Xu(Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion)

Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion is revered as the finest running script in the world. Regrettably, the original work is lost. The exhibit is an image of a Tang Dynasty replica by Feng Chengsu, who was commissioned by Emperor Taizong of Tang to trace the original work using a technique called “shaung gou”, or double outlining. This method involves tracing the outline of a character and then filling it in. The replica is now housed in the Palace Museum. This work mainly records the Shangsi Festival on the third day of the third lunar month in the ninth year of Emperor Mu of Jin's Yonghe era, following customs to cleanse and dispel misfortune by the water, described in the text as “conducting purification rites”. Famous literati and scholars such as Xie An, as well as 41 people including Wang Xizhi and his son, gathered at the Orchid Pavilion, sharing poems and grain liquor. A total of 37 poems were written and compiled into a collection, and it was unanimously decided that Wang Xizhi should write the preface, thus creating this eternally celebrated piece. When Wang Xizhi wrote this article, he was 51 years old, and his calligraphy style had reached a state of perfection and maturity, adding representative value to it. The entire article is divinely executed, elegant and free spirited, with a dynamic charm that fills the paper with variations in the 20 instances of “zhi” drawing particular admiration. Later generations often praise the beauty of his calligraphy with the words from Cao Zhi's “Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River”, praising it as “Graceful as a startled swan, gentle as a swimming Chinese dragon.”