Principles of Chinese Calligraphy

Zong Fong or centralizing the tip of the brush refers to keeping the brush tip always in the middle of the stroke. (The opposite of Zong Fong is Tse Fong.) In this way the strokes will be full of strength and vigor. Ancient Chinese calligraphers tended to overstress Zong Fong because it’s the core of all calligraphy theories. Nowadays many, many calligraphers write about Zong Fong theories but they violate this principle in writing strokes because of lack of technical control or self-awareness. The technical deficiency arises from lack of knowledge or awareness that we should never bend the brush from top to the hairs’ tip. If we ever need to bend a little bit, it should be less than five degrees or minimized.

However, not all calligraphers or calligraphy styles adopt Zong Fong absolutely without Tse Fong or other techniques. But only with mastering Zong Fong can a calligrapher achieve a high level. A balanced blend of Zong Fong, Tse Fong, and other techniques will create a beautiful and lively style. A work consisting only Zong Fong technique will look powerful, masculine, strong, stable, solemn and titanic with less elegance and gentle and it’s still highly regarded. Yet a work without enough Zong Fong strokes will be flaccid, detachable or even pathetic.

This is a video of incorrect operation of the brush. Notice that at the third horizontal stroke (which is the Bird Tail) the brush is tilted. This can be avoided by straightening the brush hair again on the ink stone before doing this stroke.

Yen Jen-Ching ( 顏真卿 ) stated how his teacher Zhang Shui ( 張旭 ) passed to him the secrets of using a brush. He pointed out that Chinese calligraphy should look like drawing on sand with awl “Zuei Hwa Sa. ( 錐劃沙 )” This is associated with the ideal achievement called “Gi & Se ( 疾澀 )” and can only be achieved by utilizing Zong Fong principle. There are not so many calligraphers reached this high level throughout the entire Chinese history.

A highly regarded work of Yen Jen-Ching. Hairs tip and force were kept inside of the strokes all the time.

A scholar of the Sung Dynasty wrote that Hsu Shian ( 徐鉉 ) was good at Zuan Style. When his work was taken under sunshine for a closer look, they found tiny but darker lines inside each stroke. The darker and smaller lines inside the strokes are the traces of the hairs’ tip. It’s the highly condensed mind power and intention of the calligrapher. It’s also the artist’s soul exemplifying the beauty within. It’s very, very thin and usually not observable. What is observable is that each stroke and the whole work are full of life and energy. If done properly and deeply with the focused mind, the entire work will look deep when looked nearby and will also look flowing out as a multi-dimensional exhibition when viewed far away.

The Center Tip Principle requires keeping the brush handle and brush hairs as straight and vertical as possible. It’s different from painting or the Western calligraphy to hold a pen. According to this principle, we should never bend the brush and the hairs. We may rotate the brush when necessary with fingertips (knuckles not recommended). Bending a brush outward or toward oneself is a very common defect and is seen among laymen. By strictly obeying this principle, the hairs’ tip (or the sharpness) of a brush is hiding inside during brush operations rather than going scattered and collapsed. Hsu Shian’s method was also a supportive evidence that most Zuan specialists were inheriting Lee Yang-Bing’s ( 李陽冰 ) method.

After we have learned and mastered the above-mentioned operating principles of a brush, our goal is to make “all hairs coordinate for strength. ” ( 萬毫齊力 ) This means our goal is to utilize every individual hair of a brush to generate strength and power for each stroke. In reality, we cannot command every hair of a brush with our awareness or hand muscles. But we can command ALL hairs of a brush if we treat them as ONE. A brush may consist of hundreds or thousands of hairs of different lengths in each layer – the longest being the most inner or central part of the hairs which is considered to be the tip.

When I drive my car, I know the positions of the four wheels. Since I have been driving my own car for long time, I probably know the distances between the wheels. When I make a turn I won’t hit the sidewalk because I already know the length of my car and the positions of wheels. When I see an obstacle, I circumvent and my wheels are not running over it. The wheels have become like my legs because when I walk I don’t step on something. So I know my leg and wheel positions pretty well.

Likewise, each hair of a brush is just like an extension of my fingers except I have five fingers on my right hand but – oh no! – hundreds of hairs in a brush. Wait a minute! How can I know each hair’s position as well as I know my wheels’ position? If we truly understand and apply the Center Tip Principle, we can imagine that there are only a few hairs of a brush – the ones close to the center. If we never bent the brush and its hairs and we neatly groom them, we know where the approximate center is. There is no such existence of the “most central” hair of a brush. But there are a few hairs in the core of the whole hairs. So be aware of those clusters of hairs near the center and treat them like the wheels, legs, or fingers, and keep them straight, the other hairs surrounding them in outer layers will stick and follow. Once we control the central cluster of hairs, we know how to utilize every single hair of a brush to work together to generate strength in each stroke.

P5: Center Tip Principle (Theory)