3. Design History

• Chinese calligraphy: an ancient writing system using gestured brush strokes developed by the ancient Chinese; used today by more people than any other visual language system.
• paper: a writing substrate made with wood pulp.
• chiaku-wen (bone-and-shell script): used from 1800 to 1200 BCE as a pictographic writing system inscribed on oracle bones, which were believed to convey communications between the living and the dead
• chin-wen (bronze script): inscriptions of well-formed characters in orderly alignment on cast bronze objects, including food and water vessels, musical instruments, weapons, mirrors, coins, and seals; also used for important treaties, penal codes, and legal contracts
• hsiao chuan (small-seal style): a much more abstract form with lines drawn in thicker, more even strokes and with more curves and circles used in a graceful, flowing style
• chen-shu or kai-shu (regular style) has been in continuous use for nearly two thousand years. Every line, dot, and nuance of the brush can be controlled by the sensitivity and skill of the calligrapher. It is considered the highest art form in China, more important even than painting
• li, the prehistoric character for the three-legged pot, which is now the word for tripod
• .chop, a seal made by carving calligraphic characters into a flat surface of jade, silver, gold, or ivory. The raised surface is inked and the image is transferred to paper by stamping'
• woodblock printing: The negative spaces around characters and images are carved away from the wood. Ink is then applied to the wood, and it is pressed onto paper or other substrates to print the image
• codex-style book: stitched book with sequences of two pages of text printed from one block, then folded down the middle with the unprinted side of the sheet facing inward and the two printed pages facing out.