The Scholar's Art

Chinese calligraphy held a status no Western art form has ever matched. In imperial China, mastery of the brush was a prized mark of the educated elite. The civil-service exams that led to government posts chiefly tested the Confucian classics and essay and poetry composition, but a candidate's brushwork was judged too, and elegant calligraphy could burnish a scholar's reputation. The Four Treasures of the Study — brush, ink, paper, inkstone — were a scholar's most prized possessions.

Calligraphic style expressed personality as directly as a voice. Experts could identify a master's work from a single stroke, reading character, education, and emotional state in the pressure, speed, and rhythm of the brush.