Calligraphy evaporating in crispy autumn air...

Gordon Dumoulin
Nov 10, 2022
1 min read

𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘺 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘯 𝘢𝘪𝘳...

An elderly man on a small square next to our residence building earlier this week practicing 地書 dì shū (literally “a book from the ground”), in English usually called 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆.

Water calligraphy took off in the 1980’s when mostly elderly started calligraphy with water and large brushes on stone squares or paths in Beijing’s neigborhoods and parks. Gradually this practice spread to all over China, adding to the already rich and diverse park and neighborhood cultures.

There are water calligraphy clubs in a few places and even a magazine about water calligraphy. Water calligrapher Huang Songbai wrote a poem in the Taoran water calligraphy newspaper (Taorandishubao 陶然地书报 , January 2017) :

𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 – 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵

𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘻𝘦𝘴

𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳

𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩