Which forced every one who wanted to pass the exam spent a lot of time to improve their calligraphy writing skills. Even you failed the examination, you were respected by people just because you could write good calligraphy.
Let's see some examples, how Chinese calligraphy influences Chinese culture.
When you go to China, you can see big calligraphy signs or board in every natural scenery or historic or cultural landscape. Some are hundreds meters high on mountains. You can see them miles away just like Mount Rushmore National Memorial in U.S.
The above is the big calligraphy stone in Tai Shan (Tai Mountain). The four big red Chinese characters on the big stone “五嶽獨尊“ mean “The first holy mountain of China”. The characters are so big and high, giving all visitors a great impressive when they see it. People can’t separate the Tai Shan Mountain from the characters on the big stone. Without the stone with characters, Tai Shan would have much less cultural influence on people.
The biggest building in Forbidden City is "Hall of Supreme Harmony",
The most important ceremonies were held there. When you walk close to the building, you can see big three characters in clerical scripts on the top of the building
The above are about the Emperor, and his administration. The ordinary people also need calligraphy for holidays, weddings, funerals, etc.
In the spring festival, traditionally, every family posts Spring Festival couplets on the sides of the front door. The writing couplets for sale is a big business.
People built memorial archway with big calligraphic characters.
The above is the Anti- Japanese Victory Memorial in Zhejiang, Hunan (1946), where Japanese signed the instrument of surrender in Aug. 1945. President Chiang Kai-Shek and General He Yingqin wrote calligraphy couplets on the memorial. Without the couplets, the Memorial would have been much less impact on people who visit the site.
Famous restaurants normally invited the best calligrapher to write their door plaque.
The above is “全聚德“ － the famous Beijing Duck Restaurant, original Beijing Duck created there.
Almost all Chinese famous restaurants have their own big calligraphy store boards hang on their doors, which is similar as in western countries.
The above is the logo of Peking University (Beijing University) designed by 鲁迅 （Lu Xun, 1881 - 1936, famous writer)
The middle is modified Chinese clerical characters “北大“ , which means “Peking University. It is symmatric and beautiful, widely accepted by all Peking University alumni.
The above is a Tea commercial advertisement.
The big black character on the right up is the running script for “茶“， means “Tea”. The character is surrounded by green bamboo, and tea pot, and bows. People feel the smell of tea, irrespressible attraction. The combination of the character and the images make this advertisement very impressive.
All above we talked, you may find some thing similar in western countries. However there is one application of calligraphy you can't find any similar in any western country.
First is Chinese calligraphy couplets (对联). We have seen the couplets on the Anti-Japanese Memorial, here I am talking about the couplets sticked on the sides of doors of every family in China.
Every holiday, or wedding, or funeral, or graduation ceremony, ....... Chinese like to write couplets on the door, or gate, or hang on the sides of stage, etc.
I give an example to show what couplets mean
Eat well sleep well have fun day by day
Study hard work hard make money more and more.
Which was created by a unknown person, I guess a foreign student in China.
Eat - Study, Well - Hard, Have - Make, Fun - Money, Day - More, By - And, each pair except Day - More is relative the same functional words, i.e. verb-verb, noun -noun, adjective-adjective, etc.
But the English word are not the same length, makes the English couplets are not the same length in layout. However, Chinese characters are all the same size, Chinese couplets could be restricly the same length, symmetric.
If people got married, the couplets are a must. In addition the couplets, a red double "Happiness" (双喜）should be sticked on the windows or doors, and in the room.
Some are very artistic.
There are much more examples.
We can see that Chinese calligraphy has deeply rooted in Chinese culture, commecial activity and people daily life.
Note: Update information
1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is
Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/
2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is
Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/
You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.
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