Delight in One Thousand Characters

The Classic Manual of East Asian Calligraphy

Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi
Translated by Susan O'Leary

$24.95
SKU
9781611808735
- Paperback
Available
Shambhala Publications
09/13/2022
Pages: 192
Size: 7 x 10
ISBN: 9781611808735
Details

See also our Guide for Readers to the works of Kazuaki Tanahashi


A beautifully curated presentation of the Thousand Character Essay, a masterpiece of Chinese calligraphy that has served as the art form’s classic manual for over 1,400 years.

The Thousand Character Essay is China’s most widely used and beloved calligraphy textbook—sung to infants as a lullaby, used to teach reading and writing, employed as library index codes, and more. Composed by the literary giant Zhou Xingsi and handwritten by sixth-century Buddhist monk Zhiyong, this masterful work has endured for centuries as the standard guide for brush writing both in formal and cursive scripts. Delight in One Thousand Characters brings this sublime body of art-as-text to English-speaking readers, detailing the fascinating history, geographic range, and aesthetic nuance of the essay. Preserving the renowned beauty of Zhiyong’s only extant handwriting, the book includes a full one-hundred-strip edition of his calligraphy and offers corresponding commentary explaining the meaning of each character.