Looking for information on calligraphic philosophy

Joshua Langman

Hi all,

Although this is not strictly a typography question, it occurred to me that someone on TypeDrawers might be able to help.

I am looking for a source for something that I remember reading about years ago. It is a teaching from the philosophy of, I believe, Chinese calligraphy, and states essentially that the most beautiful, unimpeachable composition is a blank white page. Writing on a piece of paper is thus an act of cruelty or mutilation because it ruins the perfection of the blank page. A written text must therefore reach a very high threshold of beauty or importance to outweigh the damage inflicted on the paper.

This is my own summary, and likely not very accurate. I am not sure where I came across this sentiment. It may have been in a Bringhurst book, though I haven't been able to find it again.

I greatly appreciate anything that anyone can do to point me in the right direction.

Josh

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

A compelling paradox.
And perhaps parallel to something I've opined: using a font degrades it, because no usage could ever fully express the font's potential. (But we must use it nonetheless, because that's why it exists.)

Chris Lozos

Another Asian philosophy, Wabi-sabi, tells us that there is no perfection without an imperfection.

Nick Curtis

…states essentially that the most beautiful, unimpeachable composition is a blank white page. Writing on a piece of paper is thus an act of cruelty or mutilation because it ruins the perfection of the blank page. A written text must therefore reach a very high threshold of beauty or importance to outweigh the damage inflicted on the paper.

My old Metaphysics professor Fritz Wilhelmsen noted that every abstraction is an act of violence. I am inclined to agree; unfortunately, without abstraction, language is impossible, and that simply will not do. I gotta make the rent somehow, ya know?

Simon Cozens

I've never heard that, but my (Japanese) calligraphy teacher did certainly tell me that the most difficult character to master is 一.

To be fair, there's a lot of expression in a single horizontal stroke.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

What matters is the nature of the *im*pression resulting from any act of creation.