|
|
|
The "Four Books" in big-seal calligraphy by Wang Youyi (second right). [China.org.cn by Yang Xi] |
A new edition of the "Four Books" a collection of Chinese classic texts that serve as an introduction to Confucianism has been released by Thread-Binding Books Publishing House, featuring Wang Youyi s big-seal calligraphy.
The edition comes in 36 volumes and has more than 67,000 characters. Dozens of well-known calligraphers and scholars of ancient Chinese characters wrote the preface. The big-seal script first appeared during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), evolving from oracle-bone inscriptions. An elegant style, seal script is widely favored by people today for calligraphy works.
Wang, a noted calligrapher, spent three years on the "Four Books," which are comprised of "Great Learning," "Doctrine of the Mean," "Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius." They were compiled during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) by a scholar named Zhu Xi and later used during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1912) as the core curriculum for the civil service examinations.