About Straightness

   We will examine in this chapter some spiritual aspects of calligraphic aesthetics. The most fundamental criterion in the aesthetics of calligraphy is the quality of straightness. And the preoccupation with that quality evidences a strong spiritual orientation.

   An emphasis on straightness figures prominently in parental admonitions, like "sit up straight" or "look me straight in the eye." It also figures prominently in advice of all kinds, such as "walk the straight and narrow path" and "always be straight with people."

   In calligraphic appreciation, we naturally tend to favor characters that exhibit good lateral balance and uniform size. We also tend to favor precisely vertical columns of evenly spaced characters. That partiality to straightness dates from the earliest days of writing. It is the aesthetic of the vertical linkages between heaven and earth.

   The aesthetic of heaven-to-earth verticality spawned—and continues to encompass—the derivative aesthetics of lateral balance and evenly ordered spacing. Inevitably, calligraphic movements arose in opposition to the emphasis on straightness, and calligraphers created work that defied what they regarded as the stifling limitations of rigorous straightness. Those calligraphers' conscious opposition to the aesthetic of straightness positioned their work, however, as a variation on that very aesthetic.