From the point of view of composition, Chinese characters fall into two categories: single and compound character.

A single character has only one method of composition, while a compound character can be two components (on the left and right, or above and below each other), three components (on the left, middle and right, or top, middle and bottom) or encircled characters (full or semi-circled).

To satisfy the requirements of the beauty of form, there are mainly five requirements, as follows:

Straight and even. While writing, it is necessary to pay attention to the balance of the lines of the character; otherwise, it will look ugly. Traditionally, calligraphers have stressed the evenness of the character’s makeup, the proper length of its vertical and horizontal strokes and the suitability of darkness and lightness. This matches the esthetic requirement that beautiful people should have regular feature, and that rooms and courtyards are only beautiful when everything is in good order; they are unpleasant to look at if everything is in disorder. To hang a picture on the wall, the picture should be pleasant to look at and with suitable spaces on its left and right and above and beneath. Even a stamp should be pasted straight and even in order to give a good impression to the receiver of the letter.

Well-balanced. Characters or strokes should be well balanced. For the characters with few strokes, the strokes should be thicker, and strokes should coordinate with each other. For characters with more strokes, the strokes should be thinner, closer and well balanced.

Among various kinds of scripts, the seal script some the first in fine balance. At the same time, this script tries to minimize the blank spaces between strokes of a character. Other scripts come in this order according to their demands for balance: official script, formal script and running script. The cursive script and the wild cursive script pay no attention to balance, as they seek only vividness and rhythm.

Uneven and not uniform. Like many things in nature, calligraphic characters are written in an uneven and not uniform way in order to display their beauty. If all the strokes of a character are straight and even, they are print characters and not artistic ones. Even the seal script shows different lengths of strokes. Take the character 三three as an example. The three strokes are of the same length, but in seal hand, the strokes in the middle turns upward at the end. In official script, the two top strokes are of the same length, but the last stroke starts in a shape of the silkworm’s head and ends in a shape of wild goose’s tail. In formal hand, the top stroke has an upturned end, and the stroke in the middle is short while the bottom stroke is thicker. Coherence. All the strokes or the various parts of a character should match each other, so that the coherence of the strokes can make the whole character vigorous, vivid and rhythmic.

The coherence of a character falls into two kinds: indirect or direct. Take the character flower as an example. It is composed of four parts, with their coherence in the middle. When writing it, the four parts should be close, and the top and bottom parts can be connected.

In general, direct coherence is used to connect two strokes in cursive and running hand. In calligrapher’s hand, the dot will be written as a hook or a turning stroke in order to link it up with the next or the previous stroke. A horizontal, left-falling or vertical stroke is written so as to connect it with the next or the precious stroke.

Dynamic. This is the most important way to make a character vivid. From such strokes, an artistic work gains vitality and rhythm.

The dynamism of a calligraphic work comes from other two aspects as follows: first is the movement speed of strokes. In the seal and official scripts, the writing of a character can be finished in one or two minutes. But in cursive or running hand, the brush moves more quickly and it only takes several seconds to finish a character. Second, unstable and inconsistent space can be caused by the slanting of the character. In the rigorous official hand, some people make the characters straight and graceful, while others make them slanting, and the strokes are of different lengths in order to display their vigor, vividness and rhythm. In running, cursive and wild cursive hand, this is out of the question. Prose on the Goddess of the Luo River, written by Zhu Yunming (1460-1526) of the Ming Dynasty, demonstrates the coherent and dynamic strokes in cursive hand, and displays the charm of the characters and Zhu’s excellent skills of controlling the speed of brush movement and rhythm. Zhu, Wen Zhengming, Tang Bohu, and Xu Zhenqing were four talented calligraphers in the Suzhou area and made great contributions to the development of calligraphy in the Ming Dynasty.