Preface

...Chinese calligraphy art is of long standing and is called quintessence of Chinese culture. Since the day Chinese calligraphy came into being, its mechanism and style have been changed accordingly due to the development of social life. On the other hand, only stone tablet inscriptions can be preserved till now whereas other forms of calligraphy works not owing to different reasons. We can know a lot about ancient calligraphy from stone tablets. So stone tablets is the one and only source to have a good understanding of Chinese calligraphy art and its history. Many people of different generations became famous calligraphers after deep absorption of the stone tablets and merged their own characteristics into the calligraphy art they followed, such as Mr. Deng Shiru, He Shaoji, Zhao Zhiqian, Wu changshuo, Kang Youwei, etc. In Qing Dynasty, the popularity of epigraphy is of great significance to promote the study of stone tablets and calligraphy collection. As to stone inscriptions of Han Dynasty, being more valuable because of their long history, are scratched about for by scholars, who fell over one another to copy stone inscriptions and studied them and this kind of scratching and copying were all the rage. The former calligraphers' demeanor and influence last forever in the calligraphic field. The purpose of this network museum is to exhibit traditional Chinese arts before the world.