Calligraphy, the art of writing, was the visual art form prized above all others in traditional China. Painting was contemporary with calligraphy, sharing     1     same tools—namely, brush and ink. Yet calligraphy was regarded     2     a fine art long before painting.

The status of calligraphy reflects the importance of the word in China.     3     makes the written words distinctive is its visual form. However, despite its abstract     4     (appear), calligraphy is not an abstract form. Chinese characters are dynamic, closely connected with the forces of nature and the kinesthetic (运动) energies of the human body.

How can a simple character convey all this? The use of brush and ink     5     (have) much to do with it. A calligrapher can control the     6     (thick) of the ink by varying both the amount of water and the solid ink. Once he starts writing, by loading the brush sometimes with     7     (much) ink or sometimes with less, he creates characters that resemble a shower of rocks here and a drop of dew (露珠) there.

The Chinese written language     8     (begin) to develop more than 3,000 years ago and     9     (eventual) evolved into five basic script types. Over the centuries, calligraphers were free to write in any of them,     10     ( depend) on the text’s function. The calligraphic tradition remains alive today.