Delight in One Thousand Characters: The Classic Manual of East Asian Calligraphy

A beautifully curated presentation of the Thousand Character Essay, a masterpiece of Chinese calligraphy that has served as the art form’s classic manual for over 1,400 years.

Sung to infants as a lullaby, used to teach reading and writing, and employed as library index codes, the Thousand Character Essay is China’s most widely used and beloved calligraphy textbook. Composed by the literary giant Zhou Xingsi and handwritten by sixth-century Buddhist monk Zhiyong, this masterful work has endured for centuries as the standard guide for brush writing both in formal and cursive scripts.

Delight in One Thousand Characters brings this sublime body of art-as-text to English-speaking readers through its translation and explanation by calligraphers and artists Kazuaki Tanahashi and Susan O’Leary. Preserving the renowned beauty of monk Zhiyong’s only extant handwriting, the book visually depicts the traditional script through extensive imagery, including a full, one-hundred-strip edition of Zhiyong’s calligraphy. All images also have corresponding commentary explaining the meaning of each character.

Essays and appendices by Tanahashi and O’Leary detail the fascinating history, geographic range, and aesthetic nuance of the essay and of Zhiyong’s rendering--essential material to be familiar with the history, thought, literature, and art of East Asian civilization. For calligraphers, Delight in One Thousand Characters can serve as an advanced primer for practicing both formal and cursive Chinese calligraphy.

KAZUAKI TANAHASHI, a Japanese-trained calligrapher, is the pioneer of the genre of ＂one-stroke painting＂ as well as the creator of multicolor enso (Zen circles). His brushwork has been shown in solo exhibitions in galleries, museums, and universities all over the world. Tanahashi is the author of over forty books including Painting Peace, Heart of the Brush, and The Heart Sutra.

SUSAN O’LEARY is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of several books, including Breath Taking, a book of poetry on the breath. As part of a team of writers and historians, in 2009 she received the Independent Press Book of the Year Award for best book in education for Wisconsin: Our State, Our Story.