“Origin, Authorship, and Interpretation of Yong Zi Ba Fa (the Eight Methods of the Character Yong): An Early Set of Technical Precepts for Chinese Calligraphy”

The eight methods of the character yong (yong zi ba fa 永字八法) are a set of technical precepts for Chinese calligraphic brushwork consisting of eight strokes in the standard script (kaishu 楷書). Since their appearance in the late ninth-early eleventh century, they have exerted a great influence upon the development of Chinese calligraphic brushwork. They were the first theoretical attempt to group strokes as visual elements, as well as the first trace of stroke order in the history of Chinese literacy, therefore their formation is also relevant to the history of Chinese grammatology. The present paper discusses the eight methods of the character yong from the viewpoint of calligraphic art, focussing on the analysis of their textual history and on the theoretical interpretation of their meaning.