“Zhang Huaiguan, a well-known calligraphic theorist of the Tang dynasty, claimed in his Critical Reviews on Calligraphy (Shu duan) that Cang Jie, the legendary creator of the Chinese script . . . had four eyes that were capable of communing with the Divinity. ‘He looked up to observe the changing view of the constellations, and gazed around to scrutinize the patterns on turtle shells and the tracks of birds and beasts. He picked a wide variety of beautiful forms and combined them into characters.’ According to Zhang, character construction occurs when people commune with nature and merge its beauty with their own spirit.”

—Ouyang Zhongshi & Wen C. Fong, Chinese Calligraphy, translated & edited by Wang Youfen, 2008.