“Commenting on the liveliness of ancient characters, Wei Heng (259-291), a calligrapher of the Western Jin dynasty, wrote in his On the Four Types of Scripts (Si ti shu shi) that they evoke ‘patches of clouds drifting leisurely in the sky, myriads of stars blinking from above, crops heavily laden with drooping ears, mountains undulating into folds, insects ready to crawl away, and birds just starting to take flight.’”

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