The 84 Laws

In the 15th Century A.D., the calligrapher Li Chun wrote an essay titled The Eighty-Four Laws. Li determined eighty-four typical situations for creating good form. For each case, Li used four examples, written by famous calligraphers showing the types of adjustments necessary in the making of dynamic but balanced form. Li focused the eight component strokes individually, showing the variety of line spacing, line weight and angle of trajectory. Li also identified four composite character types: left-right, left-middle-right, top-bottom, and top-middle-bottom. Each component’s proportion, scale, and position, in addition to line spacing, line weight, and stroke orientation are adjusted as per the composite type. The analysis alternates between the character’s overall appearance and the character’s stroke components. Li observed that many characters look best as simple geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, trapezoids and circles. Singular character form and composite character form present different challenges. The integrity of a singular character form often depends on the precise rendering of one dominant stroke. Whereas size and spacing in addition to line modifications affect composite character forms.