Class February 11, 2009

Today in class we took the online quizzes over chapters 3 and 4, which took up the majority of class time.  After the quizzes, Laura quickly pointed out some of the important facts from the reading.  We discussed Chia-ku-wen, Bronze script, Chinese calligraphy, and chops. The earliest chinese writings, Chia-ku-wen,  were invented by Tsang Chieh who was inspired by the claw marks from birds and footprints of animals. Chops are very similar to modern day stamps.  Bronze script is chinese calligraphy inscriptions on cast-bronze objects.  The thing I found most interesting was that most people did not learn chinese calligraphy because there were over 4,400 characters! 

How did the Europeans come upon adapting the ancient chinese inventions?