Cultural Signification and Philosophy Embedded in Chinese Calligraphy: A Semiological Analysis

Chinese brush calligraphy has not only aesthetic value, but it is also fully loaded with semiological signification of Chinese qi philosophy. Adopting Roland Barthes’s theory on signs, this paper aims to discuss signification of qi in Chinese calligraphy. In addition, drawing on the Saussurean dichotomy of langue and parole as well as Barthes’s contention about signification and metalanguage, I argue that in the underlying langue of Chinese culture exists the philosophy of qi as a whole, whereas calligraphy is one of the genres for qi to be manifested and signified.