Chapter 3 & 4: The Asian Contribution & Illuminated Manuscripts

Chapter 3 discusses how the Asians designed their own form of writing.  It started with pictography similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics.  If legend is true, Chinese writing began when Tsang Chieh wanted to mimic the footprints and claw marks of various animals.  Chinese characters are all logograms, and the present day writing system has over 44,000 characters.  The Chinese are credited with inventing paper, along with doing some of the first printing in history.

Chapter 4 discusses how illuminated manuscripts originated and became a significant part of history in many different cultures.  A Celtic book, The Book of Kells, is mentioned because it has some of the most beautiful and intricate work ever seen.  They also paid heavy attention to initial caps and incorporating a wide variety of color.  Apparently, Caroline minuscules are considered to be the closest form of our lowercase alphabet,... cool bit of information there.  This chapter also discusses the Spanish, Romanesque, Islamic and Judaic forms of illuminated manuscripts.

There were several things that grabbed my attention while reading these two chapters.  On page 32, it states that regular calligraphy is today considered to be one of the highest art forms in China.  It's surprising how writing can be regarded as a high art within ones' country.  On page 28, the penalty for making counterfeit money in China was death.  One hell of a deterrent... maybe we should use that now...  I also have a newfound respect for Muhammad of Islam.  It states that he encouraged his followers to learn how to read and write, and he also advocated women to do the same.  This in turn led to many important women calligraphers and illustrators. Awesome.

One question I have... on page 34, it states that China begin to use paper as toilet paper.  So does that mean China invented toilet paper?  Never knew the history of t.p.