[Paragraph 1] 'Calligraphy' originally meant 'beautiful writing.' It has been practiced in all cultures and all periods, from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, through illuminated medieval Western and Arabic manuscripts, to today's elaborate wedding invitations. But in China calligraphy has always been more than simply refinement or elaboration of writing; it has been synonymous with writing itself, and it is also an art form. In classical China, writing (shu) was held to be on a par with painting, poetry, and music, or sometimes even above them.[Paragraph 2] The reason is, of course, the unique variety of forms in the Chinese script, as compared to alphabetic scripts. Chinese writers are naturally challenged to use their brushes to express this variety aesthetically, while preserving legibility- a crucial requirement. Chinese calligraphers aim to endow the characters with life, to animate them by distorting their fundamental shapes. A key factor is the implement used in Chinese calligraphy. The brush is not a rough tool like the pen used in the West, but an instrument that registers every movement of the hand, however slight or sudden, with the exactness of a seismograph. Chinese calligraphers use it to record forces arising from the depths of their being. It has even been said that while Western calligraphy produces arrested forms, Chinese calligraphy is in essence an art of movement.