Abstract
Our research in the past 40 years has identified beneficial effects of Chinese calligraphy handwriting (CCH) practice on visual attention, cognitive activation, physiological slowdown, emotional relaxation and behavioural change. We hypothesised that these outcomes may constitute a compressive set of foundations which could impact several traits of Chinese personality within the context of Confucian culture and values. Here, we give a brief overview of the background of CCH and its effect in the cognitive, physiological and bio-emotional domains. We then provide empirical evidence showing strong association of CCH and personality traits and discuss the results in the contexts of calligraphy practice and Confucian literati personality, Confucianism and Chinese personalities as well as calligraphy writing and tool-using psychological theory.
Introduction
Chinese calligraphy, the writing of Chinese characters by hand through a soft-tipped brush is, for centuries, regarded as one of the fine arts and as a means of conveying thoughts and its expression in peculiar visual forms (Chiang, 1973). The mainstream of studying Chinese calligraphy was focused on how to aesthetically express one’s thought, how to improve one’s calligraphy skill or how to appreciate it, based on the empirical description of calligraphers (Chiang, 1973; Höllmann, 2017). Different from the artistic point of view, Chinese calligraphy can be considered as psychological activities and investigated within the contexts and principles of psychology. Our research in the past 40 years has identified five dimensions of beneficial behaviour arising from the practice of Chinese calligraphy handwriting (CCH). These are visual attention, cognitive activation, physiological slowdown, emotional relaxation and behavioural change (for more information, see Kao, 2010). These findings have contributed significantly to the improvement of several aspects of the practitioner’s psychological health and its development as a behavioural intervention. These outcomes may constitute a compressive set of foundations which could impact practitioners’ traits of personality. We have also conducted empirical studies to support this view.
In this paper, we will first give a brief overview of the background of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese characters as well as cognitive, physiological and bio-emotional effects of CCH. We will then focus on an introduction of empirical studies demonstrating strong association of CCH and the personality traits and provide a discussion of the relationship between CCH and Confucian culture and values and establish the relationship between the traits of Confucian personality and the development of the literati’s virtues through the practice of calligraphy handwriting.
Chinese Calligraphy
The practice of CCH can be conceptualised as an act involving the whole body of the writer in which cognitive planning, organising and processing the visual-spatial patterns of the character take place. Motor control and manoeuvring of the brush following the character configurations involve the whole body projected relative to the geometry of each character. The activity of brush writing is essentially an external projection and execution of the writer’s internal cognitive images of the character. There is therefore an integration of mind, body and character interwoven in the dynamic calligraphic process.
In Chinese calligraphy, characters can be written in various styles, but the five major styles are seal script (篆書), clerical script (隸書), regular script (楷書), running script (行書) and cursive (or grass) script (草書). Figure 1 shows some samples of different Chinese calligraphy style. During Calligraphic writing, the purpose of shaping a character is to ensure its coherence and autonomy relative to other characters in a given writing context. The formation of a character involves inscribing it in a square and then centring it for each character; it is important that its centre coincides with the midpoint of the square and its strokes be aligned according to the visual-spatial patterns of the previously established character.
Chinese characters have different visual geometric properties. Some characters are extremely detailed and require a number of strokes (e.g., 飛, 龍), while some other characters are symmetrical (南, 草), some are parallel (王, 冊). Of course, there are also characters that are neither asymmetrical nor parallel (心,姚). Directional characters possess character forms of shapes that orientate upwards, downwards, to the right or to the left (山, 干). Some characters have strokes that are closely linked together as a unit (足, 申); characters without such features are non-connected characters (小, 泳). Closed characters have enclosed or holes in the construction (晶, 器) and the non-closed characters do not have these features (晶, 器). We have found that the visual-spatial variations among the characters have a powerful impact on changes of writer’s bodily states (Kao, 1999).

Calligraphic writing involves the body, including head, eyes, hand, fingers and the arm in a real-time, and dynamic motion. As one writes, the movement of one’s body changes significantly. By visually monitoring the writing process, the practitioner can thus generate visual and motor feedback for continued writing. The writing task is a three-dimensional operation. The geometric properties of the characters affect the practitioner’s emotions, memory, cognition and physiological changes, especially through the tracing of the characters. The consecutiveness of the stroke-driven movements helps one to develop low brain waves that occur during meditation (Figure 2).

Effects of Calligraphy Training
Cognitive and Intellectual Effects
Cognitive abilities can be changed or improved through learning and practice. The practice of Chinese calligraphic training has been confirmed to facilitate and increase such changes. The central issue of such positive changes is that the Chinese character construction is, by its nature, embed or contain many aspects of such properties due to its linguistic and visual-spatial make up in the characters. Cognitive changes associated with CCH practice include such intellectual abilities as clerical speed and accuracy, spatial ability, abstract reasoning, digit span, short-term memory, picture memory, and cognitive reaction time (Kao, 1992a). We have found that practicing Chinese calligraphy facilitates the enhancement of cognitive and perceptual and tasks such as visual and auditory attention, concentration, and spatial reasoning (Kao, 1992b).
Physiological Effects
Some of the psychological effects studied over the years have included reduced heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, raised skin temperature, slower respiration and relaxed muscular tension. This calligraphic impact has also been confirmed for attention and emotional stability and mental relaxation (Kao et al., 1989). In addition, recent brain-imaging studies have further confirmed the CCH training and practice effects on shaping the structure and functions of the brain (Chen et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2013) as well as on better executive functions and stronger resting-state functional connectivity in related brain regions (Chen et al., 2017). These findings provide powerful confirmation of the strength of CCH impact on the cognitive neural dimensions of the practicing calligraphers.
Bio-emotional Effects
The direct outcome of such changes as well as the overall physical quiescence evoked sensory feedback: states of emotional relaxation, calmness, tranquillity and peace of the mind, which offered a psychological incentive for further motor control and execution of the brushing acts. In other words, one reason for his motivation to continue the writing acts was that, during this process, he enjoys the feedback of physiological slowdown as well as the soothing and relaxing states of emotions so that he was naturally attracted and reinforced by his ongoing physical and psychological changes (Kao et al., 1969; Kao, 2006). Supported evidence has also come from clinical studies, which have demonstrated positive effect of calligraphic training on reducing anxiety level in patients with anxiety disorder (Dong et al., 2006) and in cancer patients (Yang et al., 2010). Clinical research has found CCH has positive effects on behavioural and psychosomatic disorders and depressive symptoms in cancer patients (Liu, 2017; Wagner, 2018).
CCH and Personality Traits
We considered the behavioural phenomena as satisfying, absorbing and impactful experiences that in conjunction with multiple forms of biofeedback would have significance in shaping, modifying and developing one’s profiles of personality with sustained CCH practice and training experience. This was the rationale and interest of our investigation on the relationship between CCH training and the nature and traits of personality changes on the part of the practitioners. The frequent, sustained, cumulative and motivated CCH training was expected to contribute to such changes. Few prior studies have explicitly examined the relationship between CCH training and traits of personality. Traditional calligraphy literature has a lot of discussion about the relationship between calligraphic practice and personality traits, but it has been lacking theoretical elaboration and empirical evidence. Here, we report two studies demonstrating that some traits of personality were significantly associated with the practice of Chinese calligraphy. One study with youth participants and the other with professional participants. In what follows, we introduce the two studies, discuss the findings within the context of Confucian culture and values.
Empirical Evidence of the Association Between CCH and Personality Traits
We used Chinese version of the 16 personality profile (16PF) (Cattell, 1989; Zhu & Dai, 1988) to assessed subjects’ traits of personality, which consisted 16 traits as well as 8 second-order traits for a total of 24 personality dimensions. The Chinese 16PF is the most widely used comprehensive personality inventory in China, and it has demonstrated good psychometric properties (Fan et al., 2008). The subjects were also measured with a Calligraphy Training Experience Survey for recording a practitioner’s length of experience, writing preferences, personal data and so on.
In Study 1, a total of 553 students were randomly selected from a pool of over 850 students from three public middle schools and two universities in Beijing, ranging in age of 12–25 years. The subjects were divided into two groups based on their practicing age with calligraphy. Group 1 consisted of students classed as low writing age with 1–2 years (n = 249), and Group 2 was classed as high-writing age group with CCH experience more than 3 years (n = 304). We performed analysis of inter-groups difference for the two writing age groups. Results showed that nine personality traits showed significant difference between the two CCH age groups. The experienced participants showed stronger traits of personality leaning towards the positive direction of the bipolar profile as follows: intelligent abilities, emotional stability, sober, conscientiousness, shy, practical, self-sufficient, controlled, humble (Figure 3). As for the school participants with less CCH experience, they exhibited traits that are different from the experienced students being with theses tendencies: lesser or different in intellectual abilities, affected by feelings, group dependent, self-conflicting and assertive. As well, they also showed traits in being high in expediency, venturesome and imaginative behavioural tendencies.

In Study 2, a total of 654 members of Beijing Calligraphy Association were randomly selected from a full membership of 1,161. Ages ranged between 35 and over 60 years. They were divided into four groups based on their practicing age with calligraphy: Group 1 for 0–2 years, Group 2 for 3–4 years, Group 3 for 5–9 years, and Group 4 for 15 years and over. Occupation covered all walks of life, including teacher, doctor, journalist, engineer, policeman, drivers, accountant, actor and so on. Overall analyses showed that Group 1, the shortest writing age group, differed significantly from the other 3 writing groups in a total of 11 factors (p < .05). A list of the 10 such contrasting factors between Group 4 and Group 1 is given in Figure 4. They are in the direction of enhanced traits or behavioural tendencies with increased calligraphy practice comprising: emotional stability, soberness, conscientiousness, trusting, astute, experimenting, self-sufficiency, controlled-ness, relaxed and high learning ability. Conversely, the inexperienced participants in Group 1 being novices to this training were comparatively more impulsive, conservative and tense but still within the normative range of personality profile.

The Professional and Youth’s Personality Profiles
These two studies have shown that people of different practice age of calligraphy showed difference in traits of personality, and that the longer a person had the CCH practiced, the more pronounced his given personality trait was. These results suggested that the CCH training may help contribute to the shaping of personality of the practitioners with extended calligraphy practice. Both studies revealed the following six common traits that were associated with the length of CCH practice: emotional stability, sober, conscientiousness, self-sufficient, high learning ability and controlled. Separately, for the calligraphers’ group, these four unique traits of trusting, astute, relaxed and experimenting were attributed to the impacts of long-tern training of the CCH brush practice, whereas for the youth groups, these three traits of ‘more intelligent’, ‘shy’, and ‘practical mindedness’ were identified as unique factors of this group.
These significant manifestations suggest the direct contribution arising from the powerful brush CCH training over time. The changes are basically inherent in the visual-motor feedback control mechanism irrespective of the demographic factors, social conditions or individual difference among the practicing participants. As suggested before, changes in significant and salient traits of personality have been based on a theoretical framework of cybernetic tool-using and movement feedback theory of behaviour organisation (Smith, 1967). This theory basically argues that human behaviour development, including personality formation, depends critically on the experience of tools-using and its process feedback for self-correction and corresponding modification. Our research findings have provided empirical support to this line of reasoning (Kao, 2010; Smith & Smith, 1962).
Conversely, the less experienced or novice participants to the CCH training tend to have the normative behavioural traits or patterns, with such traits as being ‘impulsive’, ‘conservative’ and ‘tense’, and others. These are simply a set of the traits that can be expected from the general population as a natural consequence of not being exposed to the stimulating effects of the CCH brush writing tasks. For both groups of the participants, practicing CCH training for a longer period of time has indeed been shown to relate more positive changes in their traits of personality. These findings are in line and have confirmed our stated expectations of this research, that the cognitive, physical, emotional as well as bio-emotional changes arising from the CCH tasks are significantly associated with the consequential changes in specific areas of the practitioners’ traits of personality profiles.
We have established that Chinese brush handwriting has measurable behavioural, psychological and emotional effects. We know also that CCH practitioners have enhanced brain functioning, improved cognitive abilities and intellectual skills, better emotional states and a more mature personality. The blending of these behavioural effects and impacts of CCH training thus contribute to the development of specific behavioural, emotional and psychophysiological states of the practitioners. We believe that these changes arising from sustained CCH practice would thus lead to the long-term development of the changes, shaping and profiling of the practitioner’s personality as a result. These observations would suggest a developmental perspective that when a practitioner engages the calligraphy training for a sustained period of time, he is gradually experiencing the global conjunctive influence of these varied sources of change, that is, that he becomes more receptive and ready to expose himself to the ongoing and prevalent cultural values and behavioural expectations of the society. The findings of present research contribute to this viewpoint on explaining the reasons why the participants, whether the professional calligraphers or the youth CCH practitioners, share a close congruence with many of the traditional and characteristic Confucian values and behavioural tendencies of the Chinese people of today or the past.
Personality Traits of the Confucian Literati
In the course of discussing the personality profile of traditional Chinese literati, or the Confucian scholars, we identified a handful of specific traits that were suggested by leading academics well-versed with the Confucian classic (Kao & Goan, 1995). The most popular list of the traits came from Arthur Wright (1962) as follows: traditional (傳統), conservative (保守), modest (中庸), indisputable (無爭), self-esteem and self-respect (自尊自重), far-reaching (任重致遠) and moderate (中規中距). Wen (Wen, 1988) offered discreet (謹慎-安分) and patience (忍耐); Tseng (1988) observed self-denial (克己) and humble (謙虛), while Yang, Yang (1981) added internal cultivation (内修), submit to nature (顺服自然) and converge (趨同) ((Wen, 1988). These have been important concepts associated with traits of personality of the Confucian literati over the ages but, so far, few empirical investigations have been conducted to formally structure and validate these concepts and theorise its significance.
The Classic Literati Personality in the Context of the 16PF
In an effort to actualise a comparison of the personality traits between the lists from both the Neo-Confucian scholars and our 16PF findings above, we present a table of contrasts (Table 1) .
Comparing Classic Literati Personality with 16PF Personality Profile.
In line with the stated aim of the investigation, we are happy to share our views regarding the essence and generality of the theory-based findings:
Traditional Chinese literati were all calligraphers at the same time, sharing all the psycho-behavioural effects from the action tasks of calligraphy practice. This is the case with all calligraphy-practicing persons irrespective of their presence in history, ancient or contemporary.
Behavioural manifestations of calligraphy-impacted personalities are outcomes of exposure and culture learning as well as values and self-cultivation from the broad influence of dynamic Confucianism. This broad view is supported by the sharing of personality dimensions between those from both groups of the youth and professional groups of participants of this study and the culture-laden lists of personality traits alluded by Wright, King, Wen and Yang. The only exception to this observation lies in the finding that all the participants in this research failed to exhibit their behavioural inclinations towards conservative and traditional, as were expected from the views of the neo-Confucianists.
As long as Confucianism, in its classic or contemporary perspective, continues to help shape and impact the development of the Chinese profile of personality in Chinese culture learning and education as well as intellectual dissemination, the strength of this influence will be further enriched and internalised in the minds of the practitioners through calligraphy training and practice.
The prestigious name of the literati-calligraphers (文人書法家) will probably be reserved increasingly to those academics or intellectuals who appreciate, enjoy and explore the multi-dimensional richness of the art, culture, psycho-aesthetics and cognitive fulfilment of Chinese calligraphy. All others practicing Chinese calligraphy of such descriptions will be called the ‘calligraphy man’ (書法人).
Some limitations of the studies are worth mentioning. Since the personality of Confucian literati is traditional with its grounding in Confucianism, it is difficult to define it clearly and concretely, and measure it operationally with modern psychological test. Our studies try to define the traditional personality based on the description of the scholars (Wen, 1988; Wright, 1962; Yang, 1981) and interpret the classic literati personality in the context of the 16PF. As shown in Table 1, there is good correspondence between some scales of 16PF and the classic literati personality. Nonetheless, a more direct measurement of the classic literati personality would undoubtedly help better characterise and understand the relation between CCH and personality traits. The Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) developed by Cheung et al. (1996) addresses the need of indigenously derived measures of Chinese personality. Scales considered specifically relevant for Chinese culture are harmony, ren qing (relationship orientation), modernisation, thrift, Ah-Q mentality (defensiveness), graciousness, veraciousness–slickness, face, family orientation and somatisation (Cheung et al., 1996). Although these scales do not directly and comprehensively measure the classic literati personality, making use of these indigenous Chinese personality measures may help gain more insight into how CCH practice correlates with classic literati personality.
We propose that long-term practice of CCH contributes to the development and changes of the practitioner’s profile of personality over time favouring positive signs and temperament towards a well-adjusted, emotionally stable and physically more relaxed individuals. An alternative interpretation of the association between CCH practice and personality traits is that individuals who are of Chinese Confucian personality may be more likely to persist in the calligraphic practice. We also realise that the classic literati personality can also be shaped by the long-term influence of other factors, such as educational background, practice environment and so on. Future studies with longitudinal designs and more comprehensive measurements of various factors are needed to examine more specifically the nature of the relationship between CCH practice and personality traits. Our study takes the first step in the establishment of this relationship and opens up a new way for future research on this topic.
The Cultivation of the Confucian Virtues
As we move to finalise this article, we would try to establish the relationship between the traits of Confucian personality and the development of the literati’s virtues through the practice of calligraphy handwriting. Since a cross-sectional analysis of the effects of this practice with the adult practitioners prevents any plausible answers, a developmental perspective is offered to examine such intersections through the experiences of childhood calligraphy training and practice.
Salient Confucian virtues are those dealing effectively with social, relationships and interactive behaviours such as ren (benevolence 仁), yi (righteousness/justice 義), li (propriety 礼), zhi (knowledge/wisdom 智) and xin (fidelity/trustworthiness 信) as well as many others. Manifestation of such behaviours and constructs are closely related and approximate such personality traits as harmony (和諧), ren qing (人情), graciousness (仁慈), face (面子) and family relationship (情親), according to the CPAI (Cheung et al., 2003). These traits were meant to reflect Confucian-based values in the original development of these scales.
We will use these virtues as indices of personality description, with the virtue zhi(智)having both an intellectual and a social connotation. Two studies are reported on some social and behavioural changes that are associated with children’s training and practice of calligraphy handwriting. In the first study, we tested the treatment effects of CCH training on reducing autistic children’s behavioural and clinical symptoms that they exhibited in the schools and at home in a 3-month experiment (Kao et al., 2019b). The children’s post-training improvement was shown in the four scales of socialisation, communication, attention/consciousness and the total score in one assessment as well as the three scales of interpersonal relations, verbal communication and rituals in another assessment. These were highly significant behavioural changes on the part of the autistic children as a result of the CCH training.
The second study analysed the efficacy of CCH training as an effective treatment for correcting and improving social and interactive behaviours (Kao et al., 2019a). We found positive enhancement in an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) child’s behaviours in these areas of interpersonal relations, social behaviour, negative activities and speech communication. Originally, the child was the primary client of this case study. However, it was later found that the carer of the child, that is, the mother, also benefited greatly from the brush calligraphy practice in her own behaviours in anxiety coping, stress management as well as mother–child relationships. She also realised that her relationship with her child became more positive. Subjectively, the mother also found that her CCH co-practice with the child helped stabilise her emotions and freed her from the overwhelming negative thoughts during her low stage of work life at the time. Other similar studies found this CCH training beneficial in improving the ADHD children’s attention and increased their social communications (Kao et al., 1997) as well as intra-groups communications (Kao et al., 2000). A recent study of the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified and praised our CCH therapy as an effective treatment of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) conditions of childhood survivors of the massive 2018 Sichuan earthquakes (Fancourt & Finn, 2019).
Kao and his associates (Goan et al., 2000) have also found that practicing CCH helps to facilitate the calming of emotions as well as relaxation of physiological conditions in Chinese executives. One study along this line was designed to ascertain the CCH effects on changing the anxiety states and leadership styles of Chinese managers (Goan et al., 2009; Goan & Kao, 2009). A sample of 53 executives and project managers from a major government department in Beijing participated. They were required to practice CCH for one hour a day for 10 consecutive days. They were also administered the Confucianism-based Chinese CPM leadership scale (character, performance and maintenance) (Ling & Fang, 2003), once before and again after all the CCH sessions. In addition, the participants’ CCH practicing experience was analysed for correlation with their scores on these scales. The results revealed several significant findings. First, the CCH practice experience was positively related to a reduction of stress measured by the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) (Spielberger et al., 1983). In addition, the executives’ CCH practice was found positively related to two CPM leadership dimensions for character–moral (德行) and performance (敬業) as two distinctive styles of Chinese leadership. This suggests a CCH role in the developing and cultivation of these personal qualities in the Chinese executives. Those executives having longer CCH practice experience showed greater personal affinity for the styles of both performance as well as character–moral. These studies have provided encouraging evidence for the potential impact of CCH training on managerial behaviour changes and development.
The outcomes above have important developmental and practical implications. For normal pupils without any disorders, this practice would mean a powerful source of behavioural strengthening and consolidation of such activities that form parts of their social and interactive patterns of personality development. In the ancient times, calligraphy learning, training and literacy cultivation took the forms of master-pupil apprenticeship, family instruction or peer co-practice through years of continued cultivation. Once as adult calligraphers moving into their respective careers of the government or imperial court services or beyond even their retirement, they would spend their entire life experiencing, appreciating and enjoying all those absorbing, positive and beneficial psychological, physiological, emotional and psychosomatic states and conditions arising from practicing this cultural heritage. They would go through a psycho-cultural experience and exposition that would accompany them for a life-long process of consolidation and internalisation of their calligraphic skills, culture and associated social interactive experience, friendships and collegiality. During these impactful periods of their calligraphy learning, education, apprenticeship, values and cultural conditioning must have been connected or even indoctrinated to the broad culture and behavioural conditions and mindsets of Confucianism. These were the backgrounds leading to the Confucian intellectuals’ formation of traits and profile of personality and its development, including those varied dimensions of Confucian virtues of ren, yi, li, zhi, xin, as well as other associated morals and patterns of cultural behaviours that were embedded in the Chinese civilisation.
The above set of studies has provided a glimpse of the dynamic and formative foundations towards a preliminary understanding of the cultivation of the Confucian virtues and social interactive behaviours of the literati. The concepts and values absorbed by ancient literati are only the overall ideological structure of Confucianism, culture and education. The literati and Confucians, who experienced beneficial physiological, psychological and emotional states in the process of CCH, could best infiltrate and revel in the dominant culture of that time. Over time, the structure and characteristics of Confucian personality would be formed. Chinese calligraphy covers both reading and writing and involves physical and cognitive activities in the same action process. We believe that Confucianism has direct behavioural impact on its practitioners through calligraphy. Intellectual content of Confucianism involves visual perception, verbal cognition, memory, graphonomic actions of the brain, hand, brush, paper and ink, motor acts, and others that form a dynamic network of influences taking place during calligraphy practice, which is absent in other cultural practices such as meditation. Therefore, calligraphy dynamism is a crucial resource that Confucianism in all its manifestations, that is, contents, lessons, wisdoms as well as behavioural expectations, gets learned, digested, stored and readied, and thus become the cognitive and intellectual property of Chinese literati of the ancient times or the contemporary intellectuals or ordinary people. This is the core relationship and connection between calligraphy, including non-brush Chinese handwriting, and Confucianism. As a whole, none of the other practices alone or together has these powers, impact or sustained influence. The experience and process of children’s calligraphy provides a dynamic evolution path for literati, calligraphers, cultural cultivation and personality formation.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
