The Paper
Traditional Chinese Calligraphy is scribed on rice/mulberry paper (or known as Xuan paper)(1), which is mostly made up of fibres of the Pteroceltis tatarinowii tree (青檀樹)(2). Good quality Xuan paper is generally made in Anhui, which looks like this:
68 X 68 cm Xuan Paper
Xuan paper is not pure white; it carries a slightly yellowish colour. Further, the paper has a rough and a smooth side. The smooth side is where the calligraphy should be scribed on.
As high-quality Xuan paper is relatively expensive, paper of lower quality is generally used for practice. This type of paper usually contains grids so that beginners can learn appropriate spacing in scribing good calligraphy. One common example is "nine squared grids" (九宮格):
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