A new book dealing with China's long history of calligraphy has just hit the market. History of Ancient Chinese Calligraphy Fine Arts, (1)________ (publish) by China Social Sciences Press, was released at a ceremony at the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, in Beijing last week.

Zhang Zhihe, 57, a veteran researcher from the museum who has spent nearly five (2) ________de doing calligraphy, feels (3)________ (relieve) that project is complete. He spent 18 years working on the book.

“When you talk about history, it's much more serious than writing books about the art,” says Zhang, explaining why he took so long to (4) ________fi the book despite the fact that he published several best-selling brochures on calligraphy as early as the mid-1990s. He has even published 31 books since then.

“I did not want to copy (5) ________pre ideas. Though many older calligraphy books give some history, few of them are complete.”

For example, though older books say that the period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317- 420) in the south of China is considered as the time when Chinese calligraphy (6)________ re its zenith, with masters like Wang Xizhi, there is practically nothing said about calligraphy of contemporary northern China.

The calligraphy of the Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties, two (7) ________re in northern China established by nomadic ethnic groups, has found little mention though calligraphy in that period was at a peak.

Zhang's recent book tries to fill these (8)________ , according to Zhao Jianying, editor-inchief of China Social Sciences Press.

“Calligraphy is a (9)________ (reflect) of ancient Chinese people's philosophy. It is an important medium to transmit traditional Chinese culture,”Zhao says.

Four hundred pictures of calligraphy are used in the book to give readers good visual examples.

“This is not only a history book but it also offers the writer's views as a longtime calligraphy practitioner,”Zhao says

Zhang learned his calligraphy from Qi Gong, who is (10)________ hai as one of the greatest modern Chinese calligraphers.

He points out in the book that many of today's calligraphy learners use so -called masterpieces as examples, which were not works by ancient masters—they were mostly from account books or official files. Zhang calls for a more balanced view toward these works.