How to Practise Chinese Calligraphy?

Traditional Chinese calligraphy is a highly-valued Chinese cultural heritage which contains profound cultural information and can mould your temperament. But it is not an easy job to have a good command of it although you will sense the extreme joy of it after mastering the preliminary skills.
Before practicing calligraphy, you should at first prepare the four treasures of the study (writing brush, ink stick, ink slab, and paper). Rub the ink stick against the ink stone with a little water to make ink for writing with the brush.
After that, you should learn how to hold the writing brush. Four fingers play the chief roles in this movement: thumb, fore finger, middle finger, and ring finger. At first, pinch the shaft of the writing brush at the midpoint with your fore finger, middle finger, and thumb, and then lean the back of the ring finger on it, all the five fingers crooked relaxedly. It seems that the little finger is not essential in this movement, however, it actually assists the whole hand to keep balance.
Then you can dip your writing brush moderately in the readily-made ink and start writing a Chinese character on Xuan paper. The gesture is a bit challenging. You should raise your arm into the air, the upper arm parallel to the desk. To make it more efficient, you had better straighten your back when sitting or even stand up. You do not have to move the whole arm to write a character. Just make use of the mutual cooperation of your fingers and the strength and the flexibility of your wrist. Then you could start your creation.
These are the basic skills of mastering Chinese calligraphy. Long-term practice is the key point. Many people give up due to their impatience and inperseverance. The last but not the least for the calligraphy learners is that what you should be in when you are practicing calligraphy is a state of peace and solace, without which you will never become a successful calligrapher.