Asian art mainly in Korea, China and Japan developed without a clear distinction between painting and calligraphy and this tradition has still survived in Asian calligraphic painting.

In Asia, ancient human character letters were first discovered on the animal bones and turtle shells in China, which was allegedly made during 12th century B.C in Ancient Sahng Dynasty (* History of Calligraphy by A. Gaur 1994)

China, in the East Asia had crucial influence and power over those surrounding nations and it contributed and had great effects on development of arts and literatures in the East Asian nations.

The origin of Chinese character letters can be traced to 4,600 years ago. Legend states that Kang Jie, during the reign of the Yellow Emperor, invented the Chinese character letters. The character letters today are called Hanzi in Chinese, Hanja in Korea, and Kanji in Japanese respectively.
The Chinese letters had been officially accepted to the East Asian literati until 19th century, even after the invention of their own alphabet, Hangul in Korea and Hiragana in Japan.

Korean has its original letters of Hangul which King Sejong invented in 15th century, while Japanese has a phonetic alphabet, Hiragana derived from cursive form of Chinese letters. With their own alphabet, each of the three nations has created their own art of calligraphy, which is called respectively Shufa in China, Seoye in Korea and Shodo in Japan.
In Korea, it's been steadily one of popular favorites around hobbyist groups, although public schools stopped the instruction of Seoye a decade ago. On the other hand, basic calligraphy is still instructed in public lower schools in Japan.


Western literati, on the other hand, made definite distinctions between painting and calligraphic art.

They used uncial, longhand capital letters when they wrote literatures on, while in a cursive hand, they wrote letter and document. The most ancient evidence of human letters in the West was discovered from a monument in Italy allegedly traced back to 6-7c B.C.

Under the influence of the Roman Empire around nations, the Greek alphabet had been widespread as a standard form of letters and since then it has constituted a basis of alphabet letters.

During the Medieval Era, calligraphy developed around scribes and artists to transcribe and decorate manuscripts. Differences in how to grab pens changes in local customs and personal preferences created flourishing variety of calligraphy on the Western side.

After Johann Gutenberg invented printing technology in 15th century, discouraged was scribes and decorators to endeavor to transcribe their publishing.

And the popularization of oil painting drew artists from illuminating manuscripts. Calligraphy in the Medieval Europe gradually faded away and hand-written manuscripts became less common scene.

During the 1870's, William Morrisand and The Art and Crafts Movement led artists to rediscover the basic hand-written forms of communication and called for return to medieval traditions of design and craftsmanship.

Since then calligraphic arts were revalued by calligraphers in London including Edward Johnston and by the Abstract Expressionists in Paris and New York including Pierre Soluages, Hans Hartung, and Jackson Pollack.

As for steady tool of ceremonial announcements and events, the western calligraphy is still preserving its tradition. It is now transgressing its traditional boundaries of manuscripts into computer-assisted fonts and even to element of contemporary culture, known as graffiti.

Referred from:
The Oxford Companion Art (*History of Calligraphy by A. Gaur 1994)