source 16

1. http://www.asianartmall.com/calligraphyarticle.htm
2. asianartmall.com
3. N/A
4. The source says, "Calligraphy literally means ‘Beautiful Writing’ and has been accepted and acknowledged as an art form in various cultures throughout the world. But the ancient Chinese Calligraphy is unparalleled. Chinese calligraphy is a unique oriental art form to Asian cultures with a brilliant tradition as ancient as the culture itself. It is similar to painting and makes use of Chinese characters as an elementary vehicle to communicate and spread the divine world of the artist. All the way through, Calligraphy uses a basic media, brush handling techniques, scripts, presentation and style to express the emotions, culture, artistic/creative feelings, and moral principles of the artist to the readers who are overwhelmed by the power of application and the pleasure of beauty. Calligraphy is not just another way of writing Chinese characters, but also a beautiful, elaborate and a stylish art of interpretation and a branch of learning.
   
   The origin of Chinese Calligraphy is not very precise. According to a tale in ancient Chinese history, Chinese calligraphy is approximately 4000 years old and originated during the reign of the Yellow Emperor a man named Cang Jie. Earlier periods of the Chinese history reveal that calligraphy was viewed as a matchless and independent visual art form rather than merely an ornamental art and was highly regarded over painting and sculpture, and paralleled alongside poetry as a means of self-expression and cultivation. Calligraphy became an art during the reign of Qin Dynasty and started to blossom in the Han Dynasty. Jin Dynasty saw the emergence of some great calligraphers, including Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi. Achievements in the field of calligraphy were also seen in the North and South Dynasty and the calligraphy works in this period were called as Wei Bei. During the rule of Tang dynasty, calligraphy was taken more seriously; hence a lot of great calligraphers appeared during their reign, including Yan Zhenqing. With the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the decline of calligraphy began and the worst period was Ming Dynasty."
5. somewhat
6. the information seems logical and has been repeated before which supports the past facts but there were no credentials that I saw