Calligraphers always copy old texts, which is called rinsho (臨書).
It seems that Rinsho, if translated literally, has to mean a kind of practice or training.
Actually almost all the calligraphy works on display are rinsho.
The calligraphers rarely write and exhibit their own words.
Where in their works are we expected to see their creativity, then?
Is it because of their interpretations of the original texts that they deserve to be considered an artist?
But when we say we are impressed by a calligraphy work we are also implying we are impressed by the beauty as a poem or the depth as an wisdom of the original text.
We are not sure ourselves whether we are admiring the calligrapher's expressiveness or the depth or persuasiveness of the original words.
Calligraphers undoubtedly take advantage of this ambiguity or confusion.
They never compose their own poems or aphorisms first.
If they did, I suppose it would become difficult for them to pose as an artist or a thinker.
And it would become all too clear that they just have been copying other people's words.