# MCCD: A Multi-Attribute Chinese Calligraphy Character Dataset Annotated with Script Styles, Dynasties, and Calligraphers

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06948 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06948/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 27 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [RandAugment: Practical automated data augmentation with a reduced search space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.13719/) (2019)
- [Swin Transformer V2: Scaling Up Capacity and Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09883/) (2021)
- [Benchmarking Chinese Text Recognition: Datasets, Baselines, and an Empirical Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.15093/) (2021)
- [Chinese Text Recognition with A Pre-Trained CLIP-Like Model Through Image-IDS Aligning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01083/) (2023)
- [Joint Layout Analysis, Character Detection and Recognition for Historical Document Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.06890/) (2020)
- [An open dataset for oracle bone script recognition and decipherment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.15365/) (2024)
- [An open dataset for the evolution of oracle bone characters: EVOBC](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12467/) (2024)
- [Puzzle Pieces Picker: Deciphering Ancient Chinese Characters with Radical Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03019/) (2024)
- [HierCode: A Lightweight Hierarchical Codebook for Zero-shot Chinese Text Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13761/) (2024)
- [MegaHan97K: A Large-Scale Dataset for Mega-Category Chinese Character Recognition with over 97K Categories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04807/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [UniCalli: A Unified Diffusion Framework for Column-Level Generation and Recognition of Chinese Calligraphy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13745/) (2025)
- [Scribe Verification in Chinese manuscripts using Siamese, Triplet, and Vision Transformer Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.13877/) (2026)
- [HCSU: A Dataset and Benchmark for Fine-Grained Historical Calligraphy Style Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.04147/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Research on the attribute information of calligraphy, such as styles, dynasties, and calligraphers, holds significant cultural and historical value. However, the styles of Chinese calligraphy characters have evolved dramatically through different dynasties and the unique touches of calligraphers, making it highly challenging to accurately recognize these different characters and their attributes. Furthermore, existing calligraphic datasets are extremely scarce, and most provide only character-level annotations without additional attribute information. This limitation has significantly hindered the in-depth study of Chinese calligraphy. To fill this gap, we present a novel Multi-Attribute Chinese Calligraphy Character Dataset (MCCD). The dataset encompasses 7,765 categories with a total of 329,715 isolated image samples of Chinese calligraphy characters, and three additional subsets were extracted based on the attribute labeling of the three types of script styles (10 types), dynasties (15 periods) and calligraphers (142 individuals). The rich multi-attribute annotations render MCCD well-suited diverse research tasks, including calligraphic character recognition, writer identification, and evolutionary studies of Chinese characters. We establish benchmark performance through single-task and multi-task recognition experiments across MCCD and all of its subsets. The experimental results demonstrate that the complexity of the stroke structure of the calligraphic characters, and the interplay between their different attributes, leading to a substantial increase in the difficulty of accurate recognition. MCCD not only fills a void in the availability of detailed calligraphy datasets but also provides valuable resources for advancing research in Chinese calligraphy and fostering advancements in multiple fields. The dataset is available at https://github.com/SCUT-DLVCLab/MCCD.