What is the origin and development of official script?

According to legend, Li Shu was compiled by Cheng Miao in prison at the end of Qin Dynasty, which simplified traditional Chinese characters, rounded fonts and changed strokes into straight ones. Change "Lian Bi" to "broken pen" and change from line to stroke, which is more convenient for writing. "Li Ben" is not a prisoner, but a small official, that is, a small official in charge of documents, so in ancient times, official script was called "Zuo Shu". At the same time, cursive script, regular script and running script were derived, which laid the foundation for art.

Official script is basically evolved from seal script, mainly changing the round strokes of seal script into square folds. Because it is difficult to draw round strokes on wooden slips with pigments, the official script is written faster.

The development of official script:

Li Bian is an important calligraphy cultural event in the history of calligraphy in China. The internal motivation of the official change is to adapt to the requirements of the social development at that time for the application of characters. "Li change is mainly manifested in two aspects: first, the change of font structure is not only the change of regular script font structure, but also the main direction of this change is simplification; The second is the change of writing style, which is not only to change the writing style of the original regular script, but also to be concise and convenient.

The simplification of font structure and the simple flow of writing style constitute the core content of the transformation process of officialdom. The simplification of glyph structure and writing style here is not only for the improvement of writing speed, but also for the inherent writing movement situation that is more in line with people's physiological movement track, so that official script was widely used with the political changes at the turn of Qin and Han Dynasties.

Structural features of official script;

/|||| 0/,the glyph is divided left and right, which is contrary to the normal vertical trend of seal script, and changed to horizontal trend, resulting in the glyph still being flat, the strokes contracting vertical trend, and strengthening the horizontal distribution.

2. Swallowtail of silkworm head is a typical feature of official script pen, especially in official script, the main pen is horizontal, and painting is almost always used in this way. The so-called "silkworm head" refers to hiding the (reverse) front in the process of using the pen, and at the same time writing the stroke shape formed in the process of starting the pen into a shape similar to that of the silkworm head. "Dovetail", that is, press the pen at the pen-receiving place, and then pick the pen obliquely to the upper right.

3. Turning a circle into a square and an arc into a straight are two basic methods to simplify seal script in official script. But if you don't know the circle of seal script, it is not easy to master the side of official script. Because the straight painting or square folding in official script contains the arc potential of seal script, the straight of official script often has obvious ups and downs and is full of vitality. In fact, the brushwork of official script is based on the way of stroke movement.