The Five Scripts of Chinese Calligraphy

The five scripts of Chinese Calligraphy are Small Seal Script, Clerical Script, Cursive Script, Regular Script and Running Script.

1. Small Seal Script

Began in the Qin Dynasty. The script is slightly longer, with rounded strokes, rich in patterned beauty.

2. Clerical Script

Began in the Qin Dynasty, and matured and prevailed in the Han and Wei Dynasties. The script is broad and flat, stretching from side to side, balanced and symmetrical, neat and even.

3. Cursive Script

Originated in the early Han Dynasty and matured in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It is a writing style that has been brought to the extreme, rich in variations and unrestrained in movement.

4. Regular Script

Formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The font is square and the rules are strict.

5. Running Script

Began to flourish in the Jin Dynasty. It has the strengths of both Regular Script and Cursive Script, which is both neat and clear, and lively.

Introduction of Chinese Calligraphy:

It is an ancient art of writing Chinese characters, which evolved from oracle bone inscriptions, stone drum inscriptions, and gold inscriptions (Zhongdingwen) into the Big Seal Script, Small Seal Script, and Clerical Script, and then to the Cursive, Regular, and Running Scripts that were finalized in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wei Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty, and have been exuding the charisma of art. Calligraphy in Chinese characters is an original art of expression created by the Han people, and is known as: a poem without words, a dance without lines; a painting without pictures, a music without sound.

Chinese characters are an important factor in Chinese Calligraphy, because Chinese Calligraphy is created and developed in Chinese culture, and Chinese characters are one of the basic elements of Chinese culture. The reliance on Chinese characters is the main mark that distinguishes Chinese calligraphy from other kinds of calligraphy. Calligraphy is a traditional art unique to China.

Chinese characters are created by the working people, the beginning of the picture to remember things, after thousands of years of development, evolved into today's text, but also because of the invention of the ancestors wrote with a brush, then produced calligraphy, throughout the ages, are written with a brush to write Chinese characters as the main form of writing, as for the other forms of writing, such as hard pen, finger book, etc., the law of writing and the brush compared to the characters, is not a very different, but basically the same.