Who can introduce Seal Script, Clerical Script, Regular Script, Cursive Script and Running Script?

Seal Script:

Most of the ancient writings handed down from the pre-Qin period in China, except for the oracle bone inscriptions, were inscribed on copper vessels. Because copper is a metal object, it is called "Jinwen", "Jijinwen". Among the bronze vessels, the bell and tripod were the heaviest and most numerous vessels in the country, so they were also called "bell and tripod script". There are hundreds of different types of bronze vessels, most of which were used for rituals or sacrifices in temples. Jinshi archaeologists, such as Luo Zhenyu, Rong Geng, and Su Yinghui, have their own different classifications. Su Yinghui's in fifty years of Chinese art to the United States exhibition of bronze article, according to Rong's classification, to explain, clearly organized, its classification is as follows:

Eating utensils are: li, tripod (rounded two ears, three-footed, four-footed square belly), gui, dun, chopping boards, beans, lu class (the main cooking utensils is the tripod, li, dun. The main serving vessels were gui and beans).

Wine vessels include: jue, horn, zun, goblet, goblet, wine container, goblet, square Yi, jug, bird and animal-shaped zun, fou (the above containers of wine, drinking utensils), ban, spoon and so on.

Instruments: cymbals, gongs, (mouth upwards, and struck.) bells (all suspended and struck). Bell (all hanging and struck) bells, doxies (all have tongues, their mouths down, hold and vibrate). Yu, drums and so on.

Weapons: go, spear, halberd, sword, knife, arrowheads and so on.

Ordinary utensils: plate, monitor, pelvis, basin, section, (above water) trousseau, area, dish, ingot, row stirrups (above miscellaneous). (The main common utensils in the Shang and Zhou dynasties were the pan and the jian, both of which were used for washing, but the pan was also used to hold food, the jian could be used to look at the face, and the footed one could be used as a warming vessel.)

Yin dynasty gold writing, extremely simple, a tool, a word or number, and most of them are equipped with hieroglyphs, or even only a figure, no text. And there are neither words, nor pictures, we have to say for the pictorial text. These jinwen, there are used to show animals, about war and economy, about military, there is the performance of artifacts, there are princes and lifting, there is the performance of life, there are sub-character form as the elements. Lu Dalin, a famous Jinwen scholar of the Song Dynasty, said that the pictorial characters in this kind of Jinwen were the original script of Chinese characters. （The gold scripts of the (Yin) dynasty, including Shang Fang Wine Containers? , Shang Taisi, Shang Zhong, Bingan copper disk, and San's disk inscriptions. Among them to Shang Taisi wine containers for the most, the chapter is dense, Zhou not special tripod that imitated its style. In short, the Yin dynasty gold, simple, vivid, calligraphy is also extremely mobile.

Pre-Xi Zhou Jinwen, still retains the Yin Dynasty, many children divination features, the calligraphy has a flowing curve, the representative of the Zhou Gong Yin, sharp strokes, always consistent, which has a fat pen, thick pen, more retained in the Yin Dynasty Jinwen vitality, the pen force of the strong Bremen characteristics. The characters are neat and harmonious, revealing a characteristic dignified momentum. From the time of King Cheng to the time of King Kang, although the character shape was still neat, its vigor was lost. They were formalized. The only one of them, the Dabu Ding (below), has a unique and robust writing style. It is a famous bronze vessel from the reign of King Kang of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with an inscription on the inner wall of 291 characters, which is rare among Western Zhou bronzes. The inscription reads: "The King of Zhou admonished Yu (a person's name) that the Yin dynasty died of alcoholism, while the Zhou dynasty prospered by abstaining from alcohol, and ordered Yu to do his best to assist him and to honor the virtuous government of King Wen and King Wu. Its calligraphy is rigorous, word shape, layout are very simple and plain, with the pen square and round, with the end of the strict and dignified artistic effect, is a masterpiece of the early Western Zhou Jinwen calligraphy.

The Jinwen of the middle period of the Western Zhou Dynasty is small and neat, and the strokes are thin, slender and lack of change.

Late Western Zhou Jinwen, has been sparse and balanced, elegant and graceful, such as the Mao Gong Ding, is one of the Western Zhou bronzes in the famous heavy artifacts, made in the late Western Zhou period of King Xuan. The inner wall is cast with a long inscription of 498 words. The content is that the King of Zhou, in order to revitalize the Zhou family and remove the accumulated evils, ordered the important minister Mao Gong to assist the King of Zhou faithfully, so as to avoid the disaster of losing the country, and gave him a large number of goods, and Mao Gong, in order to thank the King of Zhou, cast the tripod to remember his deeds. Its calligraphy is a mature Western Zhou Jinwen style, well-proportioned and accurate structure, neat and orderly, robust lines, layout is appropriate, full of rational colors, showing that the Jinwen has been developed to an extremely mature situation. It should be the representative masterpiece of this period, and has slightly formed the prototype of the Great Seal Script. As for the gold inscriptions of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, most of them are long and thin, forming the style of the Small Seal Script. There is another great work in this period, we can't help mentioning it ---- "San's Plate" ---- This is a bronze vessel in the late Western Zhou Dynasty of King Li's era, the structure of its inscription is strange and ancient, the lines are rounded and condensed, and the center of gravity is low due to the horizontal trend, so it is more and more simple and thick. Its "casting" sense is very strong, showing a strong "golden flavor", so it occupies an important position in the monumental system. Hu Xiaoshi, a famous modern calligrapher, commented: "The seal script is very well prepared in the Zhou Dynasty, and its big tools are the Yu Ding and Mao Gong Ding, ......? The characters and take the vertical trend, and its Shang horizontal only 'Scattered's disk' only."

The Great Seal Script, since the Han Dynasty, is generally believed to have been made by Tai Shi Zhou at the time of King Xuan of Zhou (827 BC). For example, the Han Book of Arts and Letters contains fifteen articles of Shi Prefecture, and Ban Gu's note: "King Xuan of the Zhou Dynasty made fifteen articles of the Great Seal Script." Xu Shen also said, "Xuan Wang Taishi wrote fifteen pieces of the Great Seal script, which may be different from the ancient text." The ancient texts are different from those of the prehistoric period, that is to say, the prehistoric period was added or subtracted from the ancient texts, so the Big Seal Script is also known as "籀文". Therefore, it is believed that the Big Seal Script is a form after the ancient script.

Big Seal Script, in the stone carvings that have been handed down to us, is most representative of the Stone Drum Script (left photo). This kind of stone tool is undoubtedly the most ancient and credible stone carving relics in China. It is now housed in the Forbidden City Museum in Beijing. The Stone Drum Script has an important position in the history of calligraphy.

Stone drum **** there are ten, the original height of about three feet high, the text is carved in the drum on all sides, to its shape like a drum, so there is this common name. In fact, should be called Jie. Furthermore, the content of the stone drum, more than hunting related, scholars have also called the hunting stone. Tang dynasty Han Yu and the Song dynasty Su Shi, there are aria drum "drum song" works to stay, so the general use of the "drum" of the common name.

Shiku article, for the account of hunting, the full text of the original more than 700 words, is a four-syllable style, very similar to all the classic genre, esoteric and difficult to understand, and the text of the abrasion of the place is also a lot. Scholars like Han Yu also sighed that it was "strict and dense, difficult to read". Since the Yuan Dynasty, Pan Di wrote "stone drums, sound training", has been able to decipher the general, it is a song hunting rhyme. Originally, the order of the ten stone drums before and after the order, is certain, but this also occurred between the different schools of thought, a variety of opinions, can be described as cumbersome.

Shikuwen the most ancient topography known to the world, is the Fan's Tianyigu Tibetan Song topography in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Qing Ruan Yuan in the second year of the Jiaqing (1798) had a stone facsimile engraving, stored in the Hangzhou Municipal School, Tongzhi eleven years (1873), and facsimile engraving in Yangzhou Municipal School. But the Tianyige this, in Xianfeng ten years (1862) burned. The existing Song topography, for the Ming Dynasty An Guo (word Mintai, No. Guipo, Jiangsu Xishan) old collection of this, unfortunately into Japan. An's deep love of the stone drum text, because of their own name ten drums Zai, collection of ancient topography of ten kinds. One of the Northern Song dynasty topography three, called the front, in the right, after the strength of this. The one that has been handed down to Japan is the Houjinben, which has a seal-script trek in An Guo's own handwriting at the end. Can be the top of the existing topography of the stone drum in the long time has been photocopied by the Japanese Erxuan Society came out.

The script of the Shikuwen is roughly between the Zhou Jinwen and the Qin Small Seal Script. It was written before the Qin Dynasty and belongs to the seal script system of the pre-Han period. Compared with the Small Seal Script, it can be called the Big Seal Script, and it is the representative work of the Big Seal Script. Its font is similar to the Small Seal, but more complicated, and resembles the Zongzhou Yi ware, but more neat and tidy, so it can be regarded as solemn and strict. Kang Youwei, in his "Shuangji" (Two Oars in a Broad Art Boat), described the Shiku script as: "The gold is fine, the grass and the chi are in a mass of clouds, and it has its own peculiarities without bothering to be neatly cut. The body is slightly square flat, unified view of the worm seal script, gas similar, the stone drum for China's first antiquity, but also when the first law of the calligrapher also". Can be said to appreciate. The stone drum text to the art of the treasure, but after the Northern Song Dynasty, the Thessalonian great rise, fewer people Pro, until after the middle of the Qing Dynasty, archaeology and respect for monumental winds resumed incandescence, the stone drum word, especially for the booker to value. Wu Da was able to get the rhythm of its classical weight and strictness. Wu Changshuo, on the other hand, was able to develop his style as a majestic one. The calligraphy of the two men was highly regarded by contemporary calligraphers. The two men's calligraphy are both outstanding in the contemporary era, and are valued by the later generations.

What is the Small Seal Script: According to Xu Shen's "Preface to Shuo Wen Jie Zi" (说文解字序) in the early Han Dynasty, "Shi Zhou wrote fifteen articles on the Big Seal Script, which may be different from the ancient texts; Qin Li Si wrote Cang Jie, Zhao Gao wrote Zuan Li, and Hu Shaojing wrote Chuan Xue, all of them were taken from the Big Seal Script of Shi Zhou, or they may be changed, and they are called the Small Seal Script". From this, we can see that the small seal script is taken from the seal script of the pre-Han period, and simplified and neatened in the pre-Han period.

Small Seal Script and Calligraphy of Different Styles: In the past, there was a saying that "if you don't study the seal script, you will be able to get the official script", because the official script comes from the seal script, and practicing the seal script is the same as practicing the official script. The first thing to be emphasized in the script is the horizontal and vertical, which is in line with the basic brushwork of the seal script. The seal script is very neat and tidy, and the official script and the regular script also emphasize on neatness and tidiness, so if you are accurate and skilled in the seal script, then you can write the official script and the regular script, which will be naturally neat and tidy. To write running script and cursive script in a lively and vivid manner, one needs to be good at drawing round strokes. Seal script is mostly semi-circular or rounded strokes, and when one has reached the fire of Wan Tong, one can write running script and cursive script in a lively and vivid manner, and make all the strokes round and round. Seal script brushwork is the foundation of all types of calligraphy. For example, the Xia Chengbei of the Han Clerical Script, which is between the seal script and the clerical script, still has a lot of roundness, which proves that the seal script is more common than the clerical script. The Yan Regular Script, which combines the principles of seal script with those of the pre-Qing Dynasty, has achieved the highest level of excellence in the world of calligraphy. The Ma Gu Xian Tan Memorial, with its even flesh and bones and balanced brushwork, is said to have been born out of the seal script, which proves that seal script is the foundation of the regular script. The long strokes of Huang Shangu's running script are no different from the force of the seal script, and Kang Youwei's remark that "Shangu's running script is similar to the seal script" proves that the seal script is similar to the running script. Huai Su's wild cursive strokes, with a medium stroke, are thin and strong, and the flying movement is characterized by roundness. Bao Shichen said, "The Drunken Monk's Holy Mother and the Ruler's two posts, which are derived from the seal scripts, were prehistoric and prey-oriented, which are the cursive seal scripts", which proves that the seal scripts are compatible with the cursive scripts. It is not necessary to write the seal script first, but if one is able to write the seal script before writing the official, regular, running and cursive scripts, it is easier to realize the strokes of the brush. However, if one is able to write the seal script before writing the official, regular, running and cursive scripts, it will be easier to realize the strokes. Master Hong Yi taught the method of writing: "Start with the seal script, write at least 500 characters a day, then learn the official script, then move on to the regular script, and when the regular script is completed, learn the cursive script", the order of which is to start with the small seal script first. Only after you have mastered the small seal can you learn to write on bells and tripods, oracle bones, and all the ancient seal scripts, and only then will you be able to have the strokes and the power of the brush, and the charm and the flavor of the spirit.

Small Seal Script is organized from the Preliminary script, with curved and rounded lines, uniform and well-proportioned strokes, and a strict and dignified style, both of which are present in the Seal Script (Picture on the right shows the Qin "Taishan Carved Stones"). It has a great influence on Chinese writing and calligraphy. Xu Shen compiled 15 volumes of Shuo Wen Jie Zi (Explaining Characters in Chinese), which is based on the "Small Seal Script" as the main script. Therefore, the Small Seal Script is the most important of all seal scripts, and should not be taken lightly by those who study calligraphy.

Classical Script:

Classical Script is also known as "Clerical Script". A Chinese character font. It originated in the Qin Dynasty and was popularized in the Han Dynasty, and was developed from the seal script. The character shape is flat, the ratio of height to width is about 4:5, the left end of the main horizontal stroke looks like the head of a silkworm, and the right end looks like the tail of a goose, which is the so-called "Silkworm Head and Goose Tail". The main points of writing are: "old ancient excavation, such as turtles and horseshoe crabs; folding brush hidden edge, silkworm head and goose tail; silkworms do not set up two, geese do not fly; heavy turbid light and clear, cut off the iron." Scribal body beautiful scribal body clear, artistic and generous, often used on maps more neatly printed, mostly used for map names, notes on the name of large regions, etc..

Historical evolution:

The official script is a typeface that evolved from the cursive writing style of the preHan script. Because there were too many rounded and curved strokes in the Preliminary Chinese script, it was time-consuming to write, so people wrote the characters in a more cursory manner on non-solemn occasions, and some curved strokes that should have been neatly done were turned into relatively flat and straight strokes. This type of script began to appear in the late Warring States period in the state of Qin, and then gradually became popular.

Wei Heng of the Jin Dynasty, in his "Four Scripts", said: "Cheng Miao, a scholar from the lower part of the country, was a jailer at the Yamen, and he offended the First Emperor, and was detained in Yunyang for ten years. From the prison for the Great Seal, the lesser gain, the greater loss, the square makes the member, the member makes the square, played the Emperor Shi Huang, the Emperor Shi Huang good, out of the imperial historian, so that the book is fixed. Or said that the Miao fixed is also the character of the Clerical." In fact, the Qin people write simple characters is not the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang unified China. Over the years, unearthed around the warring states period qin's weapons, lacquer, pottery, strokes save, straight more curved less simplified Chinese characters are out of the craftsmen at the time of the hand, has been the prototype of the official script. Cheng Miao was originally a petty official, and it was reasonable for him to organize the simplified characters he was familiar with against the Big Seal Script while in prison. There is another theory about the name of the official script: because this type of script was more popular among the lower class officials, servants, craftsmen and slaves:

The official script is divided into Qin Li, Han Li and Bafen. Qin Li refers to the simplified characters used during the period of Qin Shi Huang. The daily application of the Han Dynasty was still the official script, but the form and strokes continued to develop. In the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a new, solemn and elegant style appeared, and in the fourth year of Xiping (175 A.D.), the new scribe style was used to set up a stone scripture in the Imperial College, which became the national standard style of writing. After Wei called eight points.

Li change:

The evolution of Chinese characters from seal script to official script is called "Li change". It was a major event in the history of the evolution of Chinese characters, and was an important turning point. The form of the Chinese characters after the official transformation is basically close to the Chinese characters we use today.

Regular Script:

Regular Script (楷书)：

also known as Zheng Kai (正楷), Kai Style (楷体), Zheng Shu (正書) or Zhen Shu (真書), it is a common form of Chinese calligraphy. Its characters are more square in shape, unlike the Regular Script which is written in a flat shape. The Regular Script is still the reference standard for modern handwriting styles of Chinese characters, and another handwriting style, Pen Characters, has also been developed.

The Regular Script has the meaning of "Model Script", which has already been mentioned in Zhang Huaiguan's "Book Breaks". In the Han Dynasty, it was also an alternative name for "regular script", and people in the Six Dynasties still used it habitually, for example, Yang Xin's "Cai" text, and Wang Shengqi's "On the Book", Wei Dan's biography, all of which said, "Dan's character Zhongzhong will be a native of Jingzhao, and he was good at the regular script." That is the abbreviation of "eight-point regular script". To the Northern Song Dynasty to replace the name of the book, its content is obviously not the same as the ancient name, the name of the same and the name of the same real different examples, probably these, these concepts are not clear, is bound to the other aspects of the problem will always be confused, useless.

Classification:

1~2 centimeters for the lowercase (small letters), more than 5 centimeters for the uppercase (large letters), between the middle case.

But this is only a general division, and there have actually been small characters of 10 centimeters and large characters as large as 1.8 meters.?

The small regular script, as its name implies, is the smallest of the regular scripts, and it was founded by Zhong Yao of the Three Kingdoms period. He was originally the most outstanding authority on official script, and the brushwork of his Regular Script was also inspired by the Han Clerical Script, with a very vivid brushwork that resembles a flying hawk playing in the sea. However, the form is broad and flat, the horizontal strokes are long and the straight strokes are short, the legacy of the official script still exists, but the regular script has been fully prepared, and it is really the ancestor of the regular script. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi, the lower case calligraphy, more careful study, so that it has reached the realm of perfection, but also established the standard of appreciation of the beauty of the Chinese lower case calligraphy.

Cursive Script:

Cursive Script is a style of Chinese calligraphy characterized by simple structure and continuous strokes. It was formed in the Han Dynasty and evolved on the basis of the official script for the sake of writing simplicity. It is divided into Zhang Cao, Jin Cao and Fan Cao.

Cursive script is a style of writing that was created for ease of writing. The Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Words and Characters) says: "Han Xing has a cursive script". Cursive writing began at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, characterized by the following: the storage of the word's outline, the loss of the rules of scribe, indulge in the runaway, go to the fast and furious, because of the intention of the grass creation, called cursive.?　　The name Cursive Script is derived from the meaning of the word "cursive". Chapter cursive strokes provincial change have chapter and verse to follow, representative works such as the Three Kingdoms Wu Huangxiang "rush to chapter" of the Songjiang this. Cursive is not bound by the rules and regulations, the strokes are fluent, representative works such as the Jin Dynasty Wang Xizhi, "the first month", "to show" and other posts. Wild grass appeared in the tang dynasty, to zhang xu, huaisu as a representative of the wild and unrestrained, become completely detached from the practical art creation, from then on the cursive is just a calligrapher copying the chapter of grass, grass, grass, wild grass calligraphy works. Wild grass masterpieces such as the tang dynasty zhang xu "bellyache" and other post and waisu "self narrative post", are the existing treasures.

Broad cursive script:

It refers to the style of calligraphy written in cursive. It includes two kinds of cases: one is, in the ancient times when the script is not unified, naturally there will not be a unified standardized cursive, then the scribble of the word, belongs to the broad sense of the cursive; the second is in the unification of the script, in an emergency situation, or in the drafting of documents and manuscripts, recording the conversations of other people, the line of the pen is fast, the brush strokes are connected, omitted, handwritten by the non-standardized scribble, this scribble is very difficult to use for the communication, and even the person who writes a long time to write. After a long time, even the person who writes is difficult to recognize, this scribble belongs to the broad sense of the word cursive.

In order to facilitate writing, after a long process of convention, especially in the period of the transformation of the seal script to the official script, the number of popular cursive characters gradually increased, and the writing style was gradually standardized, and through the process of quantitative change to qualitative change, the cursive script with a legal system was finally produced, that is, zhangcao (章草), and then developed into jincaocao (今草), which means "cursive script with a narrow sense of the word".　　

Since the basic formation of the Zhang Cao drafting method, agreed upon the cursive law has the norms of the law, but also has a great deal of flexibility, and its basic content includes the following three aspects: First, the cursive script is the omission of strokes, the structure of the simple style of writing. Secondly, Cursive Script uses dots and strokes as the basic symbols to replace the radicals and a certain part of the character, which is the most symbolic style. Thirdly, the strokes of the cursive script echo each other from character to character, which makes it easy to write quickly and express the writer's feelings.

Running Script:

Running Script was created on the basis of Regular Script and is a type of script between Regular Script and Cursive Script, which was created to make up for the fact that Regular Script is too slow to write and Cursive Script is difficult to recognize. The word "xing" means "walking", so it is not as scribbly as cursive, nor as upright as regular script. In essence, it is the cursiveization of regular script or the regularization of cursive script. Those with more regular script than cursive script are called "Xing Kai", and those with more cursive script than regular script are called "Xing Cao".

There are two theories about the origin of the running script.　　

One, according to Zhang Huai? The book breaks" said: "Running Script, is the later Han Yingchuan Liu De Sheng made, that is, the book of the small blackmail, from the simple, so it is called Running Script." From this to say and know: "line book" is "the book" transformation.　　

Second, according to Wang Shengqi's "The Names of People Who Can Write in Ancient Times", there are three styles of Zhong Yao's books: "The first is the book of inscriptions and stones, which is the most important one. One is the book of the inscription stone, the most wonderful also; Two is the book of the constitution, pass the secretary, teach small scholars also; Three is the book of the line charge, also heard. Hedong Wei Kai Zi? The Hedong Wei Kai Zi, pick Zhang Zhi method, to Kai method of reference, more draft. Draft is also heard of the book." From this know line book also called line betting book, at first when by painting line signing development. The "Xiangxin" refers to the writing of letters and other documents, and so on.　　

Running script appeared at about the same time as the eight-pointed regular script, and its form was also very close to the eight-pointed regular script and the later regular script. This is equivalent to the emergence of cursive script from clerical script - the derivation of other branches from the "official script". In addition to the official script, the second official script of the Huanling Dynasty was the "eight-point regular script", so it is believed that the running script was a branch of the "eight-point regular script". In fact, it is also the same with other books as the original founding or general mass writers, as long as the eight points of the book written with other calligraphy flow away from some of its official wave potential, it becomes the book of the line, in the end of the Han Dynasty, generally unearthed in the book of the book of Jane we can see everywhere. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the running script was not commonly used. It was not until the appearance of Wang Xizhi in the Jin Dynasty that it became popular.　　

Running script, in the hands of Wang Xizhi, combined its practicality and artistry in the most perfect way. Thus, he created the Southern School of Running Script, which has shone through the ages, and has become one of the most influential schools in the history of calligraphy.