History of Cursive Script

Early in the record of the emperors and ministers of the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions, the Zhou dynasty gold in the simple pen and scribble handwriting, historical records, "Qu Yuan is grass ligustrum", "Dong Zhongshu ligustrum not on", that the ancient warring states and the Western Han Dynasty script in the rush to write is not the right form. According to the Wei and Jin people recorded, the Eastern Han Dynasty Beihai Jing Wang Liu Mu "good history book, when the world as a model", Liu Mu before his death, Emperor Ming sent a stagecoach "to make a cursive script ruled letter ten". When Emperor Zhang, Qi Du Du is good at making models for character study, Emperor Zhang once ordered Du Du to write in cursive. It can be seen since the middle of the 1st century AD, the cursive character is not quite out of haste to write but is treasured and imitation of the font. From the recent excavation of Han Jane can be seen, the Western Han Emperor Wu Di when the word delineation of the province of simple official script has been passed. By the time of the Xinmang period, there were more characters that were saved and hyphenated. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, by the twenty-second year of Emperor Guangwu's Jianwu reign (A.D. 46), the simplified script had become entirely cursive. But cursive was not listed as a style of writing from the Zhou dynasty to the Xinmang period.

The Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Characters in Chinese) was written in the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor He Di (100 A.D.), and Xu Shen said in his Narrative that "the Han Dynasty saw the emergence of the cursive script," which was the beginning of the use of cursive as a style of writing. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi was regarded as the Sage of Cursive Script, and his contemporaries, as well as Zhong Yao and other famous writers came out at the same time and a little later, each forming their own school. At that time, Zhao Yi had the article "Not Cursive Script", and Cai Yong had similar suggestions to maintain the status of the orthographic characters, which reflected that cursive script had been extremely prosperous for a while. At the end of the Han Dynasty until the Tang Dynasty, the cursive script from with the official script penmanship of the chapter of grass development into the rhythm of the grass, and even unrestrained, the momentum of the wild grass.

Zhangcao started in the Western Han Dynasty, flourished in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the font with the form of official script, word distinction, not entangled; the name of zhangcao through the ages has different interpretations. Since the end of the Han Dynasty, there is a cursive writing and said that the chapter grass because of the "urgent chapter" of the chapter of the name of the word, the most nonsensical. There is to chapter emperor love cursive or had order with cursive for zhangzhang, even said chapter emperor create cursive, are speculation. There is a chapter of the chapter of the chapter with the statutes of the book, the chapter of the regular chapter of the same meaning, in line with the early cursive slightly survived the eight-point stroke, the word and the word is not involved, the strokes of the provincial changes in the fact that there are chapters of the chapter to follow, the recent people believe that this is true.

The present grass from when, and the end of Han Zhangzhi and the Eastern Jin Dynasty Wang Xizhi, Wang Qia two say. From the heirloom table, post and unearthed hanjian, han brick, in the end of the han to the eight points of the book as the main character at the same time, has appeared close to the real writing style. Cursive script would have mutated accordingly. Cursive writer Cui Yuan, who was slightly later than Zhang Zhi, wrote "Cursive Script Potential", in which he described the cursive script as "resembling a series of beads, absolute but not separate", "absolute strokes to close the momentum, and the remainder? Tangled", "the head did not tail drooping", "micro-organisms, temporary from the appropriate" description, it can be seen at the end of the Han Dynasty, the cursive writing fluent, has not been bound to chapter and verse. The evolution of the style of calligraphy was not a clear-cut division. Said that the present cursive from Zhang Zhi is the germ of the new style; said that the present cursive from the two kings, is to focus on the formation of the typical. Since the Tang Dynasty, the real book has been inherited to this day.

Cursive writing emerged in the Tang Dynasty, represented by Zhang Xu and Huaisu, and became an artistic creation completely detached from practical use. The wild grass, also known as big grass, penmanship unrestrained, body momentum continuous, such as the tang dynasty zhang xu "thousands of broken tablets", "ancient poems four ways", huaisu monks "self-reporting post" and so on, sun tao ting "book genealogy" word difference, not connected, and penmanship lively, beautiful. "Cursive" and "small grass" as opposed to the grass, grass pure grass method, difficult to recognize, Zhang Xu, Huaisu good at this, the word from a stroke, occasionally unconnected, but the bloodline is continuous. The Qing Dynasty Feng Ban "obtuse print book to" talk about learning grass calligraphy cloud: small grass study Xianzhi, grass study Xizhi, wild grass study Zhang Xu better than learning Huaisu. Huai Su's cursive characters are easy to recognize, the handwriting is clear and thin to see the shape, the words are connected to a clear pen and easy to pro. Zhang Xu word shape changes, often a number of figures, between the lines of momentum, not easy to recognize, to form a unique style, Han Yu "send high leisure on the preface" mentioned Zhang Xu cursive "joy and anger embarrassment poor, sadness and pleasure anonymous, resentment, admiration, drunk, boredom, inequality, and there is a move in the heart, will be in the cursive book, the hair of the", it is difficult to learn Zhang Xu.