Why is official script called official script?

In Qin Shihuang's time, there was a man named Cheng Miao who studied the improvement of writing in prison and wanted to put the circle in the seal script.

Even if it is symmetrical, it should be fair, in order to write quickly and facilitate the operation of general documents.

Call it official script. The pen used in official script is different from seal script, and the pen used in horizontal script is unique. The brushwork can be subdivided.

Gu Li, Ba fen, etc.

official script

Author: Yang Fei reposted from: original hits on this site: 2 19

(1) Introduction:

Official script is relative to seal script, and its name originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The appearance of official script is another great change of China characters, which brings China's calligraphy art into a new realm, is a turning point in the development history of Chinese characters, and lays the foundation for regular script. Official script is flat, neat and exquisite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, stippling such as skimming was beautified as upward provocation, with different degrees of severity and artistic beauty of calligraphy. Styles also tend to be diversified, which is of great artistic appreciation value.

According to legend, the official script was compiled by Cheng Miao who was not in the prison of Qin Dynasty. By eliminating complexity and simplifying, the font becomes round and square, and the strokes become straight. Change Lian Bi into a broken pen, and change lines into strokes, which makes writing more convenient. Li people are not prisoners, but petty officials, that is, small officials in charge of documents, so they were called in ancient times. Lishu prevailed in Han Dynasty and became the main style of calligraphy. As a start-up Qin Li, seal script has many meanings, and it has been continuously developed and processed. It broke the writing tradition since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties and gradually laid the foundation for regular script. Under the unified thought of ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone, the official script of the Han Dynasty gradually developed into the dominant script, and at the same time, cursive script, regular script and running script were derived, which laid the artistic foundation.

Han Li has the beauty of waves and strokes. The so-called wave means that the left line of the stroke is like a curved wave, and it becomes left in the later regular script; The so-called right stroke is open and looks like a swallow-tailed pen. When writing a long horizontal line, the pen begins to cut into the silkworm head facing the front, with the pen in the middle having a wave pitch and a tail at the end. In this way, in the use of pens, the methods of square, round, hiding and revealing are readily available, and the pen gesture is flying and elegant. Structurally, there is a vertical square of Xiao Zhuan, which first becomes a square and then becomes a horizontal square. Han Li has a powerful, extensive, neat and flexible bearing. The reform of official script to seal script includes two aspects: stroke and structure. The method of official transformation has become square. Turn it into a straight curve. Correct the strokes and disconnect. Save the stroke structure and so on. Among them, it is most important to take the potential horizontally and keep the natural state of writing with a brush. Take the potential energy horizontally, send the pen left and right, and the up and down movement is limited. Finally, the eight-point brushwork of sweeping left and picking right is formed. The softness of the brush makes the strokes of Chinese characters have a thick and thin Fiona Fang. Hidden dew and other changes. And word spacing. Narrow line spacing is also a major feature of its composition.

Han Li is exquisite in silk paintings, lacquerware, portraits and uranium mirrors. In the inscription, it shows its broad momentum and unique charm. There are two main forms of existence in Hanli: stone carving and bamboo slips. Most of the official scripts in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are regular script. There are many calligraphers in the official script of the Tang Dynasty, such as Xu Hao. Song Yuanming's official script can hardly inspire Han Li's brilliance. Until the Qing dynasty. Han Li recovered. Yu Nong, Deng,, how. Don't achieve anything.

(2) representativeness:

Representative: Cai Yong, Master of Eight Points, and author of Xi Shi Ping Jing.

Evolution of official script

Lishu, also known as Zuo Shu, Fenshu and Bafen, was popular in the Han Dynasty, so it was also called Han Li. It evolved from a round seal pen to a square-folded stroke, and the shape changed from slender to flat, tightened up and down, stretched left and right, and changed from slow to short, showing a lively and diverse atmosphere, which brought great convenience to the writer. Lishu is divided into Qin Lishu and Han Li.

Qin Li refers to the official script from the Warring States, Qin Dynasty to the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, also known as Guli. There are different opinions about the origin of ancient plum. According to the information found so far, Li Qin was born in the Warring States period. Judging from the early official script signs on the "wooden slips" unearthed in Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province in the second year of the Warring States Period (309 BC), the complicated strokes of Da Zhuan were damaged, and the shape of the characters changed from rectangular to square or oblate. Although its structure still smells like seal script, the embryonic form of official script has appeared. By the end of the Warring States period, this prototype official script had been widely used. Judging from the Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng Shuihudi, Hubei Province in the fifty-first year of Qin Dynasty (256 BC), this kind of font similar to seal script and official script gradually reflects the simplicity and clarity of the font and the lively and standardized lines. The long process from seal script to official script can be seen in a large number of unearthed wooden slips, bamboo slips and silk books from the Warring States to the Qin Dynasty. After Qin Shihuang unified China in 22 1 BC, he took a series of new measures to promote the rule, one of which was Shu. Li Si, the prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, and Zhao Gao, the official secretary of the Warring States, arranged and unified, that is, Xiao Zhuan. Compared with previous scripts, Xiao Zhuan has made a big step forward in lines, structure and font. However, the writing method is still a long circle, and it still does not completely get rid of the pictographic meaning, so the writing speed is slow. At that time, there were many prisons, frequent exchanges between military and political documents and official documents, and it was often necessary to copy a large number of official documents, which made the society at that time urgently need to reform the writing system. As a convenient writing method, official script is widely popular in the lower class. Wei Heng's "Four-body Calligraphy" said: "Since the Qin Dynasty used seal script, many things have been played, and seal script is difficult to achieve. Even if someone is invited to write a book, it is called official script. The scribe is also the winner of the seal. " This is the evidence. Let's not study who is the inventor of official script for the time being, because the generation of a font can never be created by an individual, nor can it be completed in one period. It is gradually formed with the progress of society and the needs of reality.

Judging from the development history of Chinese characters for thousands of years, if hieroglyphics to Qin Xiaozhuan are classified as ancient characters, then we classify official scripts and regular scripts that have been used to this day as modern characters. Therefore, official script inherits the rules of seal script, opens the foundation of regular script, and occupies a very important position in the development history of Chinese characters and calligraphy. Its appearance is an extremely important turning point in terms of practicality and artistry, and it is a major change in the evolution of Chinese characters. Because the system in the early Western Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, writing is no exception, so there is not much difference between the official script in the early Western Han Dynasty and the official script in the Qin Dynasty. It not only has the characteristics of calligraphy in the Qin Dynasty, but also laid the factory foundation for the formation of official script in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and played a role in connecting the past with the future. From the analysis of Mawangdui silk script in Changsha (Figure 2) and Juyan bamboo slips in the Western Han Dynasty (Figure 3), the strokes have been simplified, the flavor of seal script has also decreased, and the fonts tend to be balanced, while the strokes are frustrated, the lines are undulating and the structure is more obvious than that of official script in the Qin Dynasty. Relatively speaking, it reveals the innocence and simplicity of the writer, but the calligraphy skills are not mature enough, so it is not a classic official script.

From the mid-Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the official script gradually improved. Especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, because the ruling class adopted some wise policies, the whole society and economy prospered, and so did culture and art. A large number of excellent inscriptions with exquisite skills and distinctive styles appeared, and the official script developed into a formal, artistic and highly aesthetic style.

Han Li, as we usually say, mainly refers to the official script on the tablet in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Their characteristics are richer brushwork, echoing the pitch of stippling, ups and downs of brushwork, twists and turns of brushwork, heavy turbidity, light clarity and unevenness of silkworm head and goose tail structure, which is amazing. Various styles, complete statutes, healthy, handsome, chic, elegant, simple, or rigorous, such as bright stars, have reached the peak of art. Inscriptions in the Eastern Han Dynasty, such as Yiying Monument, Ode to Shimen (Figure 4), Book of Rites Monument (Figure 5), Confucius Temple Monument (Figure 6), Huashan Monument (Figure 7), Han Dynasty (Figure 8), Cao Quanbei (Figure 9) and Zhang Qianbei (Figure 9).

After Wei and Jin Dynasties, calligraphy was mainly based on the formation, development and maturity of cursive script, running script and regular script. Many calligraphers mainly spend their energy on regular script, running script and cursive script, but official script has not been abandoned. At this time, official script gradually mixed with regular script, losing the simplicity and exquisiteness of Han Li, tending to be neat, with thousands of strokes. In Qing dynasty, official script was on the tablet.

The theory of revival has been revived and developed, and many calligraphers have appeared with remarkable achievements, forming the second peak of official script art, such as Zheng () (Figure 11), Jin Nong (Figure 12), Gui Fu (Figure 12), Deng (Figure 14), Yi Bingshou (Figure 15), Zhao (Figure 16) and He Shao (Figure 17). Zheng and others, in particular, took the lead in advocating, learning and inheriting Han steles, and made innovations on the basis of inheritance, which became one of the mainstream and hot spots of calligraphy art in Qing Dynasty. Especially in the past hundred years, archaeologists in China have unearthed a large number of original calligraphy works of wooden slips, bamboo slips and silk books from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, which has enabled us to witness the ancient brushwork and provided first-hand information for studying ancient statutes and learning ancient calligraphy techniques.

We should learn calligraphy from the official script, take the dignified and neat inscriptions in Han Li as a model, lay a solid foundation, and then develop steadily. If you start from elementary school, Han bamboo slips are easy to be slippery, but from the beginning, there is only a shape without a god, not to mention modern copying books as a model, which will only go astray. If you want to find a shortcut to learn official script, this shortcut is to start from the Han tablet. Only by down-to-earth study, writing factory official script, tracing back to Da Xiaozhuan and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, tracing back to Zheng, Xing and cursive script, can we get twice the result with half the effort.