The Style of Scripts
Chinese characters have developed through thousands of years. Naturally, the form of writing has evolved accordingly, yielding five calligraphy scripts: Seal script, Clerical script, Standard script, Semi-cursive script, and Cursive script. Although they date back in history, they can still be seen in our current surroundings, deeply affecting the worldview and aesthetics of Chinese culture.
Seal Script
Seal script is divided into “Great Seal script” and “Small Seal script”. The script establishes the basic square structure of Chinese characters that we have discussed before. But unlike modern scripts, its strokes are round and smooth, focusing on neat horizontal and vertical lines, stressing a balanced and symmetrical structure.
The Great Seal script refers to the scripts before the Small Seal script emerged. Before the advent of paper, our ancestors used tortoise shells or the bones of wild beasts to carve written records and seek divination from gods. These are later known as the “Oracle Bone Script”.
Later, they invented bronze vessels. Characters were engraved on them, giving birth to “Metal Script”.
When the Qin court united the kingdom and unified the Chinese systems of characters and writing, Prime Minister Li Si simplified the Great Seal into the Small Seal by reducing pictographic traces. Small Seal was then used as the court’s official communication. At about the same time, calligraphy by brushes emerged.
Shan Memorial Stele Inscription
It was said that the Small script carvings were done by Li Si, featuring even strokes and elegant shapes.
Clerical Script
By the middle of the Qin Dynasty, calligraphy started gaining popularity. The Seal script, which emphasized roundness and evenness, was not easy to write. Slowly, it was replaced by the convenient and simplified Clerical script, putting an end to the era of ancient scripts.
The Clerical script takes advantage of the brush, adding dots, horizontal dash, perpendicular down stoke, slanting to the left, slanting to the right, bend and the hook to the strokes, foreshadowing the common strokes we’ve seen earlier.
The most distinctive feature of the Clerical script is the wave (pronounced: Zhai), a long horizontal stroke extending to the right. In addition, the body of its font is relatively flat and not as square as Seal script.
Tablet of Cao Quan
The Tablet of Cao Quan, also known as the Complete Tablet of Cao Jing, is an inscription from the Eastern Han Dynasty in China and is now stored in the Xi’an Beilin Museum. The script is elegant and vivid. Characters are relatively flat and constructed with long horizontal strokes and short vertical strokes. The script is often considered the epitome of the classic beauty of “silkworm head and wild goose tail” (the signature of Clerical script) in its finishing.
Standard Script
The Standard script was evolved from the Clerical script, it is also called the “real script” or “official script”. It emerged in the Han Dynasty, which came after the Qin Dynasty, and matured in the Tang Dynasty. It is the most used calligraphy script today. Its font structure has changed from flat in the Clerical script back into squares. It is easy to read with an even spatial structure.
The “Standard Regular Font” in the computer was also developed based on Standard script.
The Book of Jiucheng Palace
To commemorate the discovery of spring water in Jiucheng Palace, Emperor Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty ordered Prime Minister Wei Zheng to write an article about it. Then calligrapher Ouyang Xun wrote an inscription and carved it into a stone tablet. The Regular script on this tablet is spaced generously, the structure is more square than elongated, the dots are heavy and humble, and the brushwork is steady and subtle. Scholars often copy this work.
Semi-Cursive Script
The Standard script shows one stroke at a time. However, when people need to write quickly, some strokes tend to be omitted. Gradually, the Semi-Cursive script emerged with connecting strokes and free shapes, breaking the boundaries of the grid.
If we consider the writing speed of the Standard script as “standing” and that of the Cursive script as “sprinting”, the Semi-Cursive script then resembles running, in between the intensity of its aforementioned counterparts. It is therefore also know as “running script”.
Wang Xizhi Lanting Xu (Preface of Orchid Pavilion)
Lanting Xu, which known as “the best Semi-Cursive script in the world”, is the iconic work of the Eastern Jin calligrapher Wang Xizhi, written when he was drunk. Rumour had it that when he sobered up, he rewrote the text many times over the next few days, only to find them inferior to the first script written at the Lanting Gathering. The script was elegant and smooth like the floating clouds and flowing water, but channels the strength of the calligrapher well.
Cursive Script
Sometimes we need to write a word super-fast, so we scribble. The Cursive script was borne out of our ancestor’s need to simplify writing. The continuous script yields a unique beauty that requires imagination to understand. At first, Clerical script was turned into Prose cursive script, and later Standard script turned into Improvisatory cursive script and Wild Cursive Script.
Zhang Xu Du Tong Tie (Letter about a Stomachache)
Have you seen a doctor’s handwritten prescription? Du Tong Tie is a medical record of Zhang Xu’s self-diagnosis when he had a stomachache. Everyone could imagine the state of emergency at that time. The three characters at the beginning of the work are written relatively clearly, unconnected to each other. Starting from the fourth character, the characters connect while the writing gains more and more speed, carrying the form of the Running Script perfectly.
