Calligraphy font is the classification of calligraphy style. There are five traditional calligraphy fonts: running script font, cursive script font, official script font, seal script font and regular script font, which are five categories. Each category is subdivided into several sub-categories, such as seal script, which is also divided into big seal and small seal.
The Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is an important period for the evolution of calligraphy art fonts.
The development of calligraphy in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties completely changed from passive promotion to conscious evolution. From emperors to citizens, calligraphy is regarded as a universal artistic pursuit. Metaphysics prevailed in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, which promoted the development of calligraphy. At the same time, Taoism in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties also exerted a subtle influence on the development of calligraphy.
The Han, Wei and Jin dynasties are important periods for the development of calligraphy. During this period, calligraphy fonts such as seal script, official script, regular script, running script and cursive script changed from immature to mature.
1, calligraphy in Han Dynasty
Calligraphy in Han Dynasty inherited from Qin Zhuan and Qin Li, and started from Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties. That's the beginning of cursive writing. During this period, what attracted people's interest was not only the beauty of the characters themselves, but also the aesthetic feeling created by calligraphers in the writing process. This phenomenon of the times naturally creates conditions for the emergence of a large number of calligraphy classics. At the same time, The Book Theory at the end of the Han Dynasty has also become the earliest preserved book theory, which has a far-reaching influence in the history of book theory.
The carriers of calligraphy in Han Dynasty are mainly stone carvings and bamboo slips and silks, and there are three popular fonts: seal script, official script and cursive script. In addition, cursive script gradually appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. By the time of Cao Wei and Western Jin Dynasty, cursive script had formed certain rules through the continuous processing of calligraphers. Later generations called this cursive script Cao Zhang to distinguish it from the cursive script prevailing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
2. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
The development of calligraphy fonts in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is becoming more and more perfect, and the social environment makes people generally regard calligraphy as an artistic pursuit. The standard fonts of modern writing have been basically finalized in the Han Dynasty, and the official script of the Han Dynasty is the root of China's writing fonts today. Regular script developed from official script, at the same time, running script and cursive script began to appear. The perfection of regular script, running script and cursive script was in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, which made great changes in Chinese character writing. Finally, by the time of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, regular script, running script and cursive script gradually matured.
During this period, literati began to consciously pursue their accomplishments in calligraphy art and put their calligraphy theory into active practice. As a result, there are more and more calligraphy schools, which gradually formed a great change in literati calligraphy, promoted the development of calligraphy theory, and finally made calligraphy art guide practice in theory, and summed up advanced calligraphy theory from practice.