The origin of Song style characters
There are five types of Chinese characters: Zheng, Cao, Li, Zhuan and Xing. Each font is named after the calligrapher's surname according to various styles. For example, in regular script, there are Ou (Ouxun) style, Yan (Zhenqing) style, Liu (Gongquan) style, etc. It’s really a body within a body, it’s dizzying. There is a font, but it is not named after the founder's surname. It is named after the dynasty. This is Song Ti.
The founder of Song typeface is Qin Hui. This Qin Hui is erudite and talented, and is very accomplished in calligraphy. He combined the strengths of his predecessors and created a font of his own for printing. According to general custom, it should be called Qin Tizi. However, due to his poor character, he was a representative figure of the capitulation faction during the anti-golden struggle. He once killed the national hero Yue Fei and his son on unfounded charges and became sinners through the ages. Therefore, people hated him. Although the font he created was used, it was not Name the font Songti.
It originated from the Song Dynasty, but Song style characters were established in the Ming Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty "promoted culture and education and suppressed martial arts", and culture showed unprecedented prosperity. The printing and publishing industry entered a golden age in the Song Dynasty. Block printing flourished, book engraving centers developed rapidly, and movable type printing was invented. A large number of copies of the Song version were reproduced in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and the Song style characters were established in the Ming Dynasty. Song-style characters are easy to write and engrave, and the fonts are beautiful and dignified. They adapted to the operational requirements of the printing and publishing industry and became a witness to the cultural perfection of the Song Dynasty.
Two sources of Song-style characters
The Song-style characters we see today should have two origins. The first is the Chinese art of calligraphy. Writing appeared in China very early, and like other writing in the world, it was initially expressed in pictograms. Early Chinese characters were inscribed on animal bone fragments and cast on bronze vessels. These were oracle bone inscriptions and bell and tripod inscriptions. Before this, there were only records of inscribed symbols and legends, without any physical evidence.
Oracle bone inscriptions are inscriptions written on tortoise shells and animal bones during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Because it is inscribed on oracle bone tablets of different shapes, it is difficult to change after inscription, so the ancestors followed the instructions and completed them in one go. The overall effect can be neat and well-proportioned, or varied and random, reflecting the human nature of pursuing balance, symmetry, harmony and stability. From the perspective of the evolution of Chinese characters, it is roughly the following development process: oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, large seal scripts, small seal scripts, official script, cursive script, regular script, and imitation of Song style and Song style characters. This process reflects the human pursuit of simplicity, clarity, balance, symmetry, and neatness. The overall trend of unified stylization.
In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang established the first unified centralized feudal state in Chinese history. He immediately adopted the suggestion of Prime Minister Li Si and issued a "written with the same text" decree to unite the former princes. The Chinese calligraphy with different and complicated strokes was all abolished, and the large seal script was replaced. A new calligraphy style was designed and promoted throughout the country. This is the "small seal script". Now it seems that this was the most far-sighted and wisest move by Qin Shihuang, because the use of force only unified China geographically, and the unification of "scripts with the same text" actually unified the Chinese nation psychologically and culturally, making the central empire After the Qin Dynasty, no matter whether there were constant wars, foreign rule, or divisions and mergers, it was just a change of dynasties. In the end, they were all integrated under the great banner of Chinese characters, flourishing, developing, and growing.
In the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the centralized system was further developed and strengthened. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, with his great talent and broad strategy, conquered the east and west, constantly expanded the territory of the central empire, and established a military garrison system to protect the eternal peace of the border areas. This garrison system allowed Chinese culture to spread and take root rapidly in the border areas. At the same time, there were higher requirements for the quality, speed, and quantity of information dissemination. At this time, Xiaozhuan was gradually simplified and evolved into official script, which is known as the "official change" in history. This change is not only because Xiaozhuan is complicated and difficult to write, but also requires reform. The most important essential reason is closely related to the invention and popularization of the Chinese writing tool, the brush. It was the writing form of the brush that transformed the pictorial nature of seal script into a square and straight one, turning the pictorial Chinese characters into abstractions, and preliminarily formed the basic elements of Chinese characters: dot, horizontal stroke, stroke, stroke, vertical stroke, lift, and hook. , folding stroke characteristics and square shape characteristics.
In addition, officials at that time sometimes needed to quickly draft official documents. When writing official script, some strokes were connected to each other, which gave rise to the so-called Cao Li. On the other hand, Chinese characters are also changing in a stylized direction that is neat, square, simple and clear, and this is where regular script comes into being. The Han Dynasty already had four main calligraphy styles in Chinese calligraphy: Zhen, Cao, Li, and Seal.
The second source is the emergence of engraving and printing. The invention of woodblock printing is the result of a long historical development, which was initially reflected in ancient seals, mud seals, inscription seals and imprints. With the development of the economy, the demand for the production and dissemination of books accelerated the development and popularization of woodblock printing.
Block printing is to engrave the article in reverse on a special wooden block, and then use ink and paper to rub it. This is one of the four great inventions in my country, and its history can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. generation or earlier. At that time, the craftsmen used the regular scripts of the three major calligraphers of the Tang Dynasty as the original engravings. Initially, they were engravings. Later, they gradually added the craftsmen's own wisdom, combined with the characteristics of the carving knife and woodblock material, to make the calligraphy fonts more standardized and more precise. Easy to write on.
In the early days of engraving and printing, calligraphers often wrote regular scripts and then engravers directly rubbed and carved them. The engravers respected calligraphers very much and preserved the calligraphy as much as possible in the engraved fonts. Home features. Therefore, it also has a strong flavor of regular script calligraphy. This kind of character is the predecessor of what we call "Fake Song Style" today, and it is also the predecessor of "Song Style". Therefore, the evolution process of Song-style characters is from calligraphy block letters to Song-style imitation and then to Song-style through woodblock printing technology. But why is the imitation Song style, which was produced in the Tang and Song Dynasties before the Song style, called imitation Song? It turns out that this happened when our country entered movable type printing. In 1916, two brothers, Ding Fuzhi and Ding Shanzhi, two famous calligraphers and seal carvers in my country, made imitations of rare ancient engravings from the Northern Song Dynasty. Later, Shanghai Huafeng Mold and Type Foundry and Baisong Type Casting and Printing Factory had various imitations of Song Dynasty scripts. Today, the imitation Song style has become the standard Chinese calligraphy style.
Block printing came to the Second Song Dynasty. Due to the social stability and peace at that time, the rapid economic development, and the political enlightenment, ordinary people could also enter official careers through the imperial examination. Therefore, the social reading culture became increasingly popular, and both officials and citizens had the habit of collecting books. , even some well-off families in rural areas have thousands of volumes of books. Engraving institutions for woodblock printing are spread all over urban and rural areas. The Song Dynasty was the golden age of woodblock printing in my country for more than 300 years. Its technology also influenced the Japanese countries and inspired the European continent.
Due to the increasing demand for books in society, engravers must complete tasks faster, more, and better. Therefore, a set of quick carving methods was summarized. On the basis of copying regular script, making full use of the characteristics of the carving knife, the regular script was modified and processed, and the regular script was carved out with the least knife skills. This is This formed what we call Song font today. Song-style characters originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties, but matured in the Ming Dynasty, so they are called "Ming Dynasty" in Japan, which is adjacent to the east.
In the process of copying the regular script of the Tang Dynasty, the engravers unknowingly completed the great task of stylizing Chinese characters and paved a smooth path for the standardized development of modern Chinese character printing fonts. It can be said that Song-style characters inherited the essence of Chinese calligraphy, and initiated the standardization and stylization of Chinese characters, and suddenly increased the spread of Chinese characters to a brand new platform.
The two sources of Song font flowed to one place and came together to form Song font. Therefore, Song style characters are in the same line with Chinese calligraphy and are the ultimate interpretation of Chinese calligraphy regular script. It very cleverly and reasonably reflects the essential characteristics of Chinese calligraphy and regular script in the form of carving knife and traditional printing, and has been recognized by the Chinese nation.