At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, calligraphy became an art. Cai Yong, a famous scholar, wrote an eight-part essay, and Liu Desheng created a running script (cursive script and regular script). Cao Weishi, Zhong You and Hu Zhaode are all teachers. They are all good at running script. Zhong You created regular script, and the font changed from official script to regular script, which is the progress of Chinese characters. Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty absorbed the essence of Han and Wei Dynasties and was a great calligrapher. He is also good at running, weeding and traveling, and is called "the saint of calligraphy". People commented that his words were "floating like clouds and agile like dragons." His representative works include Preface to Lanting Collection and Huang Tingjing. His son, Wang Xianzhi, is also very accomplished in calligraphy, and he is called the "two kings" with Wang Xizhi.
Therefore, it is generally believed that it began in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.