The seven stages of the evolution of fonts are oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal scripts, official scripts, regular scripts, cursive scripts and running scripts.
1. Oracle bone inscriptions
Oracle bone inscriptions mainly refer to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Ruins, which are written in the late Shang Dynasty. At present, about 150,000 oracle bones and more than 4,500 single characters have been discovered. It involves many aspects of social life in the Shang Dynasty. Also known as deeds, oracle bone inscriptions, and Yinxu scripts, they are inscriptions inscribed on tortoise shells or animal bones used by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty for divination and recording events. It is the earliest mature writing system known in East Asia.
2. Bronze Inscriptions
Bronze Inscriptions is the name of a calligraphy style in ancient China. It refers to the inscriptions cast on bronzes of the Yin, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It is also called Zhongdingwen. The Shang and Zhou dynasties were the age of bronzes. The ritual vessels of bronzes were represented by tripods, and the musical instruments were represented by bells. "Zhongding" is synonymous with bronzes.
It lasted for more than 1,200 years from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty when the Six Kingdoms were destroyed. It has been used for an extremely long time. The number of characters in the bronze inscriptions is 3722, of which 2420 can be recognized.
3. Seal script
Seal script is divided into large seal script and small seal script. The large seal script originated in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and the small seal script was also called "Qin seal script". The Qin Dynasty unified the writing style: small seal script. Until the end of the Western Han Dynasty, it was gradually replaced by official script. But because of its beautiful font, it has always been favored by calligraphers.
4. Official script
Official script basically evolved from seal script, changing the round strokes of seal script into square folds. The emergence of official script was a major change in ancient writing and calligraphy. It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is known as "Han Li Tang Kai" in the calligraphy circle.
5. Regular script
Regular script, also known as Zhengshu, or real script, began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It gradually evolved from the official script and became more simplified, horizontal and vertical. This kind of Chinese character font is correct and is the current popular handwritten traditional Chinese character.
6. Cursive script
Cursive script was formed in the Han Dynasty and evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are Zhangcao, Jincao and Kuangcao. Later, it gradually developed and formed a kind of "Zhangcao" with artistic value.
7. Running script
Running script was produced around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is a font between regular script and cursive script. Those with more regular script than cursive script are called "Xingkai". Those with more cursive than regular script are called "Xingcao".